LOCATIONS
LAND
20 Jul 12. Gerald Howarth, MP for Aldershot, and Minister for International Security Strategy at the Ministry of Defence, opened the new QinetiQ Training Innovations facility on their headquarters site at Farnborough, Hampshire. Hosted by QinetiQ Group CEO Leo Quinn, the Minister unveiled a plaque commemorating the event, and toured the new facility. He was shown the huge range of training and simulation capabilities that QinetiQ use to support Defence in the development of distributed synthetic Air and Land training packages, and non-military applications such as safety critical training modules such as those simulating mining incidents, already in use in Australia. He met a number of the Training and Simulation Services team members working on across a range of ground breaking developments who were able to demonstrate their domain knowledge, experience, technological innovation and the training processes suitable for providing cutting edge expertise in today’s demanding environments to military commanders. The Minister was able to see how the appropriate application of cutting edge training and simulation technologies could improve training quality, enhance performance, reduce costs, minimise the environmental impact of live training, retaining the high quality outputs for commanders whilst also derisking the design and delivery of the training solution. He also saw how capturing military and commercial training requirements through proven training needs analysis, optimised the procurement process.
26 Jul 12. Brazil: New Embassy. A new Brazilian Embassy was opened in Cockspur Street on 26 Jul 12. The Embassy was inaugurated by the Brazilian President as the Olympic Torch passed on nearby Trafalgar Square. Brazil is to host the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Comment: The Foreign Secretary had discussions, over a range of foreign policy issues, with Brazil’s Foreign Minister on 28 Jul 12. The full address of the new Embassy is: 14-16 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BL
(Tel: 020-7747 4500). (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 12/30, 30 July 12)
18 Jul 12. Boeing on July 17 opened a state-of-the-art Information Security Innovation Lab in Huntington Beach that will be used to prototype innovative cybersecurity technologies using live networks in a secure yet real-world environment. The lab’s Wide Area Network (WAN) backbone, coupled with Boeing Information Solutions’ Cyber Range-in-a-Box (CRIAB), allows modeling and simulation of complex missions and advanced threats to create resilient security solutions. CRIAB is a compact, portable system used to support the development, test and experimentation of cyber tools and techniques, as well as to train today’s network defenders. The lab contains isolated networks as well as networks securely connected via Boeing’s LabNet, which provides connectivity to all the company’s technology centers worldwide. The isolated networks allow threats and defenses to be modeled in a safe, repeatable environment.
23 Jul 12. China will establish a military garrison on a group of disputed islands in the South China Sea, China’s defense ministry said July 23, a move likely to provoke further tensions with its neighbors. The troops will operate from Sansha in the Paracel Islands, one of two archipelagos in the South China Sea that are claimed by both China and Vietnam. The garrison, approved by the Central Military Commission, “will be responsible for the Sansha area national defence mobilisation and reserve forces activities,” the defence ministry said on its website. The ministry did not say when the garrison would be established, but the move to station troops on the Paracels is likely to provoke Hanoi’s ire. (Source: Defense News)
25 Jul 12. Eurocopter’s subsidiary in the Southern Cone has put its partnership with Servicios Aéreos de Los Andes SAC on an official footing and has also opened its first certified services center in Peru. The new center, based in th