UK Unveils Defence Technology Strategy

UK MoD

Britain has made significant strides in changing its overall approach to defense acquisition over the past few years, from the proliferation of long-term support partnerships and a move toward true through-life equipment management for key military platforms to the SMART Acquisition initiative and the UK Defence Industrial Strategy released in December 2005. As part of those broader efforts, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently released their Defence Technology Strategy, which sets longer-term R&D priorities.

With an annual spend of approximately GBP 2.6 billion (about $4.9 billion), the MOD is a very large investor in Research & Development – everything from micro-satellites and battery augmentors/substitutes to an inhaled spray cures for bubonic plague. This new strategy sets out in detail those technologies which the MOD believes should be supported and brought from concept to front line delivery more quickly. It will also launch several initiatives designed to bring smaller enterprises into these R&D efforts and widen the range of potential programs…

Spanish Army Orders Next-Gen PR4G Radios from Amper

Fresh from its EUR 75 million acquisition of telecom and next-gen IP firm LANData in Sept 2006, Amper group is announcing two new contracts with the Spanish Army to supply next generation radio equipment with PR4Gv3 (aka. F@stnet). The contracts amount to EUR 10.5 million (about $13.1 million)

These new software-defined radios bring a number of new capabilities to the table:

$14.5M to Support IGNAT-ER UAVs

IGNAT-ER UAV

General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems Inc. in San Diego, CA recently a received $14.5 million modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, covering contractor logistics support for I-GNAT unmanned aerial vehicle operations. The I-GNAT is a long-endurance UAV that can operate for 40 hours at a time, and is used in a number of front-line theaters. Army Technology notes that “The US Army’s IGNAT-ER Extended Range unmanned air vehicle has been deployed in Iraq since spring 2004 and has recently increased the operational tempo from 12 hours to 20 hours per day, every day, on reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The system has successfully achieved a sustained full mission capability rate of 95%.”

Work will be performed in San Diego, CA (75%), Adelanto, CA (5%), Palmdale, CA (5%), and Salt Lake City, UT (15%), and is expected to be complete by Nov. 30, 2007. This was a sole source contract initiated on Sept. 6, 2006 by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (DAAH01-03-C-0124).

$5.4M to Oshkosh for Striker Fire Trucks

Striker ARFF in action

Oshkosh Truck Corp. in Oshkosh, WI received the full delivery order amount of $5.4 million for its aircraft rescue and firefighting fire trucks. ARFF trucks are the ones used when something goes wrong at an airport, and Oshkosh’s Striker series has a number of features not commonly found on other fire trucks. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, WI and is expected to be complete by Sept. 25, 2008. Bids were solicited via the World Wide Web on May 15, 2006, and 4 bids were received by the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, MI (W56HZV-06-D-G015).