WORLD DEFENCE

Indo- Russian agreement on $35 billion fifth generation stealth fighter

Our Bureau

Tue, Dec 21, 2010 14:34 CET

Officially declared as the “biggest ever defence program in the history of India”, costing an estimated $35 billion from the Indian side, the fifth generation stealth fighter project is called the Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF) and will be an advanced version of the Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA).

      A government press release said that a contract for Ppeliminary Design of the Indo-Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft was signed between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi in Delhi on December 21.

      The Project involves design and development of a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft that will have advanced features such as stealth, supercruise, ultra-maneuvrability, highly integrated avionics suite, enhanced situational awareness, internal carriage of weapons and Network Centric Warfare capabilities.

      The aircraft to be jointly developed is termed Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF). PMF draws upon the basic structural and system design of the Russian FGFA Technology Demonstrator with modifications to meet Indian Air Force specifications which are much more stringent. The broad scope of bilateral cooperation during the joint project covers the design & development of the PMF, its productionization and joint marketing to the third countries. Programme options include the design & development of a twin seater variant and the integration of an advanced engine with higher thrust at a later stage.

       “Today's contract is only the first in a series of such contracts which will cover different stages of this complex programme. The total cost including options and the value of production aircraft will make this the biggest Defence programme ever in the history of India involving production of over 200-250 aircraft”, the release said without attaching any value.

      The Contract was signed by Mr. A Isaykin, General Director, Rosoboronexport and Mr. M Pogosyan, General Director RAC MiG & Sukhoi from the Russian side and Mr. Ashok Nayak, Chairman, HAL and Mr. NC Agarwal, Director (D&D), HAL from the Indian side at Delhi.

      More information about Perspective Multi-role Fighter is expected to be revealed during Aero India 2011 in Bangalore

Boeing wins $1 billion Mexican secure communication satellite contract

Our Bureau

Tue, Dec 21, 2010 14:55 CET

      Boeing today announced that it has received a contract for approximately $1 billion from the government of Mexico to deliver an end-to-end satellite communications system. The system, known as MEXSAT, will consist of three satellites, two ground sites, associated network operations systems and reference user terminals. MEXSAT will provide secure communications for Mexico's national security needs, as well as enhanced coverage for the country's civil telecommunications.

      "MEXSAT is the fourth generation of satellites Boeing has provided to Mexico for government and civilian satellite communications," said Craig Cooning, chief executive officer of Boeing Satellite Systems International.

      Under the contract, Boeing will deliver a complete turnkey satellite system comprised of Boeing 702HP geomobile satellites MEXSAT-1 and MEXSAT-2 and one extended C- and Ku-band satellite, MEXSAT-3, which will provide fixed satellite services from geosynchronous orbit. MEXSAT-3 is scheduled to launch first, at the end of 2012.

      Each Boeing 702HP satellite will supply 14 kilowatts of power through five-panel solar array wings that use high-efficiency, ultra triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells. Both satellites will carry a 22-meter L-band reflector for mobile satellite services, complemented by a 2-meter Ku-band antenna.

      Boeing will procure MEXSAT-3 and a spacecraft operations center from its supplier partner Orbital Sciences Corporation MEXSAT-3, an Orbital Star 2.4 satellite, will provide full coverage of Mexico and its patrimonial seas and relay civil communications for socioeconomic development.

      Boeing also will develop two ground sites in Mexico with advanced beam-forming flexibility to direct mobile user spot beams to government agencies operating in Mexico and its patrimonial seas, including the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

Indian Navy, Coast Guard to receive 127 ships in 2010-11: Defence Minister

Our Bureau

Thu, Dec 23, 2010 13:34 CET

      In recent years, the Indian MoD has been able to ensure improved results in the delivery of warships and submarines. During 2009-2010, these numbers stood at 120 vessels for the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and coastal states. In the current financial year, 85 vessels have already been delivered and by March 2011, a total of 127 vessels will be delivered, according to Indian defence minister, A K Antony.

      The government is giving top priority to modernization of shipyards so that state-of-the –art warships can be built indigenously to global standards in the most transparent manner. He said, in future, all vessels of the Indian Navy will be built indigenously and the private sector will play a crucial role in this endeavour.

      “ To be comparable with the best global shipyards, we must keep a high premium on the quality of the delivered products. Our market share in global ship building must be improved substantially on a priority basis. Our shipyards have no option, but to build state of the art infrastructure for constructing high technology warships and submarines”, the minister said.

      Giving details of the modernization plans currently being carried out in Mazagon Dock Limited, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited and Goa Shipyard Limited, Shri Antony said, these include human resource development, important components for upgradation and diversification of ship building infrastructure and implementing state of the art management tools and techniques. He said, recently, Hindustan Shipyard Limited has been transferred from the Ministry of Shipping to the Department Defence Production and a modernization programme for HSL will be finalized soon. He said the first phase of the modernization plan will be completed by the first half of 2011.

$1.4 billion contract to Maritime Helicopter Support Co., for U.S. Navy chopper repair

Our Bureau

Thu, Dec 23, 2010 13:51 CET

      Maritime Helicopter Support Co., Woodbridge, Va., is being awarded a $1,408,576,709 performance based logistics contract for repair of various line items for the Sikorsky Seahawk SH-60, SH-60B, SH-60F, HH-60H, MH-60R, and MH-60S helicopter systems and components.

      This contract contains a four-year period of performance and does not contain a provision for option periods.

      Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn. (70 percent), and Owego, N.Y. (30 percent), and is expected to be completed by January 2015. Contract funds will not expire before the end of the current fiscal year.

      The U.S. Navy operates a large fleet of the Seahawk helicopters.

U.S. Navy to rid water bodies of munitions and explosives

Our Bureau

Thu, Dec 23, 2010 13:54 CET

      USA Environmental, Inc. is being awarded a $95,000,000 contract for munitions response actions at various locations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic area of responsibility (AOR). The work provides for munitions response actions to permit lands and waters potentially affected by munitions and explosives of concern (MEC) to be safely used for their planned purpose.

      Work may be associated with the removal of MEC in terrestrial areas, on or beneath the land surface; or aquatic environments, such as marsh areas, surf zones, intertidal areas, or other under water areas. The work to be performed includes safely locating, identifying, recovering, evaluating, managing, and performing final disposition of MEC, material potentially presenting an explosive hazard, munitions debris, and range related debris.

      Work will be performed in Vieques, Puerto Rico (90 percent), and within the NAVFAC Atlantic AOR including the continental United States, southern Europe, Southwest Asia, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic (10 percent).

      The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of December 2015.

Indian MMRCA offsets differences near solution

Our Bureau

Mon, Dec 27, 2010 13:31 CET

      A solution to the vexed issue of third party suppliers within the offset obligations of bidders of India’s estimated $10 billion MMRCA fighter contract appears to be near with the bidders and the MoD reportedly agreeing to the draft of a contract between the prime integrators (the six bidders-Lockheed Martin, Boeing, MiG, Saab, Eurofighter and Dassault), their major sub-contractors and the MoD.

      Earlier, the MoD and the prime integrators had serious differences over what industry sources called as “ third party contracts”. The MoD was insisting that the prime integrators sign MoUs on behalf of the sub-contractors while the latter expressing inability to do so on ground that they could not stand guarantee for their sub-contractors’ commitments. “A draft of the MoU is expected to be received from the MoD soon after which the vendors will have to sign these with each of the sub-system providers who have been mentioned under the 50% offsets obligations for the MMRCA contract”, an industry source told Defenseworld.net. There is broad agreement between a majority of the bidders and the MoD over the new MoU, the source said.

      A fresh deadline of January 28, 2011 has been set to receive the signed MoUs, after which the MoD will examine afresh the offset proposals and proceed with the rest of the evaluation in selecting an ultimate winner.

      Earlier, the six bidders had been informed that their offsets proposals needed to be redrawn as the MoD would only accept the prime contractors’ commitments for any offset work to be done which will have to be direct offsets and involve transfer of technology to India. It is not yet clear what the terms of the new MoU will be like, the sources said stating that however, recent interactions between the MoD’s MMRCA cell and the bidders seems to indicate forward movement.

      There are altogether some 500-600 offset proposals as part of the MMRCA bids involving all the prime integrators. “Explaining the MoU to each of the sub-system providers in the context of every one of the offset proposals will be a time consuming exercise involving complex legal and technical issues and the approximate one month time looks too short to accomplish this work”, the industry sources said.

       Industry experts as well as defence officials have voiced concern over the offsets policy. At a seminar on the fifth international conference on energising Indian aerospace industry organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Vayu Aerospace, the outgoing Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force, P.K. Barbora said a "well-defined offset policy is the need of the day”. Barbora has been quoted as saying on December 16, "our offset policy is very nascent. It is complicated and foreign vendors find it difficult to understand”. Barbora is reported to have made it clear that the comments were his personal views.

      The Indian MoD is scheduled to announce a new edition of its defence procurement policy early next year which is expected to address some of the concerns of international vendors.

Elbit Multi-Sensor Monitoring and Surveillance System for Poland

Our Bureau

Mon, Dec 20, 2010 12:13 CET

      Elbit Systems Ltd. announced that it was awarded a contract valued at approximately $16 million from the Polish Ministry of National Defense to supply mobile multi-sensor monitoring and surveillance systems for the Polish Army. The project is scheduled to be completed in the next year.

      According to the contract, a consortium composed of Elbit Systems Land and C4I-Tadiran and the Polish Military Communication Institute, will provide a variety of sensors to be deployed onboard a ROSOMAK 8X8 vehicle.

      The systems onboard the vehicle will be comprised of a variety of visual payloads, TV, thermal vision systems, motion detection battlefield surveillance radar unit, encrypted communications systems, as well as an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) system. The project will be performed in cooperation with the local Polish industries.

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