26 Jun 07. U.S. Coast Guard Adds Catch to Deepwater Contract. The Coast Guard on June 25 awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. a 43-month extension of the Deepwater modernization contract with one large caveat — that the service can review the team’s performance at 18 months and decide whether to continue the full 43 months, a spokesman said June 26. Coast Guard officials announced that the new contract, an extension of the initial five-year base contract, was issued to Integrated Coast Guard Systems, the Arlington, Va.-based joint venture between Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. Although the Deepwater program has come under increased scrutiny from government watchdog agencies and Congress in the past three years, renewal of the contract was expected. The original contract specified a potential for five additional award terms of up to 60 months each. (Source: Defense News)
02 Jul 07. Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) has announced a federal investment of more than $48.8m for new projects to strengthen Canada’s ability to deal with potential Chemical, Biological, Radiological-Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) threats. Funding will be provided through the CBRNE Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI). Because of the exceptional number of relevant proposals for this round, the CRTI is funding more projects than in previous years. The funds will be allocated to 29 research, technology acceleration and technology demonstration projects. These projects will address diverse requirements such as the development of more rapid, accurate and portable tools to detect chemical, biological and radiological agents, the fast-track development of an antiviral drug against Avian influenza, and the enhancement of decision-making support tools that assist the first responder and national security communities in coordinating a more efficient response to CBRNE incidents.
05 Jul 07. Ericsson and United Nations partner to provide wireless emergency response capabilities for humanitarian operations. Ericsson announced has extended its cooperation with the United Nations to aid and improve emergency response by leveraging technological progress in telecommunications. Ericsson will provide a complete mobile telecommunications solution that can be rapidly deployed to selected humanitarian operations and that will be installed, operated and maintained by Ericsson employees. For the past seven years, Ericsson has contributed equipment and expertise to enhance the United Nations’ capacity during relief operations, partnering with their Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in order to coordinate support to multiple humanitarian organizations. The partnership has evolved since it was formed in 2000, today primarily focusing on rapid deployment of telecommunications services to areas hit by disaster, and on continuously improving these based on lessons learned from previous deployments. Today, Ericsson is uniquely positioned to provide some of the industry’s most integrated and advanced information and communications technology to humanitarian organizations working in cooperation with OCHA.