INDUSTRY TEAMINGS
03 Dec 08. A team led by Boeing has completed a major mission-system upgrade for the NATO Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet under the $1.32bn Mid-Term Modernisation Programme. Modification of the 17th and final AWACS aircraft was completed on schedule Nov. 3 by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), as an industry partner and subcontractor to Boeing.
Boeing also delivered two NATO AWACS mission simulators it had modified into the Mid-Term configuration.
01 Dec 08. Lockheed Martin has teamed with ITT Corporation, of Morgan Hill, CA, to compete for the U.S. Navy’s Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 2 Upgrade (SEWIP BLK 2). This program will lay the groundwork for the upcoming competition for the Navy’s next-generation electronic warfare system. In at-sea demonstrations this summer, the Lockheed Martin/ITT team’s Integrated Common Electronics Warfare System (ICEWS) – a single enterprise solution designed to scale across all ship classes in the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet – performed successfully. This ICEWS demonstration followed land-based testing and further validated the enterprise approach that the team has taken in developing sensor systems for U.S. Navy vessels. Electronic warfare refers to the use – and denial of use – of the electromagnetic spectrum by a broad range of electronic technologies, including radar and other sensor systems. SEWIP BLK 2 will integrate systems that use common, multifunctional radio frequency equipment for use on future U.S. Navy destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers, as well as for backfits on existing vessels.
26 Nov 08. US plans second joint R&D project with Czech Republic. A second co-operative research and development (R&D) project between the United States and the Czech Republic was revealed on 10 November. The project, announced by US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director Lieutenant General Henry A ‘Trey’ Obering, was one result of a continuing MDA-sponsored study of Czech technical capabilities that could have application to missile defence. (Source: Jane’s, JMR)
Dec 08. European defence ministers have launched a set of initiatives with the aim of improving defence links and creating a European Air Transport Fleet (EATF). The steering board of the European Defence Agency (EDA) has drawn up a series of projects to improve capability, and defence ministers from Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain signed a Declaration of Intent to establish a common ATF. (Source: MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin)