MANAGEMENT ON THE MOVE
LOCATIONS
08 Oct 07. DRS Technologies, Inc. received a follow-on $38m contract, including options, from the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), to continue operating the automated and integrated physical security systems at the Pentagon and other Department of Defense (DoD) facilities. The PFPA awarded DRS the contract following a full and openly competitive process. DRS has provided procurement, design, installation and maintenance work for the last decade on an Integrated Security and Identification System contract from the Crane Division, United States Naval Surface Warfare Center, ever since the division was hired as the system integrator for the Pentagon’s 10-year security renovation project. The previous 10-year contract was worth approximately $132m. This new contract will entail the same work but will be an Integrated Security Services Contract (ISSC) from the PFPA and the Washington Headquarters Service.
Oct 07. MAN to expand Polish plant. The MAN group says it plans to expand its heavy truck assembly plant in Niepolomice, near Cracow, creating over 250 more jobs by 2010. The plant employs some 400 people and is designed for a single shift output of 15,000 trucks a year. The firm says Poland is its most important East European growth market and one in which it has a near 20% market share. (Source: Transport News Brief)
10 Oct 07. The Security and Intelligence Business Unit of QinetiQ North America’s Mission Solutions Group (QNA MSG), has been awarded a $35.8m, five-year Firm Fixed Price contract with the US Army to operate the Army Research and Technology Protection Center (ARTPC). Under the terms of the contract QNA MSG, a leading provider of mission-critical professional services to federal government clients, will provide Research and Technology Protection (RTP) expertise and support to research and engineering centres and acquisition programmes throughout the US Army. QNA MSG’s Security and Intelligence Business Unit was first awarded this contract in 2002 to establish and operate the ARPTC under the oversight of the Army G2. Over the past five years, the ARTPC has repeatedly been identified as a pioneer in RTP process development and a model for planning and executing technology protection of sensitive defence programmes. The contract was re-competed this summer.
03 Oct 07. Support Helicopters: Additional Merlin Squadron. Two of the six Merlin Mk 3A helicopters being transferred from Denmark to the UK were unveiled (3 Oct 07) at RAF Benson by the Defence Equipment Minister. The six new aircraft are to join the 22 Merlin Mk 3 already at Benson with 28 Squadron and the Minister announced that there was now to be a second Merlin Squadron.
78 Squadron is being re-equipped and will ‘stand up’ as a Merlin Squadron at Benson on 3 Dec 07.
Comment: 78 Squadron is currently in the Falklands, having been re-formed from 1310 and 1564 Flights in
May 1986. With (two) Sea King helicopters, the ‘Squadron’ is to revert to the 1564 Flight nomenclature when the 78 Squadron title is re-established at Benson. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0739, 08 Oct 07)
JOB LOSSES AND STRIKES
09 Oct 07. Top U.S. Navy Acquisition Official Resigns. Delores Etter, the U.S. Navy’s senior acquisition official, submitted her resignation Oct. 5 after a year of turmoil and embarrassment over cost growth in one of the service’s most prominent shipbuilding programs. “I have held the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition for almost two years,” Etter, 63, said in a statement. “We have accomplished a great deal in that time, but after deliberating with my family and staff, I have decided to resign from my position. This decision allows me to return to my teaching post at the United States Naval Academy in time for the spring academic semester there.” Etter, a member of the electrical engineering faculty at the Naval Academy, was sworn into the RD&A p