LOCATIONS
May 07. Black Construction awarded $41m contract to build Global Hawk facility at Anderson AFB in Guam. Black Construction Corporation, Barrigada, Guam, is being awarded a $41,981,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the FY07 military construction of a Global Hawk aircraft maintenance and operations complex at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Work will be performed at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam and is expected to be completed May 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with 24 proposals solicited and two offers received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Construction Contracts Branch, is the contracting activity (N62742-07-C-1310). (Source: Shephard)
11 May 07. Indian Air Force (IAF): Canberra Leaves. 106 Squadron IAF made its final Canberra flights from Agra on 11 May 07. The English Electric Canberra was first inducted into the IAF in 1957.
Comment: Total Canberra production is recorded as 1,352, in 27 variants. The aircraft left RAF service when 39 (1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit) Squadron was disbanded, with its three Canberra PR9, on 28 Jul 06. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0719, 14 May 07)
May 07. Peter Lindsay, Parliamentary Secretary for the Australian Minister for Defence, has announced an agreement between Defence Housing Australia (DHA) and the South Australian Land Management Corporation (LMC). The two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which will facilitate the provision of sufficient land for the construction of up to 500 defence homes in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. Mr Lindsay said that DHA will spend an estimated $150m on houses, and land purchased through the MoU, over the next five years. DHA will contract with local builders for the development of the homes. The houses will be allocated to defence personnel, including those Australian Defence Force (ADF) members relocating to Adelaide with the 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. (Source: MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin)
May 07. Pratt and Whitney, in partnership with the US Air Force and the Egyptian Air Force, has announced the opening of its new F100 engine line at the Helwan depot, located at the Helwan Air Base in Egypt. As part of Pratt and Whitney’s customer support programme, the Egyptian Air Force’s Helwan depot received facility upgrades in 2005-06 that included delivery of essential F100 engine support equipment, and has an onsite Pratt and Whitney field support representative who will provide ongoing technical support to the Air Force. The first module, a Low Pressure Turbine (LPT), was produced from the F100 line in April 2007. (Source: MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin)
10 May 07. The Royal Navy’s largest and most powerful attack submarine, the first-of-class Astute, is now entering the final stages of preparation for the naming and roll out for launch ceremony which takes place at the BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness on June 8, 2007. With just one month to go before the submarine emerges from the 25,000m² Devonshire Dock Hall build facility, much of the hull is still shrouded in coverings to allow work to continue on applying more than 39,000 acoustic tiles that will mask the vessel’s sonar signature and help to make Astute the most stealthy submarine ever operated by the Royal Navy. Work is on schedule to meet the first of class Astute date for delivery to the Royal Navy of August 2008 with an in-service date of January 2009. Subsequent Astute class submarines will be delivered on an agreed 22-month ‘drumbeat’.
16 May 07. Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter has announced the names for the U.S. Navy’s two newest Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyers to honor two American heroes famous for their naval service. DDG hull number 110 will be named the USS William P. Lawrence to honor Vice Adm. William P. Lawrence, who served nearly six years as a prisoner