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17 Dec 14. UK MoD Sells DSG to Babcock. Britain has sold the state-owned Defence Support Group (DSG) to Babcock for £140m, the Ministry of Defence announced Wednesday. Babcock was named preferred bidder for the armored vehicle maintenance and overhaul company last month, beating out proposals from DynCorp International and a KBR/Rheinmetall team. The MoD said the sale includes a 10-year service provision contract with Babcock for the maintenance, repair, overhaul, and storage of current military platforms and light weapons like the Challenger 2 tank and the Warrior infantry fighting vehicle. It does not include work for the Army by General Dynamics on 589 machines under the £3.5bn Scout Vehicle program that was announced in September. The first of those vehicles is to be handed over in 2017 and an open competition to support the program is likely. The sale does not include the electronics and avionics side of DSG; that is being retained as a state-run operation. The deal with MoD includes a possible five-year extension of the arrangement with Britain’s leading defense support company. Details of the deal and Babcock’s plan for the business are expected to be unveiled in the new year. DSG was put up for sale by the Conservative-led coalition government as part of the 2010 strategic defense and security review. Estimates of the value of DSG had previously put the figure in excess of £200m. One industry executive with knowledge of the bidding said the estimates by analysts and media “were always pie in the sky.” Even with a £140m price tag, the executive said that there was clear water between Babcock’s commercial and financial proposals and those of its rivals. Defence procurement minister Philip Dunne said “signing this deal with Babcock will put the DSG on a sustainable long-term footing, and will transform the equipment maintenance and support that the Army relies on both at home and overseas.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News) (See: BATTLESPACE ALERT Vol.17 ISSUE 39, 17 December 2015, MOD SELLS DEFENCE SUPPORT GROUP FOR £140M)
17 Dec 14. Diehl Defence and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) concluded a contract on the acquisition of Diehl Defence Land System´s GmbH (DLS) operative business by a subsidiary of KMW. The contract is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities. Diehl Defence Land Systems is a market leader in the fields of tank tracks and suspensions equipping all the Bundeswehr´s tracked vehicles. Latest innovations include light-weight tracks for the German infantry combat vehicle PUMA as well as segmented rubber band tracks. In the past decades, the company has acquired an international reputation as a service provider regarding maintenance, repair and modernization of military vehicles. The company achieves sales of €56m with approximately 370 employees. With the transferral of its vehicle business, Diehl is contributing to the consolidation of the German land systems industry. The company will increasingly focus on its core business comprising guided weapons, intelligent ammunition as well as impact and protection. For KMW, the acquisition adds a strategic range of products and services to the existing portfolio.
18 Dec 14. GovPlanet’s Initial Sale of Military Humvees Draws Record Attendance. GovPlanet, an online marketplace dedicated to buying and selling used government assets, sold the first set of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs), or Humvees, made available to the public by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) at its online auction yesterday, December 17. The event attracted more than 111,000 unique visitors, and final sale prices for the 25 Humvees were as high as $41,000. “The interest in the Humvees was very strong, exceeding our expectations in terms of participation and pricing,” said Randy Berry,