Sponsored by American Panel Corporation
http:// http://american-panel.com/
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UNITED KINGDOM
28 Aug 19. DE&S looks to place new contract for Land Rover Wolf spares. The current contract held by TVS has expired and a competition for future support is due to begin imminently. TVS has held this contract supplying Babcock with Land Rover spares at a difficult time when JLR ceased production of the Defender and GKN ceased production of the Wolf chassis. TVS encountered a problem earlier this year in sourcing swivel housings from a new supplier which did not match the specification of its previous part. This led to a large number of Wolf vehicles being off the road. Hobson Industries is a major supplier to TVS under the old contract and is likely to remain key to this contract in the next bidding process which is expected to include, Leidos, TVS, BAE Systems, Thales and KBR. On wider issues, the MoD us finding it harder to keep the fleet of over 6000 ageing Wolf vehicles on the road and is reported to be leasing Ford F350 vehicles and painting them green. The current fleet is slated to leave service in 2024 (some say 2030) at which time sourcing spares after the required Defender cancellation period of 10years in 2026. Will the MoD bite the bullet and scrap the existing fleet and buy or lease a new fleet from Mercedes, Ford or Toyota. The current usage of the Land Rover Wolfs for some roles, does not require a 4×4 vehicle, a standard pick up would suffice. There is little news on the Pinzgauer refurbishment which was slated to start some four years ago. Existing vehicles have already been cannibalised to keep the fleet on the road and again, the age of the vehicles and the fact that production has ceased and the complication of IP and ownership, again leaves DE&S with a headache to support these vehicles. DE&S is understood to be conducting a fleet review of all light and medium 4×4 vehicles and the decision may be made to scrap both Land Rover Wolf and Pinzgauers with JLTV and other vehicles replacing the fleet. As the Pinzgauer has a light role with the Paras, DE&S may well look at the winner of the US Infantry Squad Vehicle Program, currently being bid by Oshkosh/Flyer, General Motors and SAIC to replace these vehicles.
10 Sep 19. Team iMAST sets out to provide a step-change for UK Royal Navy and Royal Marines Training. Three of the UK’s leading Maritime Defence companies – Babcock, QinetiQ and Thales – along with academic and industry partners have joined forces to create Team iMAST: intelligent Maritime Adaptive Synthetics and Training to bid to support the modernisation of the UK Royal Navy’s individual maritime training.
Down selected to bid earlier this year, the bespoke Team iMAST collaboration – led by Babcock and comprising, QinetiQ and Centerprise International along with the Universities of Portsmouth and Strathclyde – has recently been joined by Thales and Learning Technologies Group to further bolster its highly-experienced offering. And boasting its Innovation Ecosystem of more than 50 Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), Team iMAST is ready to deliver training to the Royal Navy when and where it is required, if selected.
Team iMAST and the Innovation Ecosystem will enable critical technology integration, backed by proven naval training resources, to drive future-ready training solutions for all elements of the Royal Navy. To launch this Ecosystem, two successful events have already been held with the most recent hosted by Team iMAST at the Digital Catapult, the UK’s leading agency for the early adoption of advanced digital technologies.
With its wealth of proven expertise, Team iMAST is uniquely placed to support this training outsource programme through its unrivalled industry know-how. The programme will provide an opportunity to help shape the future of Royal Navy training as a strategic partner and drive efficiencies and new technology.
Mark Graves, Managing Director, Babcock Marine Training said: “We have an opportunity to help shape the future for Royal Navy training and this excites every member of the iMAST team. We’ve brought together an agile and experienced collective for this bid that can meet the challenges from day one – and already understand how to support the Royal Navy to deliver successfully. Our mission is to transform education and training for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines and to do this at a pace that can exceed the customers’ requirements.”
In addition to the provision of training, the winning bidder of the outsourcing project will be responsible for designing, procuring and managing the maintenance and repair of all associated training equipment. It will also support the delivery and procurement of the interior design, fit out and relocation to a new purpose built facility for submarine training based on the Clyde.
Team iMAST takes its inspiration from Babcock’s iSupport 360 concept which brings total insight to projects creating powerful new ways of optimising digital technology to uniquely deliver the complete picture of customer’s programmes.
Providing intelligent, connected insights and evaluation, iSupport 360 interprets and integrates technology and information to support the management of critical assets such as ships and submarines as well as facilities, infrastructure and training.
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American Panel Corporation
American Panel Corporation (APC) since 1998, specializes in display products installed in defence land systems, as well as military and commercial aerospace platforms, having delivered well over 100,000 displays worldwide. Military aviators worldwide operate their aircraft and perform their missions using APC displays, including F-22, F-18, F-16, F-15, Euro-fighter Typhoon, Mirage 2000, C-130, C-17, P-3, S-3, U-2, AH-64 Apache Helicopter, V-22 tilt-rotor, as well as numerous other military and commercial aviation aircraft including Boeing 717 – 787 aircraft and several Airbus aircraft. APC panels are found in nearly every tactical aircraft in the US and around the world.
APC manufactures the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Large Area Display (LAD) display (20 inch by 8 inch) with dual pixel fields, power and video interfaces to provide complete display redundancy. At DSEI 2017 we are exhibiting the LAD with a more advanced design, dual display on single substrate with redundant characteristics and a bespoke purpose 8 inch by 6 inch armoured vehicle display.
In order to fully meet the demanding environmental and optical requirements without sacrificing critical tradeoffs in performance, APC designs, develops and manufactures these highly specialized displays in multiple sizes and configurations, controlling all AMLCD optical panel, mechanical and electrical design aspects. APC provides both ITAR and non-ITAR displays across the globe to OEM Prime and tiered vetronics and avionics integrators.
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