LOCATIONS

LAND

21 Sep 10. NIITEK, Inc., part of the Chemring Group, PLC, the premier provider of Countermine Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) systems, celebrates the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art Engineering Center of Excellence on September 21st at the Headquarters in Dulles, Virginia. (Source: Yahoo!/BUSINESS WIRE)

23 Sep 10. Applied Energetics, Inc., will open a Business Development office in the Washington, DC area on October, 4 2010. The company has hired Mr. Alan Womble as Vice President of Business Development to lead this effort. (Source: Yahoo!/PRNewswire)

29 Sep 10. Russia has plans to create an agency similar to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop innovative military technology. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the nation should focus on producing its own high-tech systems rather than upgrading existing technology. Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said the project could be created in collaboration with the Skolkovo fund. The project’s budget for the fiscal year 2011 is $3.1bn, according to RIA Novosti. (Source: armytechnology.com)

10 Sep 10. NATO to keep US command centre open as Pentagon closes JFCOM
NATO expects to keep its Allied Command Transformation (ACT) organisation in place following the announcement that the Pentagon plans to close the neighbouring US Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), which has a similar remit. “I would expect ACT to continue to be located in Norfolk [Virginia],” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters during a 7 September breakfast meeting in Washington. (Source: Jane’s, JDW)

21 Sep 10. Marshall Land Systems (LS): New Technology and Capability Centre. Marshall LS held a demonstration of capabilities (21 Sep 10) to mark the opening of its new System Design Group (SDG) facilities in Hampshire. Equipment on display included unmanned ground vehicles (Questar tracked/wheeled surveillance vehicle, the Trakkar logistic support platform and a new remote controlled Land Rover), protected workspace shelters and support vehicles.
Comment: Marshall’s Deployable Machine Shops (DMS) are now being deployed with all three Services in Afghanistan. 44 DMS were delivered by the Company in April 2010, six months ahead of schedule.
Marshall SDG provides “rapid solutions” to urgent operational requirements. For further information, contact
John Harris at 20:20 Vision Park, Bedford Road, Petersfield, Hampshire GU32 3FG (Tel: 01730 266669). (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 09/37, 27 Sep 10)

21 Sep 10. Eurocopter inaugurated a new building complex at its Aviation Training Academy today in the Marbachhöhe Technology Park near Kassel, Germany, as part of its 40th anniversary celebration. The ground-breaking for the 1,000 square meter building took place on April 13, meaning that the extension has been completed in only five months—just in time for the institute’s anniversary. Bertram Hilgen, city mayor of Kassel, Dr Wolfgang Schoder, CEO of Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH and Detlef Ehrig, Director Training Academy Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH as well as Jean-Pierre Arnaud, Rulemaking Officer at the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), all attended the official opening ceremony in Kassel.

27 Sep 10. The Pentagon’s top high-tech directorate will officially close its doors next March, according to a Defense Department memo that describes how its surviving functions and personnel will be split among four other DoD entities. Robert Rangel, a senior aide to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, has tapped Gen. James Cartwright, Joint Staff vice chairman, and Christine Fox, director of DoD’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, with overseeing a process that will culminate with the shuttering of the Pentagon’s Networks and Information Integration (NII) directorate on March 31, 2011. (Source: Defense News)

AIR BASES

22 Sep 10. The German Army has plans to withdraw its six Tornado combat aircraft from Afghanista