The big news this week was the industry briefing for Land 400 in Melbourne. It’s always interesting to see the talk time that various issues get. For example, Australian industry content was a nonstarter allegedly. There is apparently ‘clear daylight’ between AIC and the capability to be delivered. Not so great news for SMEs I imagine. I will wait for the politics to enter the fray on that before completely dismissing the AIC importance weighting as the program progresses.
The other issue is who is teaming with who. BAE Systems with Patria and General Dynamics Land Systems with Thales Australia are the only contenders to have officially broken cover on who is teaming with who. The other teaming arrangements are understood to be Boeing and Iveco, Elbit Systems and ST Kinetics, Raytheon and Nexter, and Northrop Grumman and Rheinmetall. The cone of silence is currently in place for these at the moment.
In news this week in DWP, EOS is to refurbish their turrets on the Bushmaster fleet, how South Korea does defence and details of new scholarships and prizes in the Defence space.
Cheers,
Katherine Ziesing
Editor
M. 0419 014 308
T. 02 6203 9535
E. katherineziesing@yaffa.com.au
EOS to upgrade Bushmaster remote weapons system
Australia’s Electro Optic Systems (EOS) has won a $6.5 million contract to refurbish and upgrade 45 EOS remote weapons systems used on the Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle. more»
Why talk down Australian submarine capability?
If you believe everything you read in the media, you would think that Australia’s submarine capability is pretty woeful. more»
How South Korea does Defence
From a nation depending almost entirely on US-supplied equipment during the Korean War, South Korea has developed a national defence industry that now provides around 80 per cent of its own equipment and helped propel the nation in to the list of top 10 global national exporters in 2014. more»
Naval manufacturing scholarships
The University of Tasmania’s Australian Maritime College (AMC), the University of Wollongong (UoW) and Flinders University (FU), in collaboration with ASC Pty Ltd, Babcock International, PMB Defence Engineering, Thales Australia, DSTO and DMTC were recently awarded a three year research grant. more»
Progress on the NATO BMD program
DCNS has been selected - as part of a multinational industrial team led by the US company Leidos - to participate in the system engineering and the integration of the NATO Ballistic Missile Defence. more»
2015 Australian Museum Eureka Prize entries open
Entries and nominations are now open for the 2015 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, Australia’s premier national science awards program. more»
People on the move
MBDA is pleased to announce the appointment of Dave Armstrong MBE to the role of MBDA UK Managing Director and EGD Technical (Executive Group Director). more»
Defence Week Premium 339 PDF versions
The full version of Defence Week Premium no.339 of 12 March 2015 can be downloaded here as a PDF. A separate PDF of the latest Defence tenders can also be downloaded here. more»
