Boeing Defence Australia has taken over prime responsibility for supporting the RAAF E-7A Wedgetail fleet from its US parent which the company says ensures a continued high level of readiness for the command and control aircraft fleet.

The Navy's P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft is ready to be introduced into the fleet and is slated for its first operational squadron deployment in December 2013, initial operational capability in the first quarter of 2014 and eventually a fourth low-rate initial production award, according to a service spokeswoman.

Lockheed Martin will team with four leading air traffic management technology providers to offer its Skyline Enterprise solution for the Airservices Australia and Australian Department of Defence oneSKY Australia procurement.

Another three blocks have been added to the first ship structure in the past month on the AWD project.

DMO Training Aircraft Systems Program Office has exercised an option to extend by three years the supply by Cirrus of support to the Air Combat Officer Training System.

A contingent of 80 men from 1 Armd Regt has returned from the month-long first phase of a reciprocal exchange program with their US Marine Corps equivalents.

Despite recent implications to the contrary, it seems that plans to drawdown troops and equipment from Tarin Kot have been well underway for some time. From early February the Force Extraction Unit has been undertaking tasks to remove infrastructure, including Drehtainer armoured accommodation modules, as Australia prepares for the end of its mission in Uruzgan.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has committed to sponsoring a team of high school students from Dickson College who are competing in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Outback Challenge 2013, aimed at promoting UAVs and demonstrating their utility in civilian applications.

At the end of June, ASC signed a new contract with the Submarine Training School, based at Western Australia.

HSV 2 Swift, the high speed vessel which has been in service with the US Navy - Military Sealift Command, over the past decade, returns to Hobart.

The Defence Capability Plan sets out the ADF's long term capital programs. ADM provides some context for this vast resource in their DCP calendar which can be downloaded here.

A summary of the latest news and views in the defence industry, locally and overseas. Check out our webpage for daily news updates on the ADM home page and make sure you bookmark/RSS this for a regular visit.

The Pentagon's top acquisition executive, Frank Kendall, is calling for a new, independent cost estimate of the Navy's $40 billion Littoral Combat Ship program and will ask the Joint Staff and the Navy to conduct a requirements assessment study to revalidate the original LCS capabilities document.

Ship service diesel generators on the Freedom are only operating at about half their required reliability level, and as a result the ship lost power on July 21 while in Singapore and was forced to dock for maintenance instead of participating in a Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training exercise.

The full version of Defence Week Premium no.263 of 25 July 2013 can be downloaded here as a PDF. A separate PDF of the latest Defence tenders can also be downloaded here.

Following its down selection in December 2011 as preferred tenderer for Land 121 Phase 3B Protected and Unprotected Medium and Heavy Vehicles and following lengthy negotiations, RMMVA has now been awarded a contract to supply some 2,500 protected and unprotected logistical vehicles in a contract worth $1.58 billion.