A January 2007 analysis by Forecast International projects that the development and production of leading EW systems will be worth $24.6 billion from 2007-2017. Report author Andrew Dardine believes that the “rising need for the various jamming, self-protection, and electronic support measures (ESM) systems that make up the EW Systems market will result in steady production and long-term research and development well into the next decade.” Nonetheless, this represents a rolling decline from the $28 billion projected in their 2006-2016 forecast released in January 2006.
The top 5 projected companies in this field are Northrop Grumman (EA-18G Growler, LAIRCM, 10-year share $10.4 billion), BAE Systems (TADIRCM, CMWS, $3.4 billion), both of whom are projected as having significant upside. Raytheon (ALR-67), ITT Industries (AN/ALQ-211), and Lockheed Martin round out the top 5, replacing Thales, Sweden’s SaabTech and Israel’s Elta Electronics from last year’s report. See Forecast International release.
Norway’s Forsvardsdepartmentet has issued a release saying that Defence Minister Anne-Grete Strom-Erichsen has decided to sign the production phase agreement for the Joint Strike Fighter Program, joining Australia, Britain, Canada, and The Netherlands to date. The Minister said:
“We now believe that the industrial cooperation plans have become significantly more concrete, and based on an overall evaluation have therefore decided to move into the production phase. We have always been very explicit with regards to emphasizing the importance of industrial cooperation. I am also pleased that we have achieved our goal of maintaining competition between the three contenders and expect to have agreements on development cooperation with all three candidates before long… The signing of the JSF production phase agreement will take place shortly, but an exact date has yet to be decided.”
As Norway was saying that it will sign on to the F-35 Production Phase, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace was signing “long-term framework agreements” with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to manufacture composite products for the aircraft. The Kongsberg release maintains that “the agreements were landed based on fully competitive prices,” but adds that “completion of the agreements is conditional on Norway deciding to procure the JSF.”
There seems to be a conflict in those two statements, but we’ll let that pass. The framework agreements have an initial scope of NOK 1.3 billion and NOK 650 million, respectively (currently about $308 million combined). They will extend for more than 8 years, and require the construction of a new composite factory; full-scale production will mean the scope can potentially increase to a total of NOK 6-8 billion (currently around $930-1,240 million). Because of that investment requirement, the framework agreements are “also predicated on the requirement that the Norwegian authorities furnish a guarantee related mainly to the political risk that Norway might opt for an alternative other than the American Joint Strike Fighter. KONGSBERG is in close dialogue with the Norwegian authorities on this issue.” Norway is, after all, keeping its options open…
As DID noted in our coverage of the FC-1/JF-17 program yesterday, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, during which a number of joint defense projects were discussed and agreements were signed. Items in the works reportedly include a “5th generation fighter” project, even as the MiG-29OVT/MiG-35 is touted as the likely winner of the multi-billion MRCA fighter contract.
With respect to the agreements that were formally signed, DID has already covered them. Readers interested in more information can find DID’s coverage of MRTA transport aircraft. We also covered licensed production of RD-33 series 3 engines for India’s MiG-29 fleet; gthe recent agreement includes technical documents and licensing, as well as an accompanying general contract for initial supply of these engines and associated products.
Finally, the two sides also signed the Protocol of the Sixth India-Russia Inter Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation, which is a broad framework agreement covering standard procedures and cooperation scope. There are reports that this agreement widens the framework to encompass non-defense strategic areas such as information technology and space research.
In 1996, the ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System was combined with ESRI’s GIS and other software to dramatically improve the understanding police had when arriving at gunfire scenes in Redwood City, California – and dramatically reduce gunfire incidents. By 2006, it was deployed in Iraq on vehicles and even PDA-sized devices worn by soldiers. Now a US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) experiment during the December 2004 Training in Urban Environment Exercise (TRUEX) is headed for the front lines, as ShotSpotter is being paired with Boeing’s ScanEagle UAVs. The 820th Security Forces Group at Moody AFB, GA will conduct the user evaluation and training beginning in March 2007, then match the equipment with a deploying squadron.
