BAE Systems Investor Brief - September 2004
30 Sep 04
In this month's brief:
- DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE DIGITALNET
- CAPABILITY GREEN OPENING
- COMMISSIONING CEREMONY FOR FIRST TYPE 22 FRIGATE FOR ROMANIA
BAE SYSTEMS CONTRACT AWARDS THIS MONTH
- PRISM CONTRACT
- CONTRACT EXTENSION FOR ASTUTE TRAINING
- NAVSEA ENGINEERING SERVICES CONTRACT
- JAMMING SYSTEM FOR NAVY EA-6B PROWLER
- DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATE F-35 HELMET-MOUNTED DISPLAY
- RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY CONTRACT
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS - AMS
GENERAL NEWS
Definitive Agreement to Acquire DigitalNet
BAE Systems North America has reached a definitive agreement to purchase DigitalNet Holdings, Inc.
DigitalNet is a leading provider of networked infrastructure and information assurance solutions to federal government agencies such as the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury and State, as well as the national intelligence community.
The company also is recognised for its strategic consulting services, application development and integration, e-Government applications and strategies, and has experienced strong growth in web-based network centric applications. DigitalNet employs nearly 2,200 people primarily in the U.S. headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.
Capability Green opening
On Friday 10 September, HRH The Duke of York formally opened the new £50 million state-of-the-art facility at Capability Green in Luton. The new facility comprises two connected buildings covering 220,000 square feet and will employ 1,000 people.
Commissioning ceremony for first Type 22 frigate for Romania
Regele Ferdinand, the first of two Type 22 frigates for the Romanian Navy was officially handed over on 9 September in a ceremony attended by the Romanian President, Mr Illiescu, the Romanian Minister of Defence, Mr Pascu and the UK’s Minister for Defence Procurement Lord Bach at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, UK.
The second frigate, the Regina Maria is scheduled for handover in April 2005.
MAJOR PROGRAMMES UPDATES
Start of F-35 JSF Assembly
On 23 August, employees at Samlesbury started assembling the aft fuselage of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the next generation, supersonic, multi-role stealth aircraft.
This milestone marks the start of an assembly process which, during the summer of 2005, will see the BAE Systems JSF team delivering not only the aft fuselage but also the horizontal and vertical tails of the first aircraft.
Assembly of the first empennage is scheduled to start late September/early October 2004.
Hawk New Mission Computer
The Hawk New Development Aircraft ZJ951, flew for the first time on Friday 10th September with the new open architecture mission computer. The aircraft was flown well ahead of the planned demonstration to the Customer in November.
Early Installation for Astute Engines
The main diesel generators for the first of class Royal Navy submarine Astute have been shipped four days early, enabling a major payment milestone to be claimed.
BAE SYSTEMS CONTRACT AWARDS THIS MONTH
PRISM contract
BAE Systems Australia has signed a contract worth over $A12 million with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to deliver a cutting edge Australian designed and developed radar identification system.
PRISM, a Passive Radar Identification System, is an electronic sensor that uses the electromagnetic spectrum to gain information about other parties on the battlefield, or in this case, the maritime operating environment.
Contract extension for Astute training
Flagship Training Ltd, one of CS&S Naval’s joint venture companies, has been awarded a £20 million extension to their contract to deliver training for those operating the Astute class submarine.
The work is an extension of previous training contracts worth approximately £50 million. The packages will be delivered by Flagship using a purpose-built training facility at HMS Faslane base on the Clyde.
The training programmes will be designed over the next few years and Flagship will begin delivering the programmes in Spring 2007.
NAVSEA Engineering Services Contract
BAE Systems Technology Solutions has been awarded a $19.2 million Naval Systems Sea Command (NAVSEA) contract to provide engineering Professional Support Services (PSS) and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) technical and programmatic services in support of the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems, Integrated Combat Systems Division.
The total cumulative value of the task order under this Multiple Award Contract (MAC) is $96 million if all five one-year options are exercised.
Jamming System for Navy EA-6B Prowler
Information & Electronic Warfare Systems (IEWS) received an $8 million contract from the U.S. Navy to provide 25 AN/USQ-113 (V) 3 communications jamming systems for the EA-6B Prowler aircraft. The system provides the communications analysis and jamming component to the EA-6B’s Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission.
Development of Alternate F-35 Helmet-Mounted Display
BAE Systems Platform Solutions has been awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin for the initial design of an alternate helmet-mounted display (HMD) system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft.
This helmet design is based heavily on the design of the Eurofighter Typhoon binocular helmet, which is in the final stages of development. The F-35 JSF alternate HMD will be a high-resolution, binocular system driven by powerful processor and graphics processor modules.
Raytheon Aircraft Company contract
BAE Systems Aerostructures has secured an £85m life of programme design & build contract on the Hawker 800XP program, making it one of Raytheon’s top strategic partners, and successfully concludes the first phase of Aerostructures plan to grow the Raytheon business.
The contact covers the continued supply of doors, fuel tanks, flaps and elevators, as well as additional work packages for the rudder & tailplane assemblies, which will be built at the Prestwick site.
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS - AMS
Major SAMPSON Milestone
On 9 September, the first SAMPSON Multi-function radar was installed on the representative Type 45 mast at Cowes. The radar completed an extensive test programme in the antenna test facility prior to installation, marking a significant milestone for the project. Testing of the system has now begun in preparation for the integration of PAAMS next year.
The installation on the trials mast is a significant de-risk activity for the Type 45 programme.
CATT PDS BGTI Upgrade
Recently AMS signed a €13m contract with Prime Contractor, Lockheed Martin, to upgrade the Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT) Vehicle Specific Simulators (VSSs) by incorporating new Battle Group Thermal Imagers (BGTI).
CATT provides an alternative to costly live training by combining high fidelity simulators, visual databases and computer-generated forces to support realistic virtual training exercises.
AMS has been a major sub-contractor to Lockheed on the CATT programme since 1996, supplying initial design and development of VSSs, visual database models and contractor logistics support.
Type 45 Tactical Data Link
AMS have been awarded a €9.2m contract change to implement an alternative tactical data link solution (TDLS) for the Type 45 destroyer. The TDLS, based on the Aerosystems International CAYMAN product will be hosted on common Combat Management System (CMS) hardware. This demonstrates AMS's commitment to open systems, and the use of a core CMS architecture, which allows for the integration of third party applications.
GRIPEN INTERNATIONAL
Gripens for four Air Forces take shap
Gripen fighters for four different countries are in various stages of assembly at Saab in Linköping, representing aircraft for the Swedish, Czech, South African and Hungarian Air Forces.
Gripen Fighters Arrive in South Africa
Two Gripen fighter aircraft have arrived in South Africa (SA) where they will participate in the bi-annual African Aerospace & Defence show, to be staged in Pretoria next week.
During their campaign in South Africa the aircraft, one a single-seat fighter, the other a dual-seat version, will visit Air Force Base Makhado (formerly Louis Trichardt), the SA Air Force’s main fighter base in the Limpopo Province.
South Africa has ordered 28 Gripen fighters – 9 dual seat operational type conversion variants and 19 single-seat aircraft – which will be delivered into SA Air Force service from 2008.
