EUROPE
LAND
10 Apr 12. ITT-EXELIS, Inc., Roanoke, Va., was awarded a $34,653,724 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of monocular night vision devices in support of Foreign Military Sales for the United Kingdom. Work will be performed in Roanoke, with an estimated completion date of April 1, 2015. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-12-C-D502).
12 Apr 12. Saab and the UK MoD has signed a two year extension contract for the Deployable Tactical Engagement Simulation training system (DTES) Managed Service, used by the British Army. The order amounts to £ 11.7m (approx. SEK 121m), and was registered during the first quarter of 2012. Since August 2009, Saab has delivered a Managed Service to the British Army for their combined training. It provides full technical and operational support to Battle Groups exercising in the harsh environment of Kenya.
SEA
10 Apr 12. BMT Isis Ltd, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, has announced the completion of its latest project to validate BMT’s design for the Portsmouth Approach Channel, a design conceived to ensure that the Royal Navy’s new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales can transit safely into and out of their home base at HMNB Portsmouth. Having developed the design for Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) six years ago, as well as completing initial validation work using desk-top simulation and peer review involving RN navigation experts, it was necessary to provide final validation. BMT utilised a full-mission simulator working in real-time with RN navigation experts in a realistic bridge environment. Working closely with the DIO and the Royal Navy, BMT provided the necessary computer model results, data handling and analysis for the study at the Navigational Training Unit of HMS Collingwood’s Maritime Warfare School. On completion, the RN personnel were happy with the proposed channel design and satisfied that it would allow the safe arrival and departure of the aircraft carriers at Portsmouth. Final validation was therefore complete.
AIR
03 Apr 12. Paveway IV Precision Guided Bomb (PGB): Replenishment Contract. The MoD announced (3 Apr 12) that a £60m contract has been awarded to Raytheon UK for the replenishment of Paveway IV PGB. Paveway IV proved effective during the 2011 air campaign over Libya and has also been involved in Operations over Afghanistan since 2008, arming Tornado GR4.
Comment: Although no unit numbers have been made public, a replenishment contract for 500 PGB had been anticipated (which would put the price at £120,000 each). During a briefing (3 Apr 12) Raytheon UK confirmed that plans are in hand to fit Paveway IV to RAF Typhoons in 2013 and that the Company is also under contract to integrate the PGB onto the Joint Strike Fighter in RAF service. As part of the MoD’s strategy for precision-guided weapons (the Selective Precision Effects At Range (SPEAR) capability) Raytheon has ambitions to develop a family of warheads, covering: low collateral, penetration and enhanced moving target requirements. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 12/15, 16 Apr 12)
06 Apr 12. Thales to provide GPS SAASM receivers for French Navy Lynx helicopters. Thales has been awarded a contract by the Service Industriel de l’Aéronautique (SIAé), France’s military aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul service, to supply stand-alone GPS receivers for the French Navy’s Lynx helicopters, which are currently being upgraded by the French defence procurement agency (DGA). Thales’s GNSS 1000-S receiver relies on SAASM (Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module) technology to access military GPS encrypted signals. This technology also uses state-of-the-art signal processing offering extended satellite tracking capabilities in terms of precision, integrity, availabilit