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08 May 12. The latest Personnel Recovery Centre (PRC), named Chavasse VC House, was officially opened by Help for Heroes (H4H) and the MOD. The new, purpose built Recovery Centre, funded by Help for Heroes with a contribution from The Royal British Legion towards its operating costs, will provide first class facilities for wounded, injured and sick Service personnel. It will include accommodation, social areas, family rooms and a state of the art fitness centre, as well as comprehensive and coordinated on-going support. Chavasse VC House can accommodate up to 27 personnel, including two families, and a further 30 day residents. It will also offer training facilities, classrooms, and gymnasiums with state-of-the-art sports equipment. This will provide the residents with opportunities to learn new skills, gain qualifications, and make a smooth transition into civilian life or return to duty. As well as being there for current serving personnel, Chavasse VC House facilities and services are open to wounded, injured and sick veterans on a needs basis. A Support Hub, offering a ‘one stop shop’ of advice and support for residents, veterans and their families, will provide access to the expertise of many welfare agencies, service charities and organisations. This includes advice and guidance on a number of issues including; money, health, housing, social and much more.
08 May 12. Côte d’Ivoire: Embassy Reopened. The Minister for Africa reopened (8 May 12) the British Embassy to Côte d’Ivoire and remarked that the new Embassy is a sign of the UK’s growing commitment to the Country.
Comment: In a Statement to the House of Commons on 7 Sep 11, the Foreign Secretary said that the British Embassy in Côte d’Ivoire had been formally closed on 1 Apr 05 with the onset of civil war. As stability returned, the UK opened a political office in 2006 which reported to and was supervised by the High Commission in Ghana. Reopening the Embassy indicates that the UK is “committed to helping peace, stability and prosperity return to Côte d’Ivoire”. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 12/19, 14 May 12)
10 May 12. GE has established a High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) Center of Excellence (CoE) that will provide a focus for the future development of a range of powerful, flexible products and solutions for military/aerospace embedded computing. GE Intelligent Platforms already has an extensive range of HPEC solutions designed for the harsh, demanding environments that are typical of military deployments. These include focused board level solutions, complete sub-systems, and an expanding software development environment that takes advantage of GE’s AXIS – Advanced Multiprocessor Integrated Software. The primary goal of the new Center will be to support customer demand for high TRL (technology readiness level) COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) solutions that can shorten time-to-market, minimize cost and help to eliminate program risk, allowing prime contractors, system integrators and OEMs to focus on value-add and create competitive advantage. The Center will take advantage of GE’s COTS Rugged Systems (CRS) capability to support the rapid deployment of systems to the field. The Center will also support the development of custom systems that are configured, tested and integrated with software to meet specific customer needs. Additionally, consulting services will be available through the HPEC CoE that can help customers with architecture definition, application development and performance optimization. It will also create application-focused algorithms for use in performance and capability demonstrations which can be provided to customers to assist in their development process
08 May 12. ITT Exelis officially opened the first original equipment
manufacturer-operated logistics repair depot facility at Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind. Exelis will perform maintenance and repairs for hardware that