ITT – EDO SYNERGY DRIVING NEW BUSINESS
By Julian Nettlefold
14 Jul 08. BATTLESPACE Editor Julian Nettlefold met up with ITT at Farnborough for an update on continuing developments in its radar and EW segment since the EDO acquisition. We covered the contracts won by ITT for its IED Crew systems in our Eurosatory issue. (See: BATTLESPACE UPDATE Vol.10 ISSUE 24, 21 June 2008, IEDs TOP THE FEATURES AT EUROSATORY AND AUSA).
“The EDO acquisition has certainly strengthened our reach into new markets,” John Dench told BATTLESPACE. “We recently concluded the reorganisation of ITT Defense and Aerospace segments to incorporate the EDO segments.
The depth of the reorganisation was demonstrated in the new segment reorganisation shown to the Editor.
The Electronics Systems segment under Chris Bernhardt has added to the Electronic Warfare and Radar businesses a number of new elements including Undersea Warfare, Electro-Ceramic Products and ESM and ELINT Systems whilst Ken Peterman’s Communications segment has added a new C4 segment under John Vallmer which includes Antenna Products and Comms & Networking Products. There are two new segments, Integrated Systems and Structures under Jim Barber and Intelligence and Information Warfare under Warren Murrin.
“The recent radar win in Sweden is a key indicator of ITT’s strategy of focusing on key niche business opportunities in overseas markets,” Kevin Davis, Director, Business Development, Radar Systems told the Editor. “This is a key program for both ITT and FMV. It provides FMV with key technology upgrades to further strengthen their air defense networks and represents a launch platform for ITT’s new LCR2020 coastal/gapfiller radar systems, a proven solution for simultaneous air and sea surveillance.”
On May 30th ITT signed a $44.9 million contract with the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV) for the Reliability and Modification (REMO) upgrade of their PS-870 coastal/gapfiller radar systems.
The REMO 870 program contract will upgrade the radars with state-of-the-art processing, transmitter, antenna and display technologies, using commercial off-the-shelf equipment, resulting in improved reliability and autonomous operation. This work is a key component in modernizing Sweden’s national air defense program.
The PS-870 radar system, first delivered to Sweden in the 1980s, is a key component in modernizing the country’s national air defense program. The PS-870, known commercially as the LCR (Land-based Coastal Radar) is a coastal/gapfiller radar system that automatically detects and tracks both surface and airborne targets in the presence of difficult electronic countermeasures and is optimized for complex clutter found within the coastal/littoral regions.
Additional options could bring the total contract value to greater than $58 million. This contract award follows a successful series of earlier contracts, valued at more than $2 million that provided FMV with the systems engineering design requirements for the upgraded radar system.
ITT recently completed development of the Radar Assisted Integrated Landing System (RAILS), providing mobile and transportable ILS capabilities as part of its Precision Approach Radar (PAR) products. ITT expects its first contract for RAILS in 2009 and is working with several customers in the UK, Canada and Brazil.
“We are continuing to expand our radar profile throughout the world, and recently signed an agreement with Thales Nederland for ITT to market and manufacture the SMART-S Mk 2, 3-D radar for US and FMS customers.” Davis continued.
The EW segment goes from strength to strength with new orders from U.S. and overseas customers announced since we last interviewed Chris Carlson, BD Director, Electronic Warfare Systems
“The EDO acquisition brings together two world leaders in EW Systems, making ITT the word leader in this technology.” Carlson told the Editor
“We are currently bidding against Northrop Grumman, ou