Web Page sponsored by MILLBROOK
Tel: +44 (0) 1525 408408
www.millbrook.co.uk/military
———————————————————————–
31 Aug 12. Northrop Grumman Corporation welcomed the Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, Peter Luff MP, to the company’s production facility for unmanned ground systems in Coventry, U.K. The visit marks the in-service date with the British Army of CUTLASS, the next generation of remotely controlled vehicle for hazardous duty operations developed for the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The minister was joined during the visit by Peter Worrall, chief of Materiel (Joint Enablers). The CUTLASS system offers the latest technology in a modular design, enabling the user to deal with the full range of both military and improvised explosive devices. Its highly versatile design means that it is capable of accommodating a wide range of payloads, sensors and tools. The manipulator arm is equipped with a three-fingered state-of-the-art gripper and has nine degrees of freedom for greater movement and agility inside limited spaces, such as the interior of a car. The robot is able to creep along at deliberately slow speeds for delicate operations and may accelerate to high speeds to enable rapid travel. The six-wheeled design offers mobility on all types of hard and soft terrain and in all weather conditions. Northrop Grumman’s unmanned ground vehicle business has been established in Coventry for more than 20 years. Today, the company designs, develops and manufactures in the U.K. some of the most capable and reliable unmanned ground vehicles available, from the Wheelbarrow bomb disposal robot to CUTLASS, the latest vehicle for hazardous operations developed for the MoD. The company’s wide range of unmanned vehicles can be configured according to the operational requirements of the user including explosive ordnance disposal, ground surveillance, hazardous material and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear missions. Northrop Grumman has more than 2,000 unmanned ground vehicle systems in operation around the world.
05 Sep 12. The Ministry of Defense of Slovenia, Rotis Plus and Patria sign a Settlement Agreement. The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Slovenia (MoD), Rotis Plus d.o.o. and Patria have signed a Settlement Agreement governing the AMV vehicle supply contract and the related offset agreement signed in 2006. The settlement includes a change of the fleet size to consist of 30 Svarun vehicles that have already been delivered and closing down the rest of the project and thus the supply contract. With this settlement the original offset agreement is deemed fulfilled. Patria will take over the life cycle support for the delivered vehicles from Rotis Plus.
“Defense industry needs to adapt to changes in the existing and new possible customers’ demands and possibilities. The economic situations will change and so do the technologies used. Consequently, our policy is to look for reasonable solutions in different situations whenever possible. This settlement will make it possible for all the parties to focus on their future”, We are proud to have the Slovenian government as one of the satisfied users of Patria AMV vehicles and will continue to provide life cycle support for them.” said Seppo Seppälä, President, Patria Land Services.
05 Sep 12. “BAE Systems has submitted its best value bid for the Canadian Close Combat Vehicle procurement. Our offer is based upon the successful CV90, which provides class-leading crew survivability, mobility and firepower for the six current user nations around the world. In all six nations, the CV90 is in service alongside the Leopard 2 main battle tank and is currently on operations in Afghanistan with Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Our offer also includes a comprehensive Canada-based in-service support package, which will provide demonstrated cost-effective fleet usage and availability throughout CV90’s serv