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15 Jul 14. The International Consortium of Aeronautical Test Sites (ICATS) is quickly growing. At the Farnborough International Airshow, the four executive countries that include Canada, USA, UK and France, officially welcome a fifth and sixth member, CATUAV Tech Center (CTC) and ATLAS (Air Traffic Laboratory for Advanced Systems), which will add Spain to the list of countries involved in the partnership. In May of 2014, the representatives of the UAV test & service centre (CESA) (Bordeaux, France), the Oklahoma State University – University Multispectral Laboratories (Oklahoma, United States), the National Aeronautical Centre (Wales, United Kingdom) and the Unmanned Aerial Systems Centre of Excellence (Quebec, Canada) formally signed and celebrated an MOU. This agreement consolidates the various MOUs signed between the Centers in the past two (2) years.
14 Jul 14. Northrop Grumman Corporation officially broke ground on a new $20m Maryland Space Assembly and Test (M-SAT) facility on the back of its Baltimore campus adjacent to Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. In attendance at the groundbreaking event were U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin and U.S. Reps. C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger and John Sarbanes. The event was hosted by Gloria Flach, corporate vice president and president, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems. The 25,000-square-foot building is designed to handle space payload integration programs. (Source: Yahoo!/PRNewswire)
15 Jul 14. Lockheed Martin is opening a space technology office in Great Britain to explore partnership opportunities with UK businesses and universities to support the UK’s goal of maintaining and growing its national capabilities in space. Forming part of Lockheed Martin’s expanding business footprint in the UK, the office will be based at the UK Space Gateway in Harwell Oxford. For more than 50 years Lockheed Martin has led the way in the development of spacecraft that have helped scientists understand our planet. The new office will expand the company’s relationships with the UK supply chain to share technology and expertise, and will support UK-based capabilities in space exploration and access. It will also explore new technologies from small businesses and academia. Current areas of focus include environmental monitoring, space exploration, global security and small communications satellites. (Source: Yahoo!/PRNewswire)
15 Jul 14. Heart of Britain’s military history put up for sale. The government building where a century of British politicians and military leaders have strategised their war plans is on the market, as the Ministry of Defence prepares to sell one of its most famous properties. Property agents GVA will start to market the neo-Baroque, 430,000 sq ft building this autumn. It is still occupied by the MoD, which plans to move out. The building could fetch more than £100m, property agents say.
Prime ministers Winston Churchill, HH Asquith and David Lloyd George all worked in the building when the each had the role of secretary of state for war at various times, as did Lord Kitchener, the military leader.
TE Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, spent part of the first world war working in the building, drawing maps from his travels in the Sinai desert. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation, which administers Britain’s military bases, has embarked on a sell-off campaign as the MoD faces tough cost-cutting targets. The DIO is in charge of the Old War Office sale. (Source: FT.com)
16 Jul 14. Rockwell Collins will enhance its presence and investment in the U.K. with a new center of excellence in Reading, U.K., to support its commercial and military customers. The announcement was made in conjunction with a news conference during the Farnborough International Air Show hosted by the U.K. Ministry of Science and Universities on the topic of creating a good business environment in the country to grow existing and new space business. In June 2