NEWS FROM IDEX
23 Feb 09. ITT Corporation today signed an Executive Memorandum of Understanding with Emirates Advanced Investments (EAI) to formalize a partnership for exploration of business pursuits in the defense and security sectors of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dave Melcher, president of ITT Defense Electronics and Services, signed the agreement with Hussain Ibrahim Al Hammadi, chairman and CEO of Emirates Advanced Investments, during the IDEX 2009 exhibition in Abu Dhabi. “This partnership reflects EAI’s commitment to helping to protect defense and security personnel across the region,” said Al Hammadi, on the signing of the partnership. “Because of ITT’s leadership role and their state-of-the-art capabilities, we believe this agreement will be mutually beneficial for developing solutions to a wide variety of critical defense requirements in the UAE and possibly elsewhere.” In creating a new strategic partnership between the companies, this agreement will enable a strong alliance in the fields of communications, sensing and surveillance, space, and advanced engineering and services. The partnership will allow the two parties to explore and develop strategic opportunities. “The UAE is a critically important market for ITT Defense, and we are honored and privileged to enter into a partnership with such a professional and enterprising team as EAI,” said Melcher. “The signing of this agreement formalizes a relationship of trust and confidence that we have mutually developed over the course of nearly a year,” added Bernard J. Dunn, vice president of ITT Middle East Operations. “We are very much looking forward to the opportunity to work closely with EAI.”
20 Feb 09. Finmeccanica displayed its system integrator capabilities in aerospace and defence applications including homeland security, border and EEZ control, air traffic management, helicopters, naval guns and turrets, communications and training of military pilots at IDEX. In recent years Finmeccanica and the UAE have formed many rewarding partnerships, the latest being an agreement for a hi-tech industrial partnership signed in October 2008 between Finmeccanica’s Alenia Aeronautica and Mubadala Development Company to manufacture aerospace composite components for civil aircrafts at the Abu Dhabi-based composites plant. In the early spring of 2008, SELEX Sistemi Integrati, a Finmeccanica company, signed an agreement in Abu Dhabi with ATS, a local company that operates in the Homeland Security sector. This international agreement will see the two companies jointly bid for tenders relating to the supply of integrated security equipment and systems, particularly for territorial and border surveillance and control. The agreement follows the creation in 2005 of the Abu Dhabi Systems Integration (ADSI) joint venture between SELEX Sistemi Integrati and Abu Dhabi Ship Building.
Finmeccanica is keen to develop its relations with the country’s industry to a much greater extent than at present, with the aim of exchanging state-of-the-art technology and creating joint programmes. Another important area is the field of ground, coastal and port surveillance, in which SELEX Sistemi Integrati can design and build complete systems.
Finmeccanica exhibited at IDEX with its companies Alenia Aeronautica, Alenia Aermacchi, AgustaWestland, DRS Technologies, Elsag Datamat, Oto Melara, SELEX Communications, SELEX Galileo, SELEX Sistemi Integrati, Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space.
24 Feb 09. While on-again, off-again efforts to supply U.S. forces with a 2.75 in (70 mm) laser-guided rocket (LGR) have not produced a stable program so far, two fully funded programs have been disclosed at the IDEX defense show here. Raytheon has been under contract since May 2008 to develop the Talon for the United Arab Emirates, with Emirates Advanced Investments (EAI) as its technical partner and funding source. Flight tests of the weapon are due to start shortly and a production decision is e