Americas
* The Army awarded General Atomics a contract for 19 Gray Eagle UAVs, as part of a $132m contract which also included SATCOM terminals and support.
* The Babcock & Wilcox Company received contract work totalling $169m for naval reactor fuel and materials, with B&W having restructured their government operations last year.
* Defense hawks and fiscal hardballers continue to clash over defense spending.
Europe
* Airbus Helicopters and Korean Aerospace Industries penned a partnership deal to produce new civil and armed helicopters for South Korea. The two parties won a significant helicopter program contract in 2005. KAI beat Korean Air in July 2014 for the role of lead designer of the helicopters. The development budget was expected to be $884 million.
* In another major win for the Airbus Group, the Airbus Defence and Space company won a contract to build three SIGINT satellites for the French military.
* The Royal Air Force saw the first deployment of new Puma Mk2 helicopters to Afghanistan, three weeks after achieving Initial Operating Capability.
Asia
* Malaysia received the first of four Airbus A400 transport aircraft, with this being the first export customer for the model.
* China became the world’s third-largest arms exporter, according to figures published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This amounted to a 143% increase in sales over the last five years.
Today’s Video
* The aforementioned Puma conducts low-level flying…