January 15, 2021 | International, Aerospace
By: Andrew Chuter
LONDON – The Northern Ireland arm of Thales UK has struck a partnering arrangement with Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) as part of its effort to secure a deal with the Indian military to purchase the British-developed Starstreak man-portable, air-defense system.
In a statement the two companies said the tie-up will see BDL become a “part of the Starstreak global supply chain, providing the opportunity for export of Indian-manufactured components to existing and future Starstreak air defense customers, including the UK armed forces.”
The agreement also provides the opportunity for BDL to “offer a ‘Make in India' solution to the Indian government, with a capability that will match the immediate air defence needs of the Indian Army and Air force, and with 60 percent of the system manufactured in India,” said the two companies.
The tie-up is the culmination of a four-year effort by Thales and BDL to explore a possible technology-transfer deal following the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2017.
The items in line for building by the Indian state-owned BDL include electronic and mechanical components with sub-system and system assembly, Thales UK officials told Defense News.
The industry teaming agreement was signed in a virtual ceremony in Britain and India on Jan. 13 with British defense procurement minister Jeremy Quin and the Indian Army's director general of air defense in attendance.
“Today's signing marks the start of the next-generation of missile systems for the Indian Army and reinforces our commitment to work with international partners,” Quin said.
The partnership follows the two governments' recent signing of a defense-technology and industrial-cooperation memorandum of understanding.
To date Starstreak has not participated in any Indian competition for a man-portable, air-defense weapon.
The high-velocity, Mach 3-plus weapon, which can be man-portable or platform-mounted, has been in service with the British Army since 1997 and has been exported to several nations, including Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The weapon is unique in that it employs three laser guided darts as its warhead.
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Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — North Carolina-based defense technology company Curtiss-Wright announced Sept. 24 that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Pacific Star, a major tactical communications vendor for the U.S. Army. Curtiss-Wright, based in North Carolina, bought PacStar for $400 million in an effort to boost its network communications business. According to a press release from Curtiss-Wright, PacStar's business will operate within the Curtiss-Wright defense business and is expected to generate $120 million in sales in 2020. “The acquisition of PacStar establishes Curtiss-Wright as a critical supplier of advanced tactical and enterprise network communications solutions supporting a broad spectrum of high-priority U.S. military force modernization programs,” said David C. Adams, chairman and CEO of Curtiss-Wright Corporation, in a statement. “The combination of Curtiss-Wright's mission-critical mobile and secure COTS-based processing, data management and communications technologies with PacStar's highly complementary hardware and software solutions will enable us to deliver best-in-class platform network integration and tactical data link network management to the warfighter.” Curtiss-Wright ranked No. 72 in Defense News' Top 100 annual report on the world's largest defense companies. PacStar is an important vendor for the Army's tactical network modernization effort, where it provides products to improve tactical expeditionary communications. Back in July, PacStar was awarded work to support the fielding of satellite baseband communications to three Expeditionary Signal Battalion-Enhanced (ESB-E) units by Army Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical. PacStar also provides networking and communications capabilities for the Marine Corps' Networking On-The-Move (NOTM) program. “PacStar, which represents the largest transaction in Curtiss-Wright's recent history, is well-positioned to benefit from the military's continued investment in robust, secure and integrated battlefield network management and is expected to yield significant opportunities for revenue growth," Adams said. "Further, this acquisition supports Curtiss-Wright's financial objectives for long-term profitable growth and strong free cash flow generation within our disciplined and balanced capital allocation strategy.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/industry/2020/09/25/curtiss-wright-acquiring-pacstar-for-400-million/