Alcon Components Ltd, the highly acclaimed UK-based brake and clutch company, has been selected by the Italian specialist vehicle company, Tekne, to deliver a bespoke braking solution for their Graelion off-road multi-purpose vehicle. To meet Tekne’s demanding requirements, Alcon have selected a caliper from their CIR15 family, for use on all corners. The CIR15 caliper has been proven on serious off-road use cases in numerous applications, across a multitude of sectors.  Alcon’s relationship with Tekne reaches back to 2020 when they supplied off-the-shelf brake kits for Toyota Land Cruise ..read more

Galvion, a world leader in integrated head systems and intelligent power and data management solutions, has received three (3) new orders for its Batlskin Caiman® head system through its NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) framework contract. These latest orders, combined with previously announced orders from Norway, Finland and Sweden, take the total number of helmet systems ordered by NATO countries to over 125,000, with tens of thousands more in the pipeline. In December 2022, Galvion was awarded a framework contract by NSPA that facilitates the procurement of its high performance Ba ..read more

Saildrone announced a strategic partnership with Thales Australia to integrate the Thales BlueSentry thin-line towed array with Saildrone Surveyor-class uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) for autonomous anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions. The announcement was made at the opening of Sea Air Space 2024, the premiere maritime exposition in the US, presented by the Navy League of the United States. The Saildrone Surveyor is the largest in the Saildrone range of USVs and is capable of extreme, long-endurance missions in the open ocean. Equipped with the newest evolution of Thales’s BlueSentry towe ..read more

KNDS, a leading European manufacturer of military land systems based in Amsterdam, has formally renamed its Group companies Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG and Nexter Systems S. A. with effect from 8 April 2024. Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG now operates as KNDS Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, Nexter Systems S. A. as KNDS France S. A.. As part of these renamings, the names of the German, French, British, Italian and Belgian subsidiaries of KNDS France and KNDS Deutschland have also been legally adapted. For all other subsidiaries of the Group, the name changes will be implemen ..read more

Northrop Grumman Corporation completed assembly of a full-size uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) prototype known as Manta Ray. A new class of UUV, it is an extra-large glider that will operate long-duration, long-range and payload-capable undersea missions without need for on-site human logistics. Manta Ray was built through a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program aimed at advancing key technologies to benefit future UUV designs, including techniques to manage energy, increased payload capacity, low-power propulsion and more. For more information about Manta Ray ..read more

On April 8, 2024, the US Marines awarded BAE Systems a contract to build its Recovery variant of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) family.  The $78 million effort will have BAE build and deliver production representative Recovery variants of the ACV which will undergo Marine evaluation later in 2024. This contract is a follow-on to the previous design and development contract. Garrett Lacaillade, vice president of amphibious programs at BAE Systems, shared “The ACV-R is a modern, highly capable recovery and mobile repair unit that provides critical expeditionary support to immobilized A ..read more

Cambridge Pixel announces it has been chosen by Frontier Electronic Systems (FES) to continue providing its advanced radar scan conversion solution, following their award of a $94M IDIQ contract by the US Navy. FES will provide hardware and engineering services for Navy ship data distribution systems using their AN/SPQ-15(V) DDS architecture and incorporating Cambridge Pixel’s radar processing and scan conversion software. The DDS architecture allows for a direct interface to standard US Navy radars and IFF sensors, allowing analogue radar signals to be received and converted into radar images ..read more

The undersea battlespace remains critical to UK security and interests, a senior Royal Navy (RN) officer told a major underwater defence show in London. Giving a keynote address at the annual Undersea Defence Technology (UDT) exhibition – taking place this year at London’s ExCel events centre – Rear Admiral James Parkin said “Nowhere – nowhere – is more important than the underwater domain.” As the RN’s Director Develop, Rear Adm Parkin is responsible for harnessing new concepts and technologies to improve RN capabilities across all domains. Primarily, this includes the weapons and sensors – b ..read more

Japan’s Ground Self Defense Force (JGSDF) has taken a major step in its consideration of the potential roles and contribution of Unmanned Ground Vehicle systems in its awarding a contract to Rheinmetall for its Mission Master UGVs. The acquisition of three Mission Master Silent Partner (SP) models from Rheinmetall Canada was made in a multi-million contract from the Japanese Ministry of Defense. The JGSDF has selected to acquire one each of the cargo, surveillance and remote controlled weapon station variants. Delivery is to be provided to support evaluations intended to begin in early 2025. R ..read more

The US Navy (USN) has forward deployed its first MQ-4C Triton uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) into the European theatre, at Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella, Sicily, Italy. A Triton vehicle arrived at Sigonella at the end of March. The arrival of such capability under US Sixth Fleet’s area of operations (AOO) demonstrates how the USN is expanding the role of UAS operations in this AOO and beyond, US Sixth Fleet said in a statement. The Northrop Grumman-made Triton system is a high-altitude, long-endurance UAS designed to augment USN intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabili ..read more