New UK missile contracts and info

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4559339&c=LAN&s=TOP
et Trainers, Helos, Missiles Top Latest Round of U.K. Contracts
By andrew chuter
Published: 29 Mar 2010 15:22
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LONDON – Britain’s Ministry of Defence has announced a number of weapon contracts including a maintenance deal with BAE Systems to support new Hawk jet trainers, long-lead items for a Chinook helicopter purchase from Boeing and an agreement with MBDA to deliver several complex weapon programs.
The support deal for the new Hawk T Mk2 trainer jets is worth 120 million pounds to BAE and subcontractor Babcock Defence.

An availability and maintenance deal with Rolls-Royce to support the RB199 engines used on the Tornado strike aircraft was meant to have been included in the announcement but Treasury officials did not sign off the agreement earlier today in time for it to be included in a statement to Parliament by Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth.
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* Europe
* Air Warfare
* Land Warfare
* Naval Warfare

Today’s announcements were the latest, and probably last, in a flurry of contracts unveiled by the MoD in the last week ahead of the government calling a general election. Last week’s deals included a decision to buy three Boeing 707-based Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft from the U.S. government to replace the current Nimrod R1 fleet, the purchase of a new generation of armored vehicles from General Dynamics UK, and a deal with BAE for the assessment phase of a program to build a fleet of frigates.

Today, the Ministry of Defence announced a further raft of deals predominantly to meet Royal Air Force requirements.

Top of the list is a 330 million pound ($492 million) contract with missile maker MBDA to demonstrate and deliver a loitering munition known as Fire Shadow for the British Army. The man-in-the-loop weapon, which is capable of loitering for hours before being called in to strike moving vehicles and other targets, could be ready for fielding in Afghanistan by early 2012.

The second weapon is an advanced variant of the Brimstone dual mode air-to-surface missile operated by the RAF on its fleet of Tornado and Harrier GR9 strike aircraft. Known as the Selective Precision Effects At Range (Spear) Capability 2, Block 1, the weapon is expected to be available in a similar timeframe to the loitering munition.

Further assessment phase work on two other weapons is also part of the 330 million pound long-term partnering agreement with MBDA.

The 24-month assessment phase covers a long-range mini-cruise type weapon, called SPEAR Capability 3, to equip British Joint Strike Fighters and the Future Local Area Air Defence System (FLAADS) to replace Sea Wolf on the Royal Navy’s next generation of Future Surface Combatant frigates. Variants of the weapon could also find land and air-to-air applications.

MBDA and the MoD have signed what they describe as an interim Portfolio Management Agreement to push through a range of projects potentially worth up to 4 billion pounds over the next 10 years.

Other programs that may be involved include an update of the Storm Shadow cruise missile and a possible new Anglo-French anti-surface guided weapon for the two nation’s naval helicopter forces. The latter deal is currently in the assessment phase.

The support deal for the new Hawk T Mk2 trainer jets, worth 120 million pounds to BAE and subcontractor Babcock Defence, will run out to March 2014.

A deal to begin purchasing long-lead items for the first 10 of 22 Chinook helicopters the British plan to buy to boost their fleet of twin-rotor machines has also been signed. Ainsworth said the contract for initial design and long-lead work will protect the critical path to delivery of the 10 aircraft in 2012 and 2013.

Boeing said in a statement the contract covers long-lead items such as “transmissions and fuselages, along with non-recurring engineering costs for UK aircraft specific design.”

On the much delayed and over budget Airbus Military A400M airlifter, Ainsworth said the in-service date for the RAF had been set at 2015. Defence Procurement Minister Quentin Davies last week said he expected the first A400M to arrive in 2014 and it was even possible Britain could get a “Christmas present” with the delivery of an aircraft late the previous year.

Britain originally ordered 25 aircraft. That number is expected to shrink to a minimum of 22 after the MoD reduced the number of aircraft to be delivered to pay its portion of increased development costs.

Despite the fact Britain’s C-130K fleet will go out of service in 2012, Ainsworth said that the recent procurement of a seventh C-17 and an upgraded C-130J fleet of 24 aircraft would be able to meet airlift requirements for current operations.

Analysts here reckoned that view was very optimistic given the volume of airlift required to support British efforts in Afghanistan and the fragile nature of some of the RAF’s aging airlifters, such as the Tristar.

Britain would likely have to lease additional capability on its own or join forces with other A400m partners like France to come up with a short-term fix, said the analysts.

LMM and all the various missiles seem to have survived from team complex weapon and they seem to have add a another missile a small cruise missile for the F-35. In all quite good news. Also a small reduction in A-400 numbers