France’s semi-private naval design & construction firm DCNS has signed a “purchase general contract” for R&D cooperation with Russia’s the Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute, via Rosoboronexport. It is an amplification of the Letter of Intent the two companies signed during the 2006 Paris Euronaval exhibition.
Work is expected to include “technical relationships for hydrodynamic studies and experimentations… for surface ships as much as for submarines is within the R&D scope of the general contract.” DCNS release.
In December 2006, The Business online reported that the Saudi government was in talks to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from the French, regardless of how ongoing issues with the Eurofighter Typhoon contract were resolved. The Dassault Rafale contract would reportedly be in addition to the Eurofighter, not an either-or deal. With support and complementary ordnance added in, this could easily become a $5-15 billion transaction of its own.
It was just the latest chapter in a string of reports along these lines that stretch back to at least April 2005. Now, a Reuters report indicates that interest in the French fighter may be fading.
Small business qualifier LTM, Inc. in Havelock, NC received a $24.9 million ceiling priced modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00421-01-D-0101) to exercise an option for approximately 353,600 hours of maintenance planning and design interface technical/management support services for the Fleet Readiness Center (FRC) East in Cherry Point, NC. These services include evaluating initial designs and proposed design changes, maintenance planning, and sustaining maintenance plans.
Work will be performed at FRC East, Cherry Point, N.C. (99%), and at various locations across the United States (1%), and is expected to be complete in October 2008. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract.
