EUROPE
LAND
25 Sep 17. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been awarded a 24-month contract by the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Special Projects Search and Counter Measures team for in-service support of the CUTLASS Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) remotely controlled vehicle. The work, which is a continuation of the existing in-service support contract for CUTLASS, will be carried out at Northrop Grumman’s Coventry facility where the company provides life cycle support for all of its EOD unmanned ground systems. CUTLASS was designed, developed and manufactured by Northrop Grumman in the U.K., and includes significant advances in technology and performance and a range of features that provides state-of-the-art capabilities for national security and resilience applications.
27 Sep 17. Major order for Rheinmetall: 104 German Leopard 2 MBTs to be modernized. Rheinmetall will soon be modernizing part of the Bundeswehr’s fleet of Leopard main battle tanks, implementing a comprehensive array of upgrade measures. The Düsseldorf-based technology group for mobility and security will be responsible for key parts of a combat performance upgrade programme that will bring 104 Leopard 2 tanks up to state-of-the-art design status. Coupled with additional services, the modernization package is worth a total of €118m. The first serially retrofitted Leopard 2 A7V tanks will reach the Bundeswehr starting in 2020. Rheinmetall will be transforming a total of 68 Leopard 2A4, 16 Leopard 2A6 and 20 Leopard 2A7 main battle tanks, bringing them up to A7V standard. In the process, Rheinmetall specialists will be eliminating obsolescent features in the fire control computers and control consoles as well as installing a new laser rangefinder and thermal imaging device.
SEA
25 Sep 17. Ultra Electronics announced today that its PMES business, based in Rugeley Staffordshire, has been awarded a £37m contract by BAE Systems Maritime-Submarines in relation to a UK naval defence programme. This contract is for the final development and production of a hybrid Electric Propulsion System. Under this contract, Ultra will provide the remaining non-recurring engineering and qualification of the system, as well as an initial provision of equipment for the programme. The system provides an alternate and more efficient propulsion option to main engines and forms part of the Emergency Propulsion capability.
AIR
25 Sep 17. Airbus Defence and Space has received a firm order for five Airbus A330 MRTT Multi Role Tanker Transports from Europe’s organisation for the management of cooperative armament programmes – OCCAR – on behalf of NATO Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) and funded by Germany and Norway. The order follows the announcement on 29 June of a Memorandum of Understanding under which the two nations would join Netherlands and Luxembourg in the European/NATO Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF) programme. A contract amendment signed at the OCCAR headquarters in Bonn, Germany today adds five aircraft to the two previously ordered by Netherlands and Luxembourg and includes four additional options to enable other nations to join the grouping. It includes two years of initial support. The programme is funded by the four nations who will have the exclusive right to operate these NATO–owned aircraft in a pooling arrangement. The aircraft will be configured for in-flight refuelling, the transport of passengers and cargo, and medical evacuation flights. The first two aircraft have already been ordered to be delivered from Airbus Defence and Space’s tanker conversion line at Getafe near Madrid and all seven are expected to be handed over between 2020 and 2022. The European Defence Agency (EDA) initiated the MMF programme in 2012. OCCAR manages the MMF acquisition phase as Contract Executing Agent on behalf of NSPA. Following the acquisition phase, NSPA will be responsible for the complete life-cycle management of the fleet.