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20 Mar 09. The Department of Defense (DoD) announced details of approximately 3,000 military construction and facility improvement projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The $5.9bn budget for these construction and repair projects represents the bulk of the approximately $7.4bn in defense-related funding provided by the ARRA signed by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17, 2009. DoD Recovery Act funds will be spent at DoD facilities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The primary purpose of these funds is to create jobs and stimulate economic activity across the country. All projects focus on making much-needed improvements to military installations and include hospitals, child development centers, and housing for troops and their families. The two largest DoD projects to be constructed under the ARRA will be new hospitals at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Fort Hood, Texas. Representing less than 1 percent of the entire $787bn ARRA package, the $7.4 billion investment in defense-related projects will further the legislation’s stated goal of stimulaing the American economy, while improving the quality of life for service members, their families, and DoD civilian workers. ARRA funds are also being used to support DoD high priority programs such as care for wounded warriors and energy security. Facility improvement projects include many energy conservation measures. $300 million of ARRA funds will be used on military energy research programs so that the DoD can continue to lead the way in the national effort to achieve greater energy independence.
Mar 09. Increasing emphasis on indigenisation of the defence and aerospace sector by the government and also with foreign companies seeking local partners for the defence offsets programme has prompted public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to expand its R&D activities. India’s premier aerospace establishment will now be setting up another division in Bangalore in addition to the existing five divisions in the city. The new ‘Mission and Combat System’ division will operate from the Bangalore-based Design Complex and will focus on R&D activities with regard to implementation of aircraft and avionics projects on hand and also those which will be undertaken by the defence PSU in future. The new division will not only focus on avionics systems integration and the use of smart avionics weapons systems but also act as a lead agent to encourage and assist other agencies.The R&D focus will be on development and integration of the avionics and systems for the existing fleet of aircraft, new aircraft programmes and also unmanned aerial vehicles technology development, according to government sources. (Source: Google)
19 Mar 09. General Dynamics Amphibious Systems has achieved the Maturity Level 5 rating on the SEI’s Capability Maturity Model(R) Integration (CMMI) Version 1.2, the highest maturity rating a company can obtain in a combined systems engineering, software engineering and supplier sourcing process evaluation.
23 Mar 09. A joint venture of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and CAE has finalized all necessary contracts and non-recourse financing to begin construction and development of a new C$60 million (Rs 240 crore) helicopter training centre in Bangalore, India. The Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (HATSOFF), the joint venture equally-owned by HAL and CAE, has secured long-term, non-recourse financing to support the development of the HATSOFF Helicopter Training Centre. HATSOFF will have a CAE-built full-mission simulator featuring CAE’s revolutionary roll-on/roll-off cockpit design, which enables cockpits representing various helicopter types to be used in the simulator. HATSOFF expects to begin training at a new purpose-built facility in the second half of 2010. When fully operational, HATSOFF will be able to train up to 40