BAE Systems Investor Brief

Parliamentary Defence Committee
Submarines managing director Murray Easton has appeared before the UK Parliamentary Defence Committee to give evidence towards their deliberations on whether to replace the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Murray informed the committee that a delay in ordering replacement Trident missile submarines for the 2020s would have a significant impact on Submarines' ability to design and build nuclear boats for the UK. Design work on Astute submarines would soon run out and design and draughting staff would become available next year for new work on the future aircraft carriers or replacement Trident submarines, otherwise key skills could be lost.

New Australian facility
CS&S Australia has opened a state-of-the-art unmanned aerial system test and integration facility in West Sale, Victoria. The facility will be used for the development, integration and operation of current and future unmanned aerial systems.

This is the only facility in Australia that has permanently allocated civil airspace for UAS flying. It will enable BAE Systems to effectively test technologies in civil and military airspace and will position BAE Systems as a valuable in-country support provider to the Australian Defence Force for the Air 7000 Maritime Patrol and Response program and Air 6000 Phase 2 New Air Combat Capability Complementary Systems program.

Chief of Defence Logistics (CDL) commendation for Partnered Working
A joint MoD / Industry working group (the Joint Engagement Group) involving CS&S Logistics & Information Systems (L&IS), has been selected for a CDL Commendation for the successful conclusion to their coherence project that saw the establishment of the Logistics Coherence Information Architecture (LCIA).

National award
A cross-functional Submarines team, supported by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and business and academic representatives, has won a national award for its study into the fragility of the UK's submarine equipment supply chain. The team won the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply's Best Cross Functional Teamwork award for its work on identifying the risk to the business of failure in the supply chain.

MAJOR PROGRAMMES UPDATE

F-35 Lightning II
BAE Systems began assembly of the vertical and horizontal tails for the first F-35 Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft. Both left-hand and right-hand vertical tails are currently undergoing sub-assembly operations and are expected to be loaded into jig in November. Assembly activity for the left-hand horizontal tail has also started.

Nimrod MRA4 successful return home
Following a six week 'workout' at Eglin Air Force base in Florida to prove the maturity and reliability of the MRA4 at extremes of temperature, ranging from -40 degrees Centigrade to +45 degrees, the programme's second development aircraft, PA2, landed safely back in the UK at Air Systems' Woodford site, near Manchester, on Thursday 16 November.

The work will help considerably in continuing to prove the maturity of the Nimrod MRA4, and also support the customer's growing confidence in the platform.

Bahrain Hawk
On Friday 10 November 2006, the second batch of Bahraini Hawks was officially accepted by the Bahrain Defence Force at a ceremony held at BAE Systems Warton. Since the acceptance the aircraft have undergone final preparation for their journey to Bahrain, where they will join the first batch of aircraft which arrived in country in October 2006.

Canadian Hawk reaches 3,000 hours
A BAE Systems Hawk, operating in the NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) programme, has recently achieved the milestone of 3,000 flying hours, becoming the first of the latest generation Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer to do so.

Even more impressive is the fact that the aircraft has achieved this feat in just six years! In addition, four other Hawks in the fleet, which are all based at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and Cold Lake, Alberta, are also close to reaching this milestone.

First Indian Hawks start final assembly
The first two Hawks Advanced Jet Trainers destined for the Indian Air Force have been delivered by BAE Systems Brough to Warton, where they will undergo final assembly and flight test. These are the first of 24 aircraft that will be built by BAE Systems, with the remaining 42 aircraft being built in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

The first aircraft is due to make its first flight before the end of the year and is scheduled to be delivered to the customer in September 2007 following a period of flight testing.

HERTI UAV flight trials
Air Systems' latest HERTI 1B Autonomous Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) Demonstrator had a successful first flight at Woomera test range, South Australia on 5 November 2006. A number of successful flight trials have now been carried out demonstrating the system's ability to successfully autonomously search a pre-defined target area for objects such as operationally representative targets and alert the operator to their presence.

Type 45 Project: First of Class, Daring
Thursday 16 November marked a significant event for the First of Class when Her Royal Highness, The Countess of Wessex and Lady Sponsor, switched on the diesel generators and brought the ship to life.

Ship 2, Dauntless
Preparations are moving forward for the launch of Dauntless on 23 January 2007 and the Lady Sponsor, Lady Mary Burnell-Nugent, visited on Friday 17 November to see the ship's progress.

3000th M113 A3 Family of Vehicles (FOV)
In October 2006, the BAE Systems Vehicle Upgrade Facility in Anniston converted its 3000th tracked vehicle for the Army. Since 1994 BAE Systems has been converting the M113 FOV from the A2 to A3 configuration. The M113 Family of Vehicles includes approximately 10 variants of armored tracked vehicles used in a variety of combat and combat support roles.

The upgrade allows the M113 to match speeds with the Bradley Fighting Vehicle System and the M1 Main Battle Tank and also provides better armor protection for the soldiers. The M113 is the US Army's most prolific system and will remain in the fleet until 2051.

Future Combat System
BAE Systems is responding to a formal Request for Proposal from the Lead System Integrator for a light weight track for the Future Combat System. BAE Systems is teaming with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Concurrent Technologies Corporation in this effort. BAE Systems has designed and/or developed every major track system fielded by the US Army in the past 35 years.

CONTRACT AWARDS THIS MONTH

Typhoon support
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded BAE Systems a contract worth £5.4m to combine scheduled maintenance of Typhoon aircraft with the current upgrade programme already underway at Warton site. By combining both the scheduled maintenance and the upgrade programme into one, six additional aircraft can potentially be made available for front line duties, delivering both increased efficiency and effectiveness to the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF).

The Whole Aircraft Scheduled Maintenance and Upgrade programme, named WASMU for ease, represents the first contractual step of the Typhoon Partnered Support programme and paves the way for BAE Systems to deploy further support capability to the RAF's front line Typhoon Unit. The contract supports the underlying principles behind the Government's Defence Industrial Strategy by strengthening through-life support and ensuring continued sovereign capability.

Armed Forces cargo movement contract
BAE Systems Information Technology, teamed with Ingenium Corporation and ResQSoft, is supporting efforts to modernize the Armed Forces' Cargo Movement Operation System (CMOS).

Used to track the receipt and movement of cargo by the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, CMOS is currently a client server based application currently maintained by the Air Force's 754th Electronics Systems Group (part of the Electronics Systems Center). The outcome of this project, produced by the Ingenium, BAE Systems and ResQSoft team, will be a modernized, web-enabled version of CMOS that reduces maintenance costs to the US Air Force (USAF) customer bringing a more effective and accessible cargo tracking application to the joint logistics and transportation arena.

Attack pod tester for US Air Force
National Security Solutions has been selected to produce electronic attack pod testing equipment to protect US Air Force F-15, F-16, and A-10 aircraft. The $3.3m contract for the Electronic Attack Improved Avionics Intermediate Shop (EA-IAIS) transitions a full-scale development tester to a production-ready station to test ALQ-131 and ALQ-184 electronic attack pods.
The pods provide self-protection for combat aircraft and aircrews against radio frequency threats such as radar-guided missiles. The countermeasure pods can selectively direct high-power jamming against radio frequency emitters, effectively blinding or spoofing an enemy's targeting abilities.

SWMLU Project awarded £26m contract amendment
The Seawolf Mid-Life Update (SWMLU) project has been awarded a significant order worth over £26m. Seawolf is a point defence missile system fitted to the Royal Navy's Type 22 and Type 23 frigates using a short-range supersonic missile. The amendment will increase the scope of the current contract considerably, extending it from a development and production contract to one of an unbroken service from waterfront through to acceptance.

The additional scope includes; additional development, the removal and refitting of the system on-board, modification of the remaining legacy items and refurbishment. This latest amendment will help the Royal Navy to sustain the system in service beyond 2020. This latest order brings the value of the SWMLU Contract to over £290m.

Contract for US ARTIST Demonstrator
Insyte has been awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin to develop a Signal and Waveform Generation Subsystem for the US ARTIST demonstrator. ARTIST is a collaborative programme between the UK and US Navies and is looking at what technology and research might be available over the next 10-15 years to pull through into existing and future radar products. The ARTIST programme is addressing gaps between current performance and increased future requirements. The value of this contract is £2.6m, and delivery to Lockheed Martin will take place at the end of 2007.

Two delivery orders for Bradley Training Systems
BAE Systems has received two delivery orders worth up to $19.3m from the US Army Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training and Instrumentation. The orders cover Conduct of Fire Trainers (COFT) and Bradley Advanced Training Systems (BATS). BAE Systems will upgrade the Army's Bradley A2 and A2 Operation Desert Storm COFT in its Orlando, Fla. facility.

In a separate order worth $14.4m, BAE Systems will develop 10 new BATS-Urban Operations and enhance 24 existing training devices.

Contract modification to manufacture additional Iraqi Light Armored Vehicles
BAE Systems has received a $7.8m Foreign Military Sales contract modification to manufacture 20 additional Iraqi Light Armored Vehicles from the US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command.

BAE Systems, as prime contractor, along with subcontractors Force Protection, Inc., based in Ladson, S.C., and Spartan Chassis, Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, Mich., will manufacture, test and provide logistics support for the Iraqi Light Armored Vehicles (ILAVs). The total value of the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract could reach $445.4m and 1,050 vehicles, if all options are exercised.

Work on the contract is ongoing with deliveries scheduled to continue through May 2007. The first ILAV's were delivered to Iraq 90 days after contract award.

Contract modification to conduct home station reset of M113 vehicles
BAE Systems has received an $18.6m contract modification to reset M113 vehicles at various military installations throughout the US The contract, from the US Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command Life Cycle Management Command, covers the Home Station Reset of M113 vehicles at Fort Hood, Texas and Fort Stewart, Ga. Work will begin immediately and continue through December 2007.

$251m contract for M88 reman work
BAE Systems received a $251m contract to remanufacture 113 M88A2s, provide spare parts and extend System Technical Support for the US Army. Work will begin immediately at the company's York, Pa. facility, with vehicle deliveries scheduled to begin in December 2007 and continuing through November 2009.

This is the largest continuous production run of M88A2 vehicles since the program began. The contract provides for two options worth up to an additional $18.9m to remanufacture eight additional vehicles for the US Army and two for the US Marine Corps.

Two contracts from the US Navy for new and refurbished canisters
BAE Systems has received two contracts from the US Navy totaling more than $25m for missile launching canisters. The first contract is in the amount of $16.3m, which includes manufacturing 155 new Mk 13 canisters and refurbishing an additional 75 Mk 13 canisters. The second contract is for $9.1m and is for manufacturing 28 new Mk 25 canisters.


	Disclaimer - Privacy Statement	Back to Top