EUROPE
SEA
12 Dec 12. HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy’s largest warship which played a starring role during the London 2012 Olympics, will receive a £65m upgrade, the MoD announced. Work on the helicopter carrier, which was moored on the Thames during the Games and provided essential security support and a home for hundreds of military personnel responsible for venue security, will secure more than 600 UK jobs. Her upgrade will be carried out at Devonport Royal Dockyard in Plymouth and will be the largest upkeep programme of its kind to be carried out at the docks in more than 20 years.
09 Dec 12. The UK MoD has awarded BAE Systems a contract worth £1.2bn for Audacious, the fourth submarine in the Astute class. The full contract covers the design, build, test and commissioning programme. First steel was cut in 2007 and Audacious is at an advanced stage of construction at BAE Systems’ site in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The MoD also confirmed that a further £1.5bn has been committed to the Astute programme for the remaining three submarines in the class, which includes early build work on boat 5, Anson, whose keel was laid in October, 2011.
14 Dec 12. Saab received two new contracts from the Swedish Defence Material Administration with a total value of MSEK194. The contracts comprise upgrade of the heavyweight torpedo Torpedo 62 and support for underwater weapon systems. The upgrade of Torpedo 62 comprises of new and improved functions for communication and warhead initiation, providing an important capability enhancement for the system. (Source: ASD Network)
AIR
10 Dec 12. Frazer-Nash has been awarded a contract by the MoD to become the Independent Safety Auditor (ISA) for the Merlin Life Sustainment Programme (MLSP), following a competitive tender. The MLSP programme is a multiyear project to reduce the through life cost of ownership of the Merlin helicopter, principally through a major upgrade of the avionic systems. This will address obsolescence issues with the introduction of open systems computer architecture, as well as enhancing performance. Over a one year period covering the assessment phase of the programme, Frazer-Nash will provide an independent safety audit of the MLSP programme to ensure its compliance with the appropriate safety requirements and safety standards.
13 Dec 12. Saab has received an order from its German partner DBD for the Surface-to-Surface Missile RBS15 Mk3. The order value is SEK 615m. Deliveries will take place during the period 2014 to 2016. (Source: ASD Network)
10 Dec 12. SELEX Sistemi Integrati signed a contract with NETMA. SELEX Sistemi Integrati, a Finmeccanica company, signed a contract worth €3.4m, with the agency NETMA (NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency) to supply a two year support for the mission planning systems IAF-MSS (Italian Air Force Mission Support System) used by the Italian Air Force. SELEX Sistemi Integrati’s IAF-MSS is a system which allows a complete planning by providing support to different types of aircrafts, weapon systems and several kinds of missions, besides being used for the deployment of missiles like the Storm Shadow.
USA
LAND
07 Dec 12. USMC adopts AtHoc emergency mass notification system (EMNS). The US Marine Corps (USMC) has selected AtHoc’s network-centric emergency mass notification systems (EMNS) to protect its personnel that are deployed across the globe. Deployment of the system will be carried out jointly by AtHoc and HP to protect 225,000 active duty Marines and civilians at all USMC locations, including bases, camps, depots and stations worldwide. The USMC will use the AtHoc system to boost the existing IP network for a unified, multimodal private-cloud mass notification solution. The EMNS will provide alerts and associated emergency communications to all personnel across smartphones, mobile devices and desktops, as well as laptops and landline phones. AtHoc president and CEO Guy Miasnik said that the U