MBDA’s Italian subsidiary will supply Qatar’s naval units with four corvette ships, two patrol vessels and a landing platform dock under a contract with the country’s naval force. MBDA said Thursday the contract is part of an agreement that Italian defense minister Roberta Pinotti and Qatar’s defense chief Khalid Bin Muhammad Al-Attiyah signed in Rome Thursday. […] More

BAE Systems will lead a team comprising General Dynamics‘ U.K. land systems and international mission systems subsidiaries, Leonardo-Finmeccanica, Moog, QinetiQ and Safran Electronics to bid under the U.K. defense ministry’s project to update the Challenger 2 main battle tank fleet. The team will pursue a contract to update the tanks to the Challenger 2 Mark 2 design to feature thermal […] More

An Esterline subsdiairy has been chosen to supply a suite of avionics systems for the C-27J Spartan platform a General Dynamics-led team aims to offer to Canada’s Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue program. Team Spartan comprises General Dynamics’ mission systems business, DRS Technologies and Leonardo-Finmeccanica‘s aircraft division, Esterline said Wednesday. The consortium seeks to integrate Esterline CMC Electronics‘ CMA-9000 Flight Management System, TacView Portable […] More

  Babcock‘s proposed system for the British defense science and technology laboratory’s Laser Directed Energy Weapon Capability Demonstrator program will incorporate the Raytheon-built Phalanx air defense technology, Flightglobal reported Thursday. Beth Stevenson writes the LDEW-CD competition seeks a 20-millimeter laser-equipped Gatling machine gun designed to counter potential airborne threats, including unmanned aircraft systems, to naval ships. The report said the Babcock offering […] More

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded a contract to DRS Technologies to update the company’s ultra-small pixel infrared focal plane arrays under DARPA’s Lambda Scale program. The FPAs work to support the functions of cooled infrared sensors to address pilot situational awareness and visibility concerns, DRS said Monday. The company uses thin-film deposition technology and a high-density capacitance […] More

An Elbit Systems of America subsidiary has been awarded a $7.5 million contract to update C-26 aircraft used by the United States Naval Test Pilot School. M7 Aerospace LLC will install an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tool and a Finmeccanica-developed Vixen 500E AESA radar on the U.S. Navy aircraft, Elbit Systems of America said Monday. M7 aims to […] More

Finmeccanica subsidiary DRS Technologies has landed a $51 million subcontract from General Dynamics to provide support services for the U.K. armed forces’ tactical command, control, communications, computers and intelligence system. DRS said Monday it will provide rugged tactical displays, rugged computing technology upgrades, and associated services for the General Dynamics-supported Bowman tactical communications system that works to support secure radio, telephone, […] More

Raytheon has teamed up with CAE, Finmeccanica and Honeywell to introduce the T-100 training jet as part of their efforts to compete for the U.S. Air Force’s T-X trainer aircraft program. The T-100 aircraft is a variant of the Alenia Aermacchi-built M-346 training jet and comes with a ground-based training platform, Raytheon said Monday. Gene Colabatistto, group president for […] More

 TechNavio released a new report in February on global military manpack and vehicular radio systems that includes the research firm’s list of the top five vendors in the field and other prominent companies. The Global Military Manpack and Vehicular Radios Market 2016-2020 report named Barrett Communications, Finmeccanica, Harris, Radmor and Thales as the five key vendors in the market while Codan, Elbit Systems, […] More

Thales Alenia Space has been awarded an estimated $500 million contract to produce additional environmental monitoring and oceanographic satellites for the European Space Agency’s Earth observation program. The company will design, develop and test the Sentinel-3C and Sentinel-3D satellites under ESA’s Copernicus program headed by the European Commission, Thales Alenia Space said Feb. 9. Jean Loic […] More

The Center for a New American Security has appointed nine executives from the defense, consulting and financial industries to the organization’s board of advisers. CNAS said Thursday that each appointee will serve a three-year term and aims to help inform the debate over U.S. national security issues. “Their engagement on key topics will be invaluable to furthering […] More

The competition for new fighter jets to replace Canada’s CF-18 fleet faces a refresh as the Liberal party prepares to take over government on Nov. 4, Reuters reported Monday. Randall Palmer writes that incoming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ruled out the purchase of Lockheed Martin‘s F-35 and indicated plans to place savings onto naval ships. Other bids on […] More