EUROPE
LAND
11 Dec 13. Jankel has signed a 3 year long term agreement with the United Nations and wins further contract to supply high mobility vehicles to Africa in the fight against poachers. The UN contract is an extended long term agreement for the supply of armoured Toyota LC200 4×4 SUV’s, details of which can be found on their website. The order adds to Jankel’s existing Toyota 76 fleet with the UN.
05 Dec 13. The French DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement) has notified MBDA of an order for the development and production of the MMP (Missile Moyenne Portée) weapon system which will equip the French Army as of 2017. The MMP missile will provide a successor to MILAN (the anti-tank system currently in service with the French Army and sold to around 40 other armies around the world). Thanks to its modular concept, MMP will have the capability of being fired from portable firing posts, battlefield vehicles and army aviation platforms. MMP’s entirely new concept takes into consideration the experience gained from recent conflicts where the need to master the delivery of military effects without collateral damage has been shown to be a major operational requirement. As a result, it offers both a “fire and forget” capability (which allows the operator to move to another position immediately after having fired the weapon) as well as a “man in the loop” capability (for engagements which could pose the risk of collateral damage). MMP is effective against a wide range of ground targets (including tanks, armoured and non-armoured vehicles and infrastructures). The missile can be fired from confined spaces and directed against non-line of sight targets.
SEA
10 Dec 13. Babcock contracted to deliver additional Phalanx systems. Babcock has been contracted by the UK MoD to deliver four Phalanx 1B kit modifications and undertake two conversions of the land Phalanx Weapons System to its original marinised configuration, to provide naval Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) capability.
16 Dec 13. BAE Systems has been awarded contracts totalling £79m by the UK Ministry of Defence to begin procuring its first long lead items for the Vanguard Successor programme which will carry the nation’s nuclear deterrent capability from 2028. The Secretary of State for Defence, Phillip Hammond, announced two contracts worth £47m and £32m, as the programme’s annual report to parliament was published. BAE Systems’ previous two contract awards – for £328m and £315m respectively – were for the design of a replacement submarine, which is continuing today at its site in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
BATTLESPACE Comment: Reports suggest that BAE has 1000 people working on Vanguard Successor out of a reported total of 2000. It looks that given this and other contract reported this Issue that the point of no return has been reached and cancellation is now a long forlorn hope by the Lib Dems!
06 Dec 13. BAE Systems Technology Solutions Inc., Rockville, Md., is being awarded a $56,517,376 cost-plus-fixed fee, cost-plus-incentive fee contract for the United States and United Kingdom D5 strategic weapons systems programs, U.S. guided missile submarine attack weapons systems programs, Nuclear Weapons Security, and future concepts. These services will include: weapon system coordination, safety class engineering, conduct of installation test programs, direct logistics support of deployed forces, and support of logistics management programs. This contract provides for coordination documentation; electrical diagrams; systems publications; shipyard installation test support; test equipment and test data analysis; support for re-engineering the SWS as appropriate in response to guidelines resulting from continuous improvement initiatives, configuration management through SSP Alterations program, logistics engineering, Preventive Maintenance Management Plan, Standard Maintenance Procedures; systems level documentation and training curriculum support; logisti