21 Sep 10. It took three years, but the defense trade cooperation treaties that President George W. Bush negotiated with Britain and
Australia have finally made it through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But they still have to be ratified by the full Senate before they go into effect. The treaties are intended to make it easier for U.S. companies and their British and Australian counterparts to buy and sell weapons and weapon parts to each other and each other’s governments.
Under current law, weapons and defense-related technologies cannot be exported from the United States unless a license is issued by the U.S. State Department or Commerce Department. Companies have long complained that the time and expense involved in obtaining licenses is onerous and that it impedes defense cooperation. The treaties would eliminate the requirement for companies to obtain licenses on most trade deals as long as the companies have been accepted as members of a “trusted community” established by the treaties. (Source: Defense News)

21 Sep 10. Honeywell seeks tie-ups for defence. Honeywell’s aerospace division is exploring opportunities for forging partnerships with Indian companies that are keen to address the demand for offsets in defence deals, said Pritam Bhavnani, President of Honeywell’s Aerospace Division in India, on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Bhavnani said, Honeywell had developed a new engine for the Jaguar aircraft. “We have provided the new engine to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and the Indian Air Force,” he said. About Honeywell’s sourcing agreement with HAL for engines for turbo prop aircraft, Mr. Bhavnani said the first phase of the project was almost over. In the second phase HAL is to supply 400 additional parts. The third phase is likely to be completed in 2011, he said. The sourcing agreement between the two companies requires HAL to supply Honeywell 600 aircraft engines over a 10-15-year period, Mr. Bhavnani said. Referring to the role played by Honeywell’s facilities in Bangalore, Mr. Bhavnani said employees here had contributed to the development of the smart runaway landing and smart landing system. He said the newly developed system would help aircraft pilots have “better situational awareness, especially in adverse weather conditions.” (Source: Google)

23 Sep 10. QinetiQ has signed a strategic agreement with Försvarets materielverk (FMV), the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, to operate and maintain FMV’s world class national Physiological Flight Centre. Under the ten year agreement QinetiQ will use its test and evaluation expertise to manage the facilities and ensure that they are available to the Swedish Armed Forces as required. The agreement also seeks to secure the long term future of the facilities by actively encouraging QinetiQ to market them to other third party customers, providing greater productive use of the centre. The Physiological Flight Centre is part of the aviation training, testing and research establishment located at Malmen, southern Sweden. The self-contained centre comprises a Dynamic Flight Simulator (DFS), a combined human centrifuge and flight simulator which creates the g-force effect imposed by high performance aircraft; a hypobaric decompression chamber and a hyperbaric high pressure “diving” chamber; and a purpose build test and survival pool which can recreate adverse weather conditions.

29 Sep 10. During the Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group (SUIRG) annual conference from 28 au 30 September in San Francisco, Thales Alenia Space and Zodiac Data Systems are announcing that they plan to team up on solutions for the monitoring of satellite transmissions and protection against interferences, whether intentional or not. Thales Alenia Space, a supplier of end-to-end space solutions, is a world leader in satellite traffic monitoring. Zodiac Data System is the Telemetry and Telecommunications Division of the group that was recently rename