20 Apr 05. DRS Technologies, Inc. was awarded a $23m subcontract from Raytheon Company to provide major subsystems for the U.S. Army’s Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System (LRAS3). LRAS3 provides the U.S. Army Brigade Reconnaissance Troops, Armor and Infantry Battalion Scout Platoons, and the Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (SBCT) with a long-range detection, recognition, identification and far-target location capability. The contract was received by DRS from Raytheon Company’s Network Centric Systems business in McKinney, Texas. The company’s DRS Optronics unit in Palm Bay, Florida, will perform all work associated with the award at its state-of-the-art electro-optical design and production facilities. Product deliveries are expected to commence this April and continue through May 2006. Including the latest award, DRS has received approximately $110m in orders on the LRAS3 program. Bridging the gap between currently fielded systems and the U.S. Army’s Future Combat System (FCS), LRAS3 provides heavy battalion, Light Cavalry Squadron and Stryker Brigade Combat Team Scouts with the capability to conduct 24-hour surveillance and reconnaissance missions at safe distances and operate well outside the direct-fire range of detected threats.

18 Apr 05. The U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command has awarded General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics a delivery order valued at $138m for 99 additional Stryker combat vehicles. The vehicles will be used to meet Army materiel requirements. This increases the Army’s Fiscal Year 2005 Stryker procurement from 576 to 675 vehicles; deliveries will begin in 2006 and continue through 2007. The vehicles are part of a $4bn contract awarded in November 2000 to equip the Army’s new Stryker Brigade Combat Teams with more than 2,100 Stryker armored vehicles. To date, more than 1,000 Strykers have been delivered.

20 Apr 05. Lockheed Martin said Wednesday that it has received a contract worth roughly $90m from the U.S. Army for continued production of the Hellfire air-to-ground missile.

20 Apr 05. The EADS CEOs, Philippe Camus and Rainer Hertrich, welcomed the German parliament’s go ahead for the country’s participation in the transatlantic MEADS (Medium Extended Air Defense System) programme as an important base for the future development of Germany’s and Europe’s missile industry. “MEADS is an important part of NATO’s future security architecture. In addition to that, MEADS is a key project for further technological and economic development of Europe’s missile industry and the transatlantic cooperation in defence.” After today’s parliamentary decision, Germany, in collaboration with the USA and Italy, will participate in the development of the ground-based tactical air defence system MEADS. The development contract’s total volume amounts to US$ 3.4bn and can now be awarded. The German share is 25 percent.

18 Apr 05. Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Airborne Standoff Minefield Detection System(ASTAMIDS) program is being expanded, at the request of the U. S. Army, beyond its initial counter-mine mission to include reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) and target designation applications. The added capabilities for the RSTA program are valued at an additional $26 million to the $55m previously awarded to the company. The ASTAMIDS program is slated to operate on the Army Future Combat System RQ-8B Fire Scout Class IV unmanned aerial vehicle, an unmanned helicopter being developed by Northrop Grumman, and be day or night capable. ASTAMIDS carries an integrated, multi-sensor, electro-optical infrared/multi-spectral imaging payload to detect patterned surface-emplaced mines, patterned recently buried mines and randomly scattered mines. The payload has the capability to detect obstacles, combat vehicles and other combat targets, including camouflaged targets. ASTAMIDS uses the latest quad-prism aperture-splitting technology with the aid of