France is offering the Heron TP as its contribution in kind to the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance program, but technical and financial problems related to adapting the medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAV to French standards are holding up a deal with Dassault and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), industrial and political sources said.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told the French aerospace journalists’ press club that the deal would be sealed by “the end of 2012.”

That’s later than expected by industry and parliamentary [...]

Lockheed Martin’s Space System Co. in Newtown Township has been awarded a $238 million U.S. Air Force contract to produce two more satellites for the next generation Global Positioning System, also known as GPS III.

The satellites covered by the contract are the third and fourth on the program. Lockheed Martin received a similar contract in May 2008 for the first two GPS III satellites, with the opportunity to build 10 more. The first satellite  is scheduled to launch in 2014.

The [...]

The French defence ministry’s integrated structure for through-life support of aeronautical equipment (SIMMAD) has awarded Thales the contract to support its equipment on board the Rafale aircraft in service with the French Air Force and French Navy.

The ten-year contract, known as MAESTRO, is a renewal of the current through-life support contract and broadens the scope of responsibility to ensure that Thales works more closely with operational personnel to guarantee fleet availability.

Under the terms of the contract, Thales is responsible for [...]

A report from the Pentagon’s top tester released Friday said the Air Force grounded its F-22 Raptors last year “due to suspected contamination problems associated with the aircraft environmental control system and associated onboard oxygen generation system form later April through late September 2011.”

Complied by the Pentagon’s chief operational tester J. Michael Gilmore, the review confirms Air Force Times’ July 25, 2011, report that toxins entering the cockpit of the Raptor had caused more than a dozen incidents that resembled [...]

The French defence procurement agency (DGA) has taken delivery of the third Mistral-class projection and command (BPC) ship, Dixmude, three months ahead of the initial contract schedule.

The delivery follows the DGA order for the BPC Dixmude vessel in April 2009 as part of an economic stimulus package. The vessel was developed at the STX France shipyard in Saint-Nazaire in cooperation with DCNS. The keel was laid in January 2010 and launched in late 2010, with commissioning scheduled to take place [...]

The maritime variant of the AgustaWestland AW159 Lynx Wildcat helicopter has made its first landing aboard a frigate at sea, marking the start of a month-long series of trials off southern England, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 12 January.

According to a ministry statement, prototype aircraft ZZ402, a Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft (SCMR) variant Lynx Wildcat, will undergo a series of flying and deck-handling trials aboard the Type 23 frigate HMS Iron Duke (F 234) in the English [...]

The US Navy has awarded Raytheon a contract modification worth $80.8 million in support of the AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar acquired by the Royal Australian Navy.
The ALFS (Airborne Low Frequency Sonar) is an advanced integrated sonobuoy processing and dipping system that will be incorporated in the MH-60R multimission helicopter used by the US Navy.The ALFS, contract symbolizes Raytheon’s first international sale of the airborne anti-submarine warfare sensor.
The ALFS will provide submarine detection, localization, tracking, classification, underwater communication, acoustic intercept [...]

The US Navy has received the missile range instrumentation ship USNS Howard O. Lorenzen (T-AGM 25), which is slated to replace the existing USNS Observation Island (T-AGM-23) ship, from VT Halter Marine.

Delivery of the new frigate follows the US Navy’s initial $199m contract awarded to VT Halter in 2006 and the ship had been under construction since August 2008. VT Halter laid the keel for T-AGM 25 in June 2008 and the vessel was christened in June 2010. USNS Howard’s [...]

The US Army has awarded BAE Systems a $15.8m contract for the manufacture and supply of XSBI hard body armour technology. XSBI plates are placed inside troop vests and boost the level of protection supplied to beyond that achievable through just wearing soft armour.

In March 2011, BAE Systems announced that it had just rolled its one millionth SAPI (Small Arms Protective Insert) – the forerunner of the company’s XSBI technology. Like the original SAPI, XSBI is intended to supply warfighters [...]

The defence secretary has justified the decision to axe a further 4,200 jobs from the armed forces by insisting he had “no choice” because of the appalling state of military finances.

As the Ministry of Defence confirmed details of the second tranche of a painful redundancy programme, Philip Hammond also claimed the new cuts would not affect operations in Afghanistan.

In a statement, the MoD revealed it was looking to shed 2,900 posts from the army, around 1,000 from the RAF and [...]