NHIndustries and its partner companies comprising Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo and Fokker have signed a contract to deliver an upgraded version of the NH90 Tactical Troop Helicopter (TTH) to France.

The companies signed the firm contract with the NATO Helicopter Management Agency.

Under the agreement, the final batch of ten NH90s helicopters, previously ordered by the French Ministry of Armed Force, will be delivered in TFRA Standard 2 configuration at the beginning of 2025. The helicopters will be used by the French Special Forces.

Honeywell has received a five-year contract to maintain T55-GA-714A engines that are used to power the US Army’s Chinook helicopters.

The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract encompasses repair and overhauling works to ensure the availability of spare engines for the Chinook fleet in order to support the US Army’s future missions and overall readiness.

The T55 engines will be serviced at Honeywell’s new maintenance facility at its aerospace global headquarters in Phoenix. 

The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has awarded WFEL a contract for 17 sets of its MGB Medium Girder Bridges worth more than £46m.

Under the contract, the first two bridging sets will be delivered by 2021, with the rest due to be fulfilled by December 2025.

The MGB bridging sets will be used to support planned STRIKE Brigades manoeuvre capabilities. The contract followed a review of the MOD’s gap crossing capabilities, which was drawn up with a view to streamline bridging capabilities.

The new systems will be used by the Royal Engineers for both military operations and emergency relief situations.

Australia has selected Airbus for the communications and mission system upgrade for A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) fleet of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

The work covers a retrofit package, which includes communications capabilities and enhanced mission systems to help ensure the systems adhere to the latest enhanced A330 MRTT standard.

Phase one of the work is split into two contracts and Airbus will conduct the design and systems development and integration before the critical design review maturity gate.

Under phase two, Airbus will deliver a prototype aircraft, which will be used for certification and qualification processes. Following the delivery of the prototype, the modification kits will be finalised and supplied to the entire fleet.

L3Harris Technologies has won a contract worth $193m from the Space Development Agency (SDA) for the development and integration of an end-to-end satellite system.

The contract follows an SDA announcement last week that two companies won bids for its Tracking Layer Tranche 0, Wide Field of View (WFOV) programme. SpaceX is the other company that was selected.

The contract marks the next steps forward in developing the National Defense Space Architecture’s (NDSA) inaugural tranche, Tranche 0.

Under the firm-fixed-price contract, L3Harris will provide the required technology to defend against advanced missiles. The contract performance period is valid until 2025 and includes the delivery of four space vehicles within 24 months.

ECA Group and iXblue have signed a contract for navigation, underwater positioning systems and obstacle avoidance sonars for mine

countermeasures replacement programme for the Belgian and the Royal Netherlands navies.

ECA signed the agreement for the delivery of forward looking sonars, along with inertial navigation and subsea positioning and communication systems. It is part of a programme to replace the mine countermeasures capability of both navies, which includes the supply of 12 minehunters equipped with drones.

The drones will carry out navigation, obstacle detection and avoidance, tracking of vehicles, autonomous mine clearance missions, and underwater communication between atonomous underwater vehicles.

Peraton has received a $102m follow-on technical engineering services contract from the US Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP).

It covers the acquisition, development, deployment, and operational support of reentry body system of the US Navy's Fleet Ballistic Missile strategic weapons systems.

The contract value is valid over one base year and four optional years. 

The company will continue to aid the technical, programmatic, system safety, and operational aspects of the development, refurbishment, and life extension programmes of the reentry body systems.

It will also support the assessment of performance and vulnerability of the system to difficult environments.

Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM) has awarded a contract to Pearlson Shiplift for the design and construction of a shiplift system at its naval shipyard in Wisconsin, US.

The system will be around 500ft long and 82ft wide and able to handle 10,000t vessels, such as the US Navy’s Constellation-class Frigates, Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships, and the Multi-Mission Surface Combatant.

It will enable FMM to launch and retrieve larger vessels, allowing for future ships to be outfitted to near completion and tested in climate-controlled facilities. 

The system is expected to be completed in 2022 and will be the largest shiplift system in the US.

The Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reportedly cancelled the contract previously awarded to Reliance Naval and Engineering (RNEL) for the construction of naval offshore patrol vessels for the navy.

Mint quoted a source as saying that the $342.47m contract was cancelled due to the delay in the delivery of the vessels.

In 2011, the contract was awarded to the company for the construction of five ships, prior to which the shipyard in the Indian state of Gujarat was taken over by Reliance Group. In 2015, the group took over Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering, which was renamed as Reliance Naval and Engineering in 2017.

RNEL is currently undergoing a debt resolution process in the National Company Law Tribunal.