Just finished a four-part series of reports, that bring together strategic analysis and commentary on twenty of the world’s major defense industry focused companies. The reports outline the financial performance of each company (with some exceptions) and discuss activities within the defense sector, highlighting core strengths, perceived weaknesses and overall competitive positioning in the market.

Following a sustained period of growth, revenues as well as profitability dropped for the defense industry in 2009, potentially marking the beginning of a downwards spiral. However revenues stabilized in 2010 and increased year-on-year in 2011.

Early analysis and indicators suggested that revenue growth and profitability would continue to be maintained in 2012 and this is being affirmed as results are released by companies in Q1 2013. This is despite the uncertainties surrounding sequestration and the “fiscal cliff” in the US as well as budget uncertainties in European and other international markets.

Moving into 2013, maintaining profitability will be the challenge for the industry especially if revenue growth starts to stall. The US elections did not result in greater clarity coming from the political leadership on resolving the issue if budget cuts without resorting to sequestration and while sequestration was offset for two months at the beginning of 2013, there is still no clear resolution in sight. A potential future scenario could see legislation coming into play that offsets sequestration even further through to the end of 2013 (calendar-year). The two political parties will continue to engage in negotiations through the end of the calendar year and the industry will end up operating within essentially a “continuing resolution” framework.

In terms of rankings, Boeing and EADS continue to lead the pack over the 2007 to 2012 timeframe. Results to date coupled with estimates for the full year show that Boeing will pull away from EADS in 2012, driven by a significant ramp-up in the commercial aerospace segment.

While EADS closed the gap with Boeing over 2010 and 2009, the company has not been able to maintain growth in 2012 and preliminary estimates suggest that 2012 revenues will be flat to slightly down and not emulate the commercial aerospace success enjoyed by Boeing.

United Technologies is consistently in third position over the same timeframe with revenues growing over 2010-2011, but expected to flatten out in 2012.

The three companies above all have a mixed portfolio with commercial areas supplementing defense revenues. From a more defense-orientated perspective, Lockheed Martin generated over $47 billion maintaining an overall fourth position in the revenue rankings.

Other defense focused companies featuring in the top ten revenue rankings include BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon joined with Honeywell, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and General Dynamics generating revenues that couple defense markets with other diverse portfolios.

The challenge for all companies active in the defense sector will be maintaining historically positive profit margins by targeting high growth sectors and international markets outside of US and Europe. While trailing the sampling of companies considered in this report in terms of revenues, Cobham has consistently been one of the more profitable companies and is forecast to lead the pack in 2012, with profit margins approaching 11%.

Raytheon is placed second in the profitability rankings for 2012 and has been a consistently profitable operation for the 2007-2012 timeframe. United Technologies is arguably the most consistent performer, holding a third position in terms of profitability as well as being ranked third in the revenue rankings for 2012.

While Boeing and EADS are expected to command first and second positions in terms of revenue rankings in 2012, both companies are estimated to fall outside the top ten profitability rankings for 2012 with Boeings profit margins averaging around 5% over the 2007-2012 timeframe. EADS profitability averages out at less than 1% for the same timeframe and is impacted by losses in 2007 and 2009.

Overall, the industry has managed to maintain both profitability and revenue growth even as defense budgets come under increasing pressure. Radar, communications and EW systems capabilities will increasingly be underpinned by advanced component technologies while the challenges of maintaining integrity in the network and protecting the users, platforms, systems and devices operating in a net-centric environment will provide fresh avenues of opportunity in 2013.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full reports.

Don’t miss our regular column in Microwave Journal’s Military Microwaves.

See Defence iQ for more analysis on the defense industry, related news and events.

Asif

Phased array technology featured heavily in radar contracts and other activities during September. Platforms ranged from large ground-based early warning radar (EWR) systems to scaled-down AESAs for incorporation into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology dominated a host of radar contract announcements during September including news of Northrop Grumman completing tests of its Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) S-band radar system as well as demonstrating technologies for the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) program. Raytheon was also actively involved in the supply of AESA-based systems, receiving a second contract for low-rate initial production (LRIP) of AN/APG-82(V)1 AESA radar systems for the U.S. Air Force F-15E Radar Modernization Program.

In other areas, Harris, L-3 Communications and Selex Elsag were supplying communications systems, Boeing received further contracts for Laser JDAM kits and ITT Exelis announced another successful demonstration of its Advanced Defensive Electronic Warfare System (AIDEWS). The use of laser technology was also being demonstrated. MBDA Germany achieved a power of 40 kW using its high-energy laser demonstrator during a laser firing campaign while ITT Exelis is partnering with Innovative Technical Solutions to develop a laser communications system for the US Navy and Marine Corps.

Business news for the month was dominated by the discussions between Europe's largest defense corporations, BAE Systems and EADS. The deal has been shelved primarily as a result of the respective UK, France and German governments not being able to agree on terms. BAE Systems-EADS Merger Dead in the Water provides some more thoughts on this news.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full report Defense Electronics Industry Review: September 2012 which details significant defense industry news, including product announcements, milestones, contract activity and defense industry financial performance.

Asif

On the EADS/BAE merger front, my initial reaction was not favourable with the emphasis in my opinion targeting size over quality. On the defense front, I think it would have made more sense for BAE Systems to look to merge with Cassidian, which is the defense side of EADS bringing complementary strengths in terms of capabilities and regional market areas of focus (BAE Systems is strong in the US while Cassidian is having success targeting opportunities from emerging markets such as South America). I believe a BAE Systems/Cassidian match would better service the defense market with a focus on systems and capabilities rather than offering whole platforms and certainly as an example, we see the success that Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are starting to achieve targeting the fast-jet radar retrofit market.

On the other hand, the inclusion of the aerospace side of the business would have brought scale to the potential new company, but I also wonder whether the issues that Airbus has had with some its platforms, e.g. the A400M would have brought any immediate advantages to the company. Even on the commercial front, Boeing was way ahead of Airbus in terms of orders if we take this year’s Farnborough Airshow as one example (Boeing aircraft orders 370 vs. Airbus aircraft orders 101) and based on this, the new larger company was not necessarily going to bring about any advantages.

You then also have the issues of sovereign control and rather whether France, Germany and the UK would have been willing to let go of the control they have especially where the respective companies have been involved in developing bespoke systems and platforms. The governments of these countries needed to ensure that they didn’t lose capabilities and suppliers as a result of the new company shifting emphasis to other markets. Obviously, this is why we saw a lot of talk about certain contracts and activities being ring-fenced.

Across the pond, parties in the US will have had similar concerns especially given the inroads that BAE Systems has made into that market. We can also expect that Boeing would have used these concerns to try and block the merger and/or try to block the new company from competing in future US programs.

Having said all this, it is the very fact that the two companies are so disparate that could have helped drive the merger forward. There were no obvious overlaps with the activities of the two companies so we were not going to see necessarily see employee headcount reductions, facility closures with both sides of the merged company continuing operations as normal.

Ultimately, it would appear that the political hurdles presented by the French, UK and German governments have been insurmountable on this occasion. Both Tom Enders (EADS head) and Ian King (BAE Chief Executive) have expressed regret that they were unable to bring the merger together. No doubt we will not see similar sentiments from Invesco and other BAE Systems shareholders.

Despite the ongoing uncertainty with defense expenditure facing challenges and the threat of sequestration hanging over US companies there was positive news on the financial front as companies finished releasing results for the second quarter of the calendar year. Taking a snapshot of financial results and looking at quarterly revenue growth over the second and first quarters shows a turnaround with companies growing revenue as opposed to the quarter-to-quarter revenue declines observed after the first quarter of 2012.

There was also plenty of activity in August including new product launches, technology demonstrations and contracts as well as business acquisitions.

Amongst the business deals concluded in August, Mercury Computer Systems completed its acquisition of Micronetics, allowing the company to continue solidifying a portfolio of offerings that will now include RF capabilities. Meanwhile, BAE Systems signed a MoU with MASS to work on EW systems for the export market. The partnership is designed to offer customers electronic warfare training and data management, operational analysis, countermeasure development, mission data validation and mission evaluation.

There were also a number of announcements in the area of UAVs, with for example, an emphasis on developing secure communications. Northrop Grumman awarded Cubic Communications a contract to produce a new multiband digital data link system for the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter which will feature the ability to transmit Ku- and C-band transmissions at the same time. Expanding the role of UAVs with the addition of weapons is also being actively pursued and Raytheon completed a successful warhead and guidance system test of its Pyros small tactical munition to validate the weapon's semi-active laser and GPS guidance modes.

In July one of the notable events was NETMA issuing a RfP to Eurofighter GmbH for the development of an AESA Radar (E-scan). Officials said the target is to have a contract by the middle of next year and to have an E-Scan entering into service by 2015. The contract would mean development of the radar would come early next year with Eurofighter and Euroradar, the Selex Galileo-led consortium supplying radars for the Typhoon. The other European fighter, the Saab Gripen NG aircraft is now flying with a SELEX Galileo Raven ES-05 AESA fire control radar installed.

In August, there was considerable activity for naval radar platforms that included Lockheed Martin submitting its final proposal to the US Navy to design, build, integrate and test the new Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) S-band radar and radar suite controller for the future DDG-51 Flight III class destroyer.

At the component level, Northrop Grumman demonstrated an 850 GHz integrated receiver under Phase 2 of the DARPA Terahertz Electronics program, setting a new performance record. Under Phase 1, the company had already developed a Terahertz Monolithic Integrated Circuit that operated at 670 GHz in 2010. In addition to demonstrating low-noise integrated receivers, the company also developed and tested LNAs and PAs. Meanwhile, M/A-COM introduced a 40W GaN-on-SiC transistor suitable for S-band military radar. Perhaps more importantly, M/A-COM was suggesting that the MAGX-002735-040L00 will provide an MTTF of 600 years or better based on HTOL RF accelerated life testing.

In conclusion, the summer period was arguably quite upbeat for the defense industry with financials looking positive and plenty of activity in terms of new product launches, technology demonstrations, contracts as well as mergers and acquisitions. Whether this momentum can be maintained as the year draws to a close will be dependent on how well companies are able or perhaps in some cases allowed to adapt to a changing environment and proactively seek out opportunities away from their traditional territories.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full reports:

Defense Electronics Industry Review: July 2012

Defense Electronics Industry Review: August 2012

Also, don’t miss our regular column in Microwave Journal’s Military Microwaves.

See Defence iQ for more analysis on the defense industry, related news and events.

Asif

Eurosatory is held in Paris on a biannual basis with Eurosatory 2012 continuing to focus as an event centered on land and air platforms. The event boasted over 53,000 attendees and included a new focus on security this year including cyber. There were a range of technologies showcased at Eurosatory 2012 emphasizing the importance of enhancing capabilities and meeting the needs of SwaP-constrained platforms.

The growing use of COTS-based platforms was also highlighted by both DRS Technologies and Harris with the introduction of ruggedized, Military-grade Android-based handheld computer and tablet products. Elektrobit’s Counter-RCIED platform was demonstrated as a potential tool for convoy mission planning. Rohde & Schwarz was emphasizing the use of IP technologies for radio communication platforms. Finally, there was a range of radar technologies on show with Cassidian, FLIR and Camero showing solutions targeting applications from border surveillance to through-wall imaging.

IMS 2012 was held in Montreal, Canada for the first time in its 60 year history and a strong industrial program was complimented with a good mix of technical sessions and social events. While attendance was flat, there was an overall increase of around 40% year-on-year in the number of paper submissions.

Main themes that came out of the technical sessions centered on low cost millimeter-wave technologies based on Si CMOS. Terahertz technologies also continued to be a key topic with new concepts and a look towards integrated devices. Finally, nanotechnology was discussed in technical sessions with tunable devices including MEMS-based switches looking to commercial markets. Other areas of interest identified included energy harvesting, wireless energy transmission and the use of RF technologies in biomedical applications as well as the role RF will play in the “Internet of Everything”.

On the show floor, there was a positive atmosphere with companies focused on both commercial and defense markets. Strategy Analytics was also on the show floor to kick off a series of Richardson RFPD Supplier presentations where we outlined our thoughts on how GaN is becoming a pivotal technology in the defense sector. Strategy Analytics’ breakfast session at IMS 2012 was held in conjunction with Microwave Journal this year and included participation from Cree, Nitronex, NXP, RFMD, TriQuint and UMS with the presentations serving as a platform to confirm the applicability of GaN to addressing communications, electronic warfare, and radar applications.

The need for wideband communications including demand from the UAV and SATCOM sector at Ku-band and the need to address Ka-band requirements from SOTM, missile seekers and other communications applications is also driving opportunities for GaN device suppliers. However, while GaN technology hits a lot of the parameters being asked for by military system designers, other technologies including TWTs, LDMOS and SiC will also continue to play a role in future defense system design.

Finally, the Farnborough International Airshow 2012 took place in July acting as a conduit for the trade, with orders and commitments covering a total of 758 aircraft and worth $72 billion. More impressive, given the current economic uncertainty was the fact that the order value represented a 53 percent increase on 2010.

Attendance was equally impressive with just over 107,000 trade visitors and over 1500 exhibitors with representation right across the supply chain. Over 70 military delegations from 46 countries attended with a further 13 delegations from the civil sector. The UK Prime Minister opened the show, and other UK Cabinet members made keynote speeches, with other senior ministers visiting from the UK and overseas.

Over 140 aircraft took part in the static and flying displays at the Farnborough Aerodrome in Hampshire. While the Airbus A400M was unable to fly (again!) due to mechanical issues, the Airbus A380 was in attendance and other flying display highlights included the Korean T50 jet trainer, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Saab Gripen Fighter.

Perhaps surprisingly, the continuing requirement for a range of technologies was emphasized during meetings at Farnborough. TMD Technologies was showcasing its S-band TWT solutions as well as highlighting the capabilities of the company’s X-band 8kW PAMs which can be combined with up to 12 units to enable land-based radar solutions and provide the graceful degradation typically associated with GaAs and GaN-based AESA systems. On the GaAs front, Plextek’s Blighter B400 FMCW/Doppler Ku-band PESA radar was being demonstrated and Eletronnica was also showcasing GaAs-based solutions with the Virgilius EW system which provides both ESM and jamming functionality based around an AESA RF front-end.

In conclusion, there were a range of technologies showcased at all the shows with radar, communications and electronic warfare capabilities and requirements driving demand for technologies that can enhance the capabilities of existing platforms as well as meet the ever growing need to optimize SWaP parameters across both existing and emerging platforms.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full reports on the Eurosatory, IMS and Farnborough shows:

Defense Technology Highlights from Eurosatory 2012

RF Technologies for Defense at IMS 2012 Centered on GaN

Satellites, UAVs, Radar and Travelling Wave Tubes at Farnborough 2012

Also, don’t miss our regular column in Microwave Journal’s Military Microwaves.

See Defence iQ for more analysis on the defense industry, related news and events.

Asif

Spending on land/ground-based EW (electronic warfare) platforms and systems will see a sharp decline over the next two years as troop withdrawals from Iraq (completed) and Afghanistan obviate demand. The Strategy Analytics Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service report, “Technology Trends for Land-based Electronic Warfare Systems,” forecasts global spending on ground/land-based EW platforms and systems will drop by an average 27% through 2014 as expenditure that has typically been centered upon these theatres draws to a close.

However, the withdrawal from these theatres will not change the general trends towards asymmetric warfare and unfortunately, the use of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and RCIEDs (radio-controlled improvised explosive devices) will continue to proliferate. Nations will look to leverage the experience gained to facilitate troops in counteracting the threats of IEDs and RCIEDs in similar situations moving forwards.

Key to developing future EW system capabilities will be an evolutionary approach. The emphasis will be on flexibility, power, modularity, and this is influencing the design of systems as well as the enabling technologies used.

As the signal environment continues to become more complex and congested, RF-based systems, systems will need to be able to look at the complete frequency range. This will require higher performing FPGAs, analog-to-digital converters and wider use of GaN-based RF front-ends to facilitate the development of systems that provide wide-band multi-bit real-time direct RF sampling and processing.

Demand for ground/land-based EW systems will re-emerge from 2015 onwards with global expenditure forecast to exceed $1 billion in 2022.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full report here.

Also, don’t miss my monthly column in the Microwave Journal’s Military Microwaves.

See Defence iQ for more analysis on the defense industry, related news and event.

Asif

The Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service has just released, “Defense Electronics Industry Review: April 2012,” covering defense industry news including business events, product announcements, milestones and contract activity for the month of April.

With budget cuts continuing to threaten the outlook for the defense industry, a snapshot of some of the financials, from companies including General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and United Technologies released in April, comparing fourth quarter 2011 revenues with revenues achieved in the first quarter of 2012 shows negative quarterly growth with an average decline of 9 percent. On a positive note, the companies considered in this snapshot all achieved positive net income for the quarter. The challenge will be maintaining profitability especially if quarterly revenues continue on the same trend.

On the other hand, contract activity across platforms, systems and component technologies appeared to be robust. Examples included Textron winning the competitive MEUAS (Mid-Endurance Unmanned Aircraft Systems) II award and BAE Systems upgrading Royal Saudi Air Force F-15S electronic warfare capabilities.

Other highlights in April included the continuing development of GaN technology capabilities for use in military systems leading to contract awards to Raytheon, Rockwell Collins and TriQuint. ELTA Systems successfully demonstrating its new wideband LTE Tactical Communication Network, the TAC4G, while Herley Industries received an order for the production and supply of specialty microwave products for a new missile platform.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full report here

Also, don’t miss my monthly column in the Microwave Journal’s Military Microwaves.

See Defence iQ for more analysis on the defense industry, related news and event.

Asif

A review of defense industry activity in February included Israel’s Ministry of Defense opting to buy the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 jet trainer for the Israel Air Force in a deal worth around $1 billion. The contract involves Thor, the joint venture set up by Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd (IAI) and Elbit Systems Ltd, buying the thirty aircraft, maintaining them and then selling air time to the IAF.

This platform was chosen over the T-50 Golden Eagle, jointly developed by Korean Aerospace Industries Ltd (KAI) and Lockheed Martin with the IAF citing performance as one of the underlying factors. Perhaps another "minor" factor could be the rumoured expectation that there will be reciprocal procurements from Italy to include IAI AEW&C platforms as well as joint development of a new reconnaissance satellite.

Meanwhile with defense spending and budgets in the spotlight, Boeing announced that the company has completed delivery of 257 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft to the U.S. Navy. Boeing was keen to emphasize that each aircraft was delivered ahead of schedule and within the contract budget over the 2007 through 2011 timeframe.

Boeing has also started production of the new Distributed Targeting System (DTS) for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighter as part of the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Network Centric Warfare Upgrades program. Other upgrades to the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G platforms are underway with Honeywell Defense & Space Electronic Systems set to provide 124 full rate production advanced multi-purpose displays for the Lot 35 F/A-18F and EA-18G aircraft. On the sensors front, Raytheon will be providing sensor system software and hardware support in order to update, improve, and enhance tactical capabilities while a separate contract calls for Raytheon to supply AN/APG-79 AESA radars.

Moving across the spectrum from platforms to components, Auriga Microwave was on the receiving end for SBIR funding from both the US Air Force and NASA. The former wants Auriga Microwave to develop a 20GHz SSPA for Satcom downlinks while NASA is looking for efficient GaN amplifiers for operation at X- and Ka-band.

If you are a clients of the ADS service, please click on the link to access the full report, "Defense Electronics Industry Review: February 2012"

DARPA released a broad-agency announcement (DARPA-BAA-12-27) for the Fixed Wireless at a Distance program. The program aims to overcome perceived limitations of today's military mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and develop mobile communications infrastructure that interconnects small groups of military radios. The system should be able to support legacy and emerging military systems and integrate commercial 3G or 4G commercial cellular and commercial Wi-Fi base station technology.

Communications must be supported over distances of up to twelve miles for legacy systems and beyond 30 miles for emerging systems that may have MIMO capabilities and be capable of two to twenty simultaneous coherent signal streams. Technology options under consideration include increasing transmit power or receive sensitivity; increasing base station antenna height; increasing base station antenna gain; and space-time coding.

There are solutions already available that could potentially be adapted to meet these requirements without necessitating the development of new solutions and one example for consideration could be Lockheed Martin’s MONAX network and Raytheon’s MAINGATE solution.

It will be interesting to see what solutions are put forward by industry and whether budgetary constraints will lead to a more pragmatic approach to meeting DARPA requirements as opposed to the traditional philosophy of designing systems from scratch leading to the inevitable cycle of delays and cost overruns.

A couple of examples from the NTISR (non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) front as the extension of an existing EW solution show how the defense industry can support future efforts without having to design whole new systems.

Northrop Grumman received two follow-on LRIP contract awards from the USAF to provide additional LITENING SE advanced targeting pods. LITENING SE pods include full 1Kx1K forward looking infrared, 1Kx1K charge-coupled device and short wave infrared sensors, color symbols, tracker improvement, enhanced zoom, and two-way multi-band data link. LITENING SE recently completed an extensive flight test program on the F-16 Block 40/50 and A-10C aircraft.

Meanwhile, the French defence procurement agency (DGA) has awarded Thales a contract to adapt ASTAC tactical reconnaissance pods for the Mirage 2000D. The ASTAC pod is designed to be carried under the fuselage of F4 Phantom, Mirage F1 and Mirage 2000 combat aircraft to provide an ELINT and tactical reconnaissance capability, including updating the overall situation and generating the electronic order of battle.

Roke Manor Research, a Chemring Group company, has expanded its RESOLVE Electronic Warfare (EW) range to include permanent vehicle fixtures and static mast-mounted deployments. The new systems extend RESOLVE’s modular manpack capabilities allowing it to be fitted to a variety of platforms, whilst maintaining the flexibility to be easily dismounted for use in complex terrain or discreet operations.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin has unveiled the F-16V, a new variant and upgrade package that comes with AESA radar as well as upgraded mission computer and architecture, and improvements to the cockpit.

On the unmanned front, while the Global Hawk is not a legacy platform per se when compared to the F-16, an expanding mission envelope towards maritime surveillance has led to the sensor capabilities being upgraded. Northrop Grumman recently commenced flight tests of the first developmental multifunction active sensor (MFAS) radar destined for the U.S. Navy's MQ-4C Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS).

Lockheed Martin’s new F-16V variant and upgrade package will also include datalinks allowing the aircraft to operate alongside the F-35 and F-22. The new capability on the F-16 means even if a country is unable to buy the F-35 or F-22, it can still have fighters that can operate alongside U.S. and other air forces’ fifth generation fighters.

Lockheed Martin is targeting both the domestic and export market with V upgrades with South Korea’s requirement to upgrade its F-16s and the U.S. Air Force’s interest in upgrading 300-350 F-16s. Other potential opportunities could include Singapore and Taiwan.

LONGBOW recently delivered the first production Unmanned Aerial Systems Tactical Common Data Link Assembly (UTA) to the U.S. Army for the Apache Block III helicopter. LONGBOW UTA is a two-way, high-bandwidth data link for the Apache that enables aircrews to control the sensor and flight path of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.  UTA-equipped Apache aircrews can operate a UAS at long range and receive real-time, high-definition streaming video on their multi-function displays.

With budgetary constraints in mind, it will be interesting to see whether a more pragmatic approach to meeting future DARPA requirements will be adopted especially where it appears that there are existing solutions can be adapted. The drive to provide extended capabilities is also being seen in other areas and while in some cases the extension of capabilities will be a “nice to have” feature there will also be a genuine requirement to adapt legacy platforms to meet future needs with communications, radar and electronic warfare systems and the underlying RF technologies pivotal in extending these capabilities.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full report, Reinventing the wheel (?), extending capabilities and talking with the next generation 

In electronic warfare (EW) the US Army Contracting Command, MICC, Aberdeen Proving Ground awarded BAE Systems E&IS, Electronic Warfare - Information Dominance Systems (IDS) a contract for procurement of SIGINT Traveler Pod (T-Pod) Systems for the MQ-1C Sky Warrior / Gray Eagle UAS while ITT Exelis has successfully installed and tested an advanced self-defense electronic warfare system on F-16 aircraft operated by an international customer.

Looking ahead, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon joined forces to compete for a US Navy contract that will upgrade the fleet's capability to electronically attack anti-ship missiles.

Through its Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 3 upgrade, the Navy seeks to cost effectively enhance the electronic attack capability of its AN/SLQ-32 V(3) and V(4) EW systems to counter threat technology advances. All US aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and other warships use the AN/SLQ-32 EW system.

Staying with EW, the team of ITT Exelis and Boeing has successfully successfully demonstrated multiple critical technology elements, including digital beam-forming, mid band and high band power amplifiers as part of the U.S. Navy Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) program’s technology maturation phase.

The digital beam-forming technology demonstrated recent advancements made in broad band electronically steerable antenna arrays which have come through the use of AESA technology in the radar field. As discussed during the Strategy Analytics webinar, “AESA Radar Trends: Fast-jets and Beyond” AESA technology is starting to extend beyond radar into EW and communications applications and the NGJ program is one example.

Another aspect discussed in “AESA Radar Trends: Fast-jets and Beyond” is the move towards GaN-based technology and NGJ program again affirms our prediction that GaN technology will become a pivotal technology for future generations of radar, communications and EW systems.

Other developments in the first month of January 2012 included Harris Corporation reporting several communications contracts. In the weapons area, MBDA was awarded the FLAADS Demonstration Phase Contract by the UK Ministry of Defence to develop the SEA CEPTOR naval air defence system. Finally, in radar applications, Raytheon received additional contracts for maintenance of the COBRA DANE radar facility while Elta Systems anticipates the first sale of its developmental system as Airbus Military completed initial flight test activities on an AEW&C derivative of its C-295 medium transport.

To read more about defense industry events in January, see Defense Electronics Industry Review: January 2012 which covers defense industry news for the month of January, covering radar, electronic warfare, weapons systems and communications. The report also looks at microwave, optoelectronic and other components discussing business event, product announcments, milestones and contract activity.