MANAGEMENT ON THE MOVE

LOCATIONS

06 Feb 08. Aonix® celebrated a solid year of growth with the launch of a second French office devoted to professional services. The new office, centered in Toulouse, France’s heartland for aeronautic and space industries, will provide expertise in real-time and embedded solutions in Java and Ada languages. Complementing this increased support for the customer service needs of France’s industrial heartland has been the dramatic adoption of Aonix’s Java language technologies in Germany. Sectors such as automotive and industrial control applications have readily embraced the PERC Ultra and PERC Pico solutions that Aonix brings to the table. PERC Ultra is a virtual machine and toolset expressly created for demanding embedded and real-time systems requiring J2SE™ support. PERC Pico, a virtual machine designed for hard real-time applications requiring fast execution, small footprint, and access to low-level devices, can work in conjunction with PERC Ultra or stand-alone in an resource-constrained embedded system.

Feb 08. Rockwell Collins is setting up an engineering centre, the first of its kind outside its headquarters, with an aim to shift a part of its global development here. “The decision to enter India has been motivated by access to high quality engineering talent, besides the cost savings,” Rockwell Collins Vice-President Global Technology Raj K Aggarwal said. He said the company’s engineering centre at Hyderabad, which would be operational in October this year, would start with a strength of 20 engineers. “In five years’ time, we plan to increase the number to 500, and initially we will be focusing on displays development and flight management assistance products,” he added.

Feb 08. Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA): Sir Bedivere Leaves. (Navy News, February 2008) reports that the landing support ship RFA Sir Bedivere is to be decommissioned in March 2008. Sir Bedivere is returning home to Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre, Southampton and her place in the Arabian Gulf has already been taken by RFA Cardigan Bay.
Comment: On 27 Jun 05 the Armed Forces’ Minister forecast that Sir Bedivere’s out of service date would be 2011 and the above change has not previously been made public. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0807, 11 Feb 08)

PERSONNEL

MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT

01 Feb 08. Defence Attachés: Reduction in Posts. The Armed Forces’ Minister said (1 Feb 08) that the Defence Sections in Ireland and Slovakia had closed on
26 and 31 Oct 07 respectively. The Defence Sections in Albania, Croatia, Guatemala, Macedonia and Thailand will have closed by 1 Apr 08. Some support staff may remain beyond the dates shown, in order to close accounts and dispose of equipment and vehicles.
Comment: DNA Brief 07/37 (24 Sep 07) covered the reduction in the number of countries where the UK has a resident accredited Defence Attaché. The seven closures above and one new post (Afghanistan) have reduced the total to 74 from 80. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0807, 11 Feb 08)

07 Feb 08. France on Thursday eased simmering tensions within Nato over Afghanistan when its defence minister said it would send troops to the violent south of the country to help Canadian forces there. Canada has threatened to pull its 2,500 troops out of Kandahar province unless its Nato allies sent 1,000 more troops. After a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Vilnius, Hervé Morin, France’s defence minister, said: “I’ve said we’ll help the Canadians.” (Source: FT.com)

04 Feb 08. NATO: Future Enlargement. The Defence Secretary said (4 Feb 08) that the question of invitations to Albania, Croatia and Macedonia
will be considered at the NATO Summit meeting to be held in Bucharest [from 2 to 4 Apr 08]. The UK
supported the membership aspirations of European Countries and would be pleased if all three were ready to receive an invitation.
Comment: The three Countries are already participating in NATO Membersh