Boeing has been awarded contracts worth US$13.6 million to upgrade the USAF's Combat Survivor Evader Locator radio and the CSEL ultrahigh frequency base stations that support it.

QinetiQ reports that it is supporting the UK Ministry of Defence in testing new composite materials for the UK submarine fleet using its recently re-commissioned and refitted Hyperbaric Trials Unit.

Rolls-Royce has signed a contract to provide support for engines powering the Royal Saudi Air Force fleet of Tornado combat aircraft.

According to a recent report in the UK's Telegraph last Sunday, the BAE Systems developed Taranis unmanned combat aircraft is set to undergo flight testing later this year.

US Special Operations Command is planning a competition to acquire non-developmental, highly mobile vehicles capable of being transported inside V-22 Ospreys.

The full version of Defence Week Premium no.236 of 17 January 2013 can be downloaded here as a PDF. A separate PDF of the latest Defence tenders can also be downloaded here.

Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare last month announced the signing of a $7.2 million five-year contract to provide Australian-based training for the operators and maintainers of the Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial System acquired under JP 129.

ITT Exelis has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Australian C4i Pty Ltd, from the Longreach Group Limited for an enterprise value of approximately USD$16.8 million.

Kraken Sonar Systems has been awarded a contract for an AquaPix Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Sonar system by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

The fifth and last KC-30 multi role tanker transport aircraft has been accepted by Defence at the Airbus Military MRTT facility at Madrid in Spain.

725 Squadron will form as the operational training squadron, while 816 Squadron, which currently operates the S-70-B2 Seahawk, will transition to the MH-60R as the operational support squadron.

CAE Australia is to provide King Air 350 simulator training services in Sale, Victoria where the company will establish a full-flight simulator of the King Air 350 operated by the RAAF and used to train students for low-level tactical fast-jet operations and maritime surveillance operations.

While Air 5397 ponders the introduction of IP-based air-ground-air communications it appears that the RAAF's Airspace Controller teams are to receive tactical communications routers with VoIP capability from Indra of Spain under a recent contract signed with the CoA.

BAE Systems and industry partners have designed, manufactured and tested hardware and software for a space-qualified GPS receiver.

RPC has been awarded the prestigious Engineering Excellence Award at the Engineers Australia National Engineering Excellence awards night held in Canberra on November 20, 2012.

DSTO scientist Dr Doug Cato has been awarded the 2012 Minister’s Achievement Award in Defence Science for his work in underwater acoustics and marine mammal communication.