Rapid Fire 2011-04-05: Maritime Surveillance

• Ducommun is buying St. Louis, MO-based defense electronics firm LaBarge for $340 million.

• Goodrich to pay EUR 330 million for Microtecnica, a Turin, Italy-based provider of flight control actuation systems for helicopters, aircraft, missile actuation, and aircraft thermal and environmental control systems for military and commercial customers.

• Russia launches Dagestan, the second Gepard-class frigate, from the Zelenodolsk Shipyard in Tatarstan. Vietnam has also ordered a few.

• Raytheon’s tri-mode GBU-53 Small Diameter Bomb II completes its Critical Design Review. Flight tests will begin later in 2011.

• Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine’s VisionMaster FT bridge system will be the basis of the suite on-board Britain’s forthcoming Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

• Maritime surveillance role expected to fuel demand for advanced electronic systems for UAVs, says Strategy Analytics.

• The chief operating officer of UK MoD’s Defense Equipment and Support arm, Andrew Tyler, is expected to step down as a result of reorganization, according to DefenseNews sources.

• ManTech secures $22.6 million order to provide software engineering services for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command Software Engineering Center’s Guardrail systems under the $19.25 billion S3 contract vehicle.