EADS is keen to make “reasonable” acquisitions in the field of defense security and services in the U.S. over the next few years, Chief Executive Louis Gallois said over the weekend.
The U.S. has the largest defense budget in the world and EADS has been trying for years to win a bigger share of that market. [...]
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EADS is keen to make defense acquisitions in the U.S.
White House To Streamline Arms Export License Process
U.S. President Barack Obama plans to send Congress legislation this year to create a single agency to issue arms export licenses, the chief of the National Security Council said June 30.
The new agency would take over licensing tasks from the Departments of State, Commerce and Treasury, said James Jones, Obama’s national security adviser.
The move is [...]
New agency will house export rules
National Security Adviser James Jones on Wednesday announced the creation of a new and independent agency that will merge all export licensing activities under a board of directors reporting to the president.
The move, backed by some of the nation’s most powerful trade associations and companies, is part of the Obama administration’s sweeping effort to overhaul [...]
Pentagon: high-tech intelligence tools more than big guns and heavy armor
Boeing has agreed to acquire Argon ST for USD775 million in a deal value that exceeds previous estimates for the C4ISR specialist, reflecting strong rival bidding from Boeing’s peers. This acquisition reflect a shift by defense contractors seeking to accommodate a Pentagon that now wants high-tech intelligence tools as much or more than big guns [...]
Military Video Surveillance Systems Market $7.7bn in 2010
Full-Motion Video for ISR’ reveals one of the new emerging technologies to come out of the growth in ground and airborne surveillance and in particular the increase in UAV deployment.
Assessed is that worldwide sales of military video surveillance systems will reach a total value of $7.7bn in 2010 and expects to see continuing demand in [...]
In Europe, U.S. Allies Target Defense Budgets
European governments’ budget-slashing efforts are expected to cut deep into the Continent’s defense spending, widening the gulf between U.S. and European military capabilities.
Governments in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, in rolling out recent austerity measures in response to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, have promised that their militaries won’t be spared in coming spending cuts. Last [...]
SWIM SUIT prototype delivered
SWIM-SUIT, which has a value of 12 million Euros, relied on a contribution of about 50% from the European Commission. The project, born within the 6 Framework programme of the European Union, represents one of the SESAR programme technological pillars for the realisation of a Single European Sky.
After a three year study, SELEX Sistemi Integrati, [...]
U.S. Signs 2nd-Stage U.S.-EU Aviation Agreement
Cynthia Stroum, the US Ambassador to Luxembourg and Susan Kurland, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs, along with representatives of the European Union (EU) and its 27 member nations, today formally signed an aviation agreement that continues the expansion of air services set in place by the 2007 U.S.-EU [...]
U.S. and EU Sign Deal to Boost Cooperation on Air Traffic
The U.S. and the European Union expect to sign as soon as Friday an agreement that will increase cooperation on their new-generation systems for highly efficient air-traffic management, people close to the talks say.
Authorities from both sides of the Atlantic have been working for years to develop satellite-based navigation equipment that will enable pilots to [...]
EU nations decide on airport body scanners
European Union nations should decide on their own whether to use body scanners at airports, but the technology employed must be up to EU standards.
“It is for each member state to decide to authorise the use of scanners in national airports. That will not change,” Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said in a statement.
“But where this [...]
Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier: $140 M to DRS for Thermal Sights
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US PEO Soldier Initiative
Program Executive Officer (PEO) Soldier
Rapid Fielding Initiative (RFI)
DRS Receives $140 M for Thermal Sights
About the Technology
Terry Murphy quote
1. US PEO Soldier Initiative
PEO Soldier’s vision is to be the center of excellence for delivering Soldier warfighting capability to dominate the battlefield across the full spectrum of war. PEO Soldier remains focused directly and [...]
Italy Navy Launches EU Operations Command Center
The Italian Navy has launched a new land-based command facility that will be offered for use controlling European Union naval operations.
Established at the Navy’s fleet command center at Santa Rosa, north of Rome, the new center has reached initial operating capability and will be fully operational in the first half of 2011, officials said.
The first [...]
Presidential Helicopter Neverending Story
Presidential helicopters stand as a talisman, embodying the nuclear mission of the armed forces, America’s technological prowess and our government’s nearly religious concern for presidential safety.
Buying a foreign helicopter would seem downright unpatriotic to many Americans. But the government decided to buy just such a helicopter last time, the ill-fated VH-71. True, Lockheed Martin was [...]
Obama Administration Unveils Security Strategy
The Obama administration Thursday unveiled its new national security strategy, recognizing the need for military force but as a last resort and stressing the need to increase international diplomatic cooperation.
President Barack Obama said in the 52-page document the military should be used but not overextended. And taking a wider view of national security, Mr. Obama [...]
G8/G20 security bill to hit $833 million
CTV News has learned that Ottawa expects to spend $833 million on security for next month’s G8 and G20 summits.
[montreal.ctv.ca] In March, the federal government had allocated $179 million for its security budget. But under new estimates that will be introduced in the House of Commons later Tuesday, these costs should increase by $654 million [...]
US Cyber Command Is Operational
U.S. Cyber Command, a subordinate unit of U.S. Strategic Command, is in its initial operating capability. The command is expected to be fully operational by October, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Rene White.
Army Gen. Keith Alexander, recently confirmed to lead the command, now officially steps into those shoes after receiving his fourth star Friday in a [...]
Finmeccanica reorganises some activities in the Defence Electronics & Security and Space sectors
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In line with its programme to optimise its industrial structures in the Defence Electronics & Security and Space sectors, previously announced at the shareholders’ meeting, Finmeccanica will launch a rationalisation process intended to improve the business organisation and industrial performance of the companies involved.
In particular, the organisational rationalisation will involve a [...]
Experts group presents report on new Strategic Concept for NATO (doc to download)
On 17 May, the Group of Experts appointed by Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to lay the groundwork for a New Strategic Concept for NATO presented its analysis and recommendations to the North Atlantic Council (NAC).
Speaking to the Council, the Secretary General thanked the experts for their hard work. “The group has … reached out beyond [...]
TSA’s job is to scan only for explosives, not weapons
Guns found in US professor’s luggage by Egypt customs
Police in Egypt have arrested an Egyptian-American academic discovered to have several weapons in his luggage as he arrived on a flight from the New York’s JFK airport.
Officials said they saw the man, named as Mohammed Ibrahim Marei, a professor of botany, “behaving nervously” as he waited [...]
Anti-piracy efforts treat symptom, not disease
Navies can intercept Somali pirate skiffs and foil hijackings but fighting waves of attacks at sea will not solve the problem, which is rooted in instability on land in Somalia, naval leaders say.
Anti-piracy efforts “will not actually resolve the base problem of why piracy is occurring … That solution lies in the stabilisation” of Somalia, [...]
New UK National Security Council Established
The inaugural meeting of a National Security Council, which will discuss the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be chaired by Prime Minister David Cameron today, Wednesday 12 May 2010.The National Security Council (NSC) being established by the Prime Minister will oversee all aspects of Britain’s security and the council will also be reviewing the [...]
Little Progress Made On Afghan Surveillance Effort
Nine months after the Army’s U.S. Central Command formally declared that there was an “urgent need” for sophisticated electronic surveillance systems to be installed throughout Afghanistan to protect U.S. forward operating bases, little has happened, according to senior Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee.
At issue are tower-based systems designed to be placed around forward [...]
Multi Billion Programmes – Middle East and North Africa Developing Defences
Local arms manufacturing in the Middle East and North Africa region is set to grow. Robert Bailey outlines some of the projects and collaborations that are underway
Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) defence industries are becoming more self reliant as they shift from direct equipment purchases to local production. Where technology transfer has for more [...]
Finmeccanica warms to UK alliances
The head of Italy’s largest defence group says his country should co-operate with the UK on a new generation of unmanned aircraft, helicopters and warships.
Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, chief executive and chairman of Finmeccanica, argues the two countries are the best fit in Europe given their similar foreign policies and common defence equipment programmes.
“All the focus [...]
DoD Proposes Conflicts-of-Interest Rule for Procurements
The U.S. Defense Department on April 22 released a long-anticipated proposed rule outlining how it will police conflicts of interest in procurement.
The proposed rule on organizational conflicts of interest is part of the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act, made law in May 2009. The act directed DoD to create consistent guidance on conflicts resulting from [...]
Arming Commercial Vessels to Combat Piracy ?
Navy Adm. Mark P. Fitzgerald, commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe and Africa and of NATO’s Allied Joint Task Force Command Naples, told Pentagon reporters that the scope of the piracy problem is too great to be policed by military vessels alone and suggested that commercial vessels should arm themselves when traveling through pirate-infested [...]
DHS: Improved Standards to Protect Federal Facilities
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced two enhancements to federal facility security—initiatives that further strengthen the Department’s ability to protect thousands of government buildings across the United States one week prior to the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The DHS-led Interagency Security Committee (ISC) released new standards establishing baseline physical security [...]
DEFENSE AND NON-PROLIFERATION : U.S.-EU HIGHLIGHTS
Global Leaders Endorse Securing of All Nuclear Material by 2014 – Following two days of meetings in Washington, leaders from around the world agreed to take tangible and meaningful steps to secure the world’s nuclear materials. President Obama, who initiated the global effort in a speech in Prague in April 2009, called the collective agreement [...]
“Italy was right decision” interview to Mark S. Newman, DRS CEO
The marriage between Finmeccanica and DRS Technologies, the U.S. military electronics company bought in 2008 for 3.7 billion euros’ is successful, although there is still much to do. Moreover Rome was not built in a day, “says the CEO of DRS, Mark S. Newman, who, after having sold his block of shares to Finmeccanica, making [...]
Problems with LCS ships ?
The U.S. Navy sees the launch and recovery of smaller boats as a “major risk” to both competing designs for its new Littoral Combat Ship program, a congressional watchdog agency said on Tuesday.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the research arm of Congress, said the Navy’s risk assessment was troubling, given that watercraft launch and recovery [...]