UNITED KINGDOM
LAND
17 Mar 22. The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of the United Kingdom of Ballistic Missile Defense Radar (BMDR) and Command and Control Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) and related equipment for an estimated cost of $700m. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today. The Government of the United Kingdom (UK) has requested to buy one (1) Ballistic Missile Defense Radar (BMDR); and two (2) Command and Control Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) user nodes (with network capability required to connect to the C2BMC System to support radar operations). Also included are design and construction of a combined radar-equipment shelter; encryption devices, secure communication equipment, and other required COMSEC equipment to support radar operations; spare and repair parts, support and testing equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistical and program support. The total estimated program cost is $700m. This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe. The proposed sale will improve UK’s ability to meet current and future ballistic missile threats to the UK and NATO by improving the effectiveness of NATO BMD systems. The United Kingdom will have no difficulty absorbing the BMD Radar into its armed forces. The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region. The principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin, Moorestown, NJ. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.
SEA
11 Mar 22. Northrop Grumman has won the in-service support contract for the UK Royal Navy’s (RN) Astute-class submarine platform management system (PMS). The contract was awarded by the UK Ministry of Defence’s Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA). The value of the contract has not been disclosed. Under this contract, Northrop Grumman in the UK (NGUK) will support the in-service PMS to increase the availability of the submarines for deployment by the RN. The PMS features control and monitoring software, along with human interface equipment and programmable logic controller-based hardware, which provides real-time information during operations. The hardware is designed to comply with different naval standards, including temperature, vibration, shock, and electromagnetic compatibility requirements. (Source: naval-technology.com)
17 Mar 22. Spectra Group wins contract to supply the Royal Navy (Royal Marines) with Troposcatter. Spectra Group, the specialist provider of secure voice, data and satellite communications systems has announced a successful bid to supply the Troposcatter Compact Over-the horizon Mobile Expeditionary Terminal (COMET) system across NATO, including the UK Royal Navy for primary use by the Royal Marines. The contract has been placed through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), so Troposcatter COMET is now available to all NATO countries for the next 3 years via the NATO catalogue.
AIR
15 Mar 22. UK FCG acquires nUAS from Elbit Systems and Atlas Dynamics. UK Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Future Capability Group (FCG) acquired nano-unmanned aerial vehicles (nUAS) from Elbit Systems and Atlas Dynamics, as part of the British Army’s Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) project, Dominic Ferrett, engineering manager, Future Capability Group, informed Janes on 10 March at the British Army’s robotics and autonomous systems strategy launch. According to Ferret, FCG procured five Elbit Systems’ Torch-X RAS systems, comprising six UAS per system. The company is incorporating Easy Aerial’s ‘Falcon’ UAS as part of their system. The “Torch-X RAS is a platform-agnostic solution that provides automated mission management aided by artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as full autonomy solutions for the platform level”, Elbit Systems stated. FCG also acquired five AtlasNEST units from Atlas Dynamics, with each system comprising four UAS and a nest. The system incorporates a ‘hive’ system, which can be placed onto a vehicle, the UAS can then autonomously take-off, land, and return to the nest to swap its batteries, Ferret added. (Source: Janes)
EUROPE
AIR
15 Mar 22. Spain has been cleared to purchase eight MH-60R Seahawk helicopters for an estimated price tag of $950m, the US State Department announced today. While the announcement may raise eyebrows as the first arms sale to a NATO nation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, such arms requests have a long tail that requires months or years of work to get to a public announcement. As is, the Spanish request covers eight of the MH-60R helicopters, 20 T-700-GE-401C engines (16 installed, 4 spares); 32 AGM-114R(N) Hellfire missiles, all up rounds; two Hellfire II Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM); 100 WGU-59/B Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) II Guidance Sections, all up rounds; and eight Link 16 Multifunctional Information Distribution Systems Joint Tactical Radio Systems, along with a variety of other weapons and associated equipment, according to the DSCA notice. Work will be performed primarily at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Owego, NY. This represents the fifth request for a foreign military sale from Spain since April 2018, for a combined estimated price tag of just under $3.5bn. That includes a request from Madrid for 17 CH-47F cargo helicopters. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
USA
LAND
15 Mar 22. Echodyne Radars Selected for U.S Army Force Protection Program. Echodyne, the radar platform company, announced today that Advanced Technology Systems Company (ATSC), the prime contractor for the US$191m Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for the U.S. Army’s Security Surveillance System (SSS) program of record and a leader in Force Protection Systems and Border/Maritime Surveillance Systems has received its first order for Echodyne radars to be used under the SSS program. The IDIQ contract has a 5-year base period, with a 3-year option to extend the period of performance. Following extensive testing during the design and development phase of the program, Echodyne radars have been selected as a component of the security system. The initial order for 46 EchoGuard radars was delivered in December 2021.
15 Mar 22. Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY, www.mrcy.com), a leader in trusted, secure mission-critical technologies for aerospace and defense, announced it has received a $3.6m order from a leading defense prime contractor for electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) image processing systems for an airborne surveillance application. The order was booked in the Company’s fiscal 2022 second quarter and is expected to be shipped over the next several quarters.
15 Mar 22. Valiant Integrated Services has secured a $124m task order to support the US Army National Guard’s (ARNG’s) mission command training support program (MCTSP). As agreed, the company will offer military training and readiness services for a two-and-a-half-year performance period. MCTSP involves providing individual and collective mission command training to battalions, brigades, and divisions. Such training activities are conducted in live, virtual, and constructive environments. (Source: army-technology.com)
SEA
17 Mar 22. Arête Associates,* Northridge, California, is awarded a $15,372,357 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the “Pushbroom Imaging LiDAR for Littoral Surveillance (PILLS).” This contract provides for the extension, adaptation and optimization of the PILLS sensor to demonstrate Navy-specific performance metrics, and research to extend the PILLS sensing technology and signal processing/ data fusion algorithms to address additional future Navy capabilities. Future areas include, but are not limited to, bathymetric survey and charting, autonomous systems, mine countermeasures, unmanned underwater vehicle detection, target and/or feature detection, airborne or underwater based hazard detection and avoidance, and complimentary LiDAR/MSI multi-mode sensing. PILLS is a lightweight, low power, expeditionary sensor that enables high resolution and accurate topographic and bathymetric maps from manned and unmanned airborne platforms to greater depths than commercially available legacy systems. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona (91.2%); and Vienna, Austria (8.8%), and is expected to be completed by March 16, 2027. The maximum dollar value, including a 60-month base period and one 30-month option period that, if exercised, will run concurrent with the base, is $15,372,357. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $341,745; and fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $120,474 are obligated at time of award. Funds in the amount of $341,745 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under the N00014-21-S-B001, Office of Naval Research long range broad agency announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps science and technology. Since proposals are received throughout the year under the long range BAA, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014-22-C-2007).
17 Mar 22. Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE® 500 science and technology leader, has been awarded a prime contract by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) to support the service’s undersea warfare systems. This single-award, Seaport Next Generation (NxG) task order has a total estimated value of $84 million. It includes a one-year base period, as well as four one-year options. Work will be performed in Virginia and Japan. Through this contract, Leidos will provide operations and maintenance (O&M) crews aboard United States Naval Ship (USNS) Tactical Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance (T-AGOS) platforms and contract vessels. Additionally, the company will provide a cadre of Field Support Team (FST) engineers to provide engineering, logistics and technical support to the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) fleet and IUSS (Integrated Undersea Surveillance System) Operations Support Center (IOSC). (Source: PR Newswire)
11 Mar 22. Serco Inc., Herndon, Virginia, is awarded a $15,788,396 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously-awarded, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N61331-18-D-0007 to exercise options for the development, integration, testing, and evaluation of prototype systems into existing or emerging unmanned vehicles, unmanned weapons, and unmanned weapons control systems related to mine warfare, amphibious warfare, surface warfare, diving and life support, coastal and underwater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and other missions in the littoral and riverine environments. Work will be performed at locations which will be determined with each delivery order and is expected to be completed by March 2023. No funding will be obligated at time of award. Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, Panama City, Florida, is the contracting activity.
AIR
15 Mar 22. Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCAT) (“Red Cat” or the “Company”), a hardware-enabled software provider to the drone industry, announces that its subsidiary Teal Drones (Teal) has been selected by the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and U.S. Army to compete in the Short Range Reconnaissance Tranche 2 (SRR T2) Program of Record. Teal was selected to develop a next-generation small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) designed for surveillance and reconnaissance (S&R) duties, with a focus on autonomous capability, for the U.S. Army. The ultimate goal of the SRR T2 program is to provide a small, rucksack portable sUAS that gives all Army platoons (20-50 soldiers) with situational awareness beyond the next terrain feature. Following a successful demonstration in September 2021, Teal was notified by the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance Product Office that it would advance to the prototype phase of the SRR T2 program and was awarded a $1.5m prototype contract. Teal will develop a next-generation drone that meets or exceeds the Army’s technical system requirements of SRR T2 and competes for the SRR T2 production contract. (Source: PR Newswire)
TECHNOLOGY
15 Mar 22. KBR (NYSE: KBR) was awarded a new $70m contract to provide technical analysis for sensor development that addresses current and future threats for the U.S. Army Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, Search, Track, Acquire, Radiate, Eliminate (STARE) Project Office. KBR was awarded this contract under the Department of Defense Information Analysis Center’s (DoD IAC) multiple-award contract (MAC) vehicle. These DoD IAC MAC task orders are awarded by the U.S. Air Force’s 774th Enterprise Sourcing Squadron to develop and create new knowledge for the enhancement of the DTIC repository and the R&D and S&T community.
16 Mar 22. Under a new deal, LMI and MORSE Corp will furnish a range of data management and analytic services to help scale artificial intelligence across the Department of Defense. The companies this week said they were awarded a basic ordering agreement for the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center’s Data Readiness Artificial Intelligence Development program, which aims to have vast amounts of Defense Department data ready for AI applications. It was not immediately clear if any other teams were selected for the contract, worth up to $241m, according to MORSE. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
REST OF THE WORLD
LAND
14 Mar 22. The Canadian Department of National Defence has selected Elbit Systems UK to provide a TORCH-X based solution as part of the Airspace Coordination Centre Modernisation (ASCCM) Project. The project requires the delivery of a digitised information-based system for air situational awareness and enhanced airspace coordination and management into headquarters. The solution to be supplied will be provided to the Canadian Military Headquarters for both Land and Joint Command in order to support air missions and joint-task force operations. Under the project, Elbit Systems UK will supply a joint-air version of its TORCH-X based Battle Management Application (BMA) that will provide situational awareness by constantly displaying a local or recognized air picture, thus enabling effective co-ordination of air assets into complex land and joint battlespace. The system will be operated utilising Elbit Systems’ E-CIXTM open architecture framework that will enable connectivity to the Canadian Armed Forces’ legacy applications and tactical datalinks while also allowing future integration of new applications in support of the Canadian Armed Forces digital transformation plan.
15 Mar 22. Niger announces Nurol armoured vehicle order. Niger has ordered armoured vehicles from Nurol Makina, the country’s presidency announced on 11 March. It said that President Mohamed Bazoum visited the Turkish company to inspect progress on the vehicles, which it did not identify. It released photographs of the president inspecting Ejder Yalçins fitted with Aselsan Serdar weapon stations at the company’s facility on the outskirts of Ankara, but some were painted in the camouflage used by Qatar’s Joint Special Forces Command, which has placed a large order for the type. The president also visited Aselsan, Turkish Aerospace (TUSAŞ), munitions manufacturer Roketsan, UAV manufacturer Baykar Makina, and Havelsan, a C41 specialist that also manufacturers aircraft simulators. (Source: Janes)
14 Mar 22. Safran Electronics & Defense Australasia has been awarded a contract by Collins Aerospace to provide its full suite of advanced portable optronics to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as part of the Land 17 Phase 2 Digital Terminal Control Systems (DTCS) Capability Assurance Program. Safran will complete delivery of this equipment by mid-2023. Through this contract Safran continues its long-standing support of Collins Aerospace and the ADF. Safran’s JIM Compact, Moskito TI and Sterna systems, along with tripods, will all be integrated by Collins Aerospace into the ADFs next generation DTCS. Safran Electronics & Defense offers a wide array of portable optronic products, including state-of-the-art multi-spectral binoculars, target locators and laser rangefinders, all deployed worldwide by Joint Fires Observers (JFOs), Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) and Special Forces. These devices feature the latest digital software functions and are compatible with standard battle management systems for dismounted combat. Safran’s Sterna is a gyro-based target acquisition system that accurately finds true north in virtually all terrains. It will give the Australian Defence Force a brand-new capability, offering critical assistance to operators who require a high level of accuracy regardless of weather, battlespace interference or GPS-denied environments.
SEA
15 Mar 22. Israel Shipyards Ltd., a leading shipbuilding and repair company in the Eastern Mediterranean, announces the signing of an agreement to supply landing ships to an African country. The vessels will be used in operational missions and as logistical support for combat forces. Under the agreement, the company will provide two landing ships, with the option of expanding the order to include an additional vessel.
15 Mar 22. Silentium Defence to provide passive radar to Australian Navy. Australia’s Silentium Defence has secured a contract with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to test its MAVERICK passive radar across a range of maritime applications, company official told Janes. (Source: Janes)
AIR
14 Mar 22. BIRD Aerosystems has received another order for a King-Air 350 Special Mission Maritime Patrol Aircraft from an undisclosed customer. Under the contract, BIRD will purchase the aircraft and transfer it to a Maritime Patrol Aircraft using its renowned ASIO solution. BIRD’s ASIO Special Mission Aircraft is an end-to-end airborne Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) solution ideal for maritime and ground surveillance, search and rescue, patrol and monitoring. ASIO offers decision-makers and field commanders accurate, real-time terrestrial and maritime information that dramatically enhances situational awareness. A true force multiplier, ASIO enables even small crews to deliver detailed and comprehensive surveillance information covering large geographic areas.
11 Mar 22. Philippines to acquire Mi-17 transport helos. The Philippine Air Force (PAF) is expected to begin receiving the first tranche of 17 new Mil Mi-17 twin-engine multirole transport helicopters from Russia by the end of 2023, amid the continuing Ukrainian conflict. On 10 March Philippines Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement to the media that the contract and the initial down payment for the Mi-17 acquisition project had been completed before Russia began its military operations in Ukraine. “We are upholding our contractual obligations and are taking note of the circumstances that may affect the project. At present, the onus of fulfilling the compliances and deliverables under the contract rests on the side of the Russian proponent.” (Source: Janes)
11 Mar 22. QinetiQ has signed a contract to use uncrewed aerial targets for anti-aircraft firing training with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. This is the first time QinetiQ has sold aerial targets to Japan, however this contract is the result of more than 20 years of successfully delivering maritime uncrewed target services, including the use of the Barracuda maritime target to JMSDF (Japan’s Maritime Force) and JASDF (Japan’s Air Force). The contract with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) – the service responsible for land warfare in Japan – will see QinetiQ set the program for the customer’s aerial targets being operated for anti-aircraft firing training, through the delivery of the Banshee Jet 80+, logistics support, spare parts and other related consumables for the Banshee target. The operation of the targets for anti-aircraft firing training will start in the summer of 2023. (Source: ASD Network)