EUROPE
SEA
16 Aug 16. Cambridge Pixel has been selected by Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems UK to supply software modules for radar scan conversion, target tracking and radar fusion for integration into the Lockheed Martin’s new state-of-the-art Naval Vigilance Radar system. This navigation radar system – along with Kelvin Hughes solid-state SharpEye™ radar transceivers – will be fitted to more than 60 Royal Navy Platforms over the next five years. The new equipment is part of the Navigation Radar Programme (NRP), a £44m Royal Navy Upgrade awarded to Lockheed Martin by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) in January 2016
15 Aug 16. Kelvin Hughes, a world leader in the design and supply of navigation and surveillance systems has been awarded the contract for the second phase of a radar system installation by the Port of Marseille Fos in Southern France. The Enfield-based company supplied five SBS-700 radar systems earlier this year that were integrated with the port’s Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS). The second phase has seen two more, identical models installed and commissioned at the port in July.
AIR
17 Aug 16. The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence has announced its intention to exercise an option for the manufacture and operation of a third Airbus Zephyr S High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) unit. Flying at some 65,000ft, the ultra-lightweight Zephyr S is uniquely capable of providing persistent surveillance or communications over the same area of land or sea for weeks at a time without landing. The precise purposes for which the UK MoD will use its Zephyrs have not been disclosed. The Zephyr S will be delivered ready for flight trials in summer 2017.
18 Aug 16. The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is being awarded a $68,409,026 modification to a previously awarded advance acquisition contract (N00019-14-C-0067). This modification provides for long-lead parts and efforts associated with the manufacture of two full-rate production 4 Lot 8 P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft for the government of United Kingdom under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (82.6 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (6.2 percent); Greenlawn, New York (4.2 percent); North Amityville, New York (3.5 percent); and Cambridge, United Kingdom (3.5 percent), and is expected to be complete by July 2017. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $68,409,026 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
16 Aug 16. The United Kingdom’s (UK) Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded MBDA a £184m production contract for the supply of the highly capable infra-red (IR) guided air-to-air missile, ASRAAM, to equip the UK’s F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jet. ASRAAM will be the first British designed missile to enter service on the F-35. ASRAAM’s large rocket motor and clean aerodynamic design gives it high kinematic capability to deliver superior end-game performance compared with other countries’ in-service IR missiles. MBDA is currently under contract for an ASRAAM capability sustainment programme for the Typhoon fast jet and this new order to equip the F-35 will see the production of additional missiles. Value for money is ensured through the re-use of components from other MBDA products such as the Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM), whilst also ensuring the benefits of a single IR missile across the fast jet fleet is retained. The missiles will be produced at MBDA’s new £40M Bolton manufacturing and assembly site with engineering activities carried out at MBDA sites in Stevenage and Bristol. The overall ASRAAM programme, combined with associated workload around domestic and export programmes using the core CAMM system, is employing 400 skilled employees across the MBDA sites and the UK complex weapons supply chain. Collectively the