Showing posts with label Communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Communication. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

IDEX: Long-Term Strategy Pays Off in EADS C2 Win

ABU DHABI - A $550 million contract win by EADS to supply a sophisticated command-and-control system to the United Arab Emirates was the result of efforts to create a local pool of high-level capabilities, Hervé Guillou, Cassidian Systems CEO, said Feb. 23.
"There was a real strategy to create a C4I industry," Guillou said. "It represents years of effort."
Cassidian is the EADS defense and security division.
The deal is for the first phase of the Emirates Command and Control System (ECCS), which seeks to provide an integrated C4ISR network for the UAE armed forces.
French Defense Minister Alain Juppé referred Jan. 18 to the UAE program in his New Year's wishes to the French armed forces.
As part of efforts to boost capabilities in the UAE, Cassidian, its joint venture company Emiraje, and the Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research have completed the first phase in establishing a Cyber Operations Center of Excellence, the EADS division said in a statement.
Emiraje Systems is a joint venture between EADS and C4 Advanced Solutions.
The new center will focus on cryptology, forensics and security of industrial control systems.
"The Centre of Excellence is intended to help increase the intellectual capital in cyber technology areas within Khalifa University in particular and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) more generally," the statement said.
UAE authorities are keen to develop a knowledge economy, rather than one based on manufacturing.
Bernie Dunn, vice president of business development for the Middle East and Africa at ITT Defense, said the development of the domestic economy was more geared toward creating high-value work for the local population rather than production jobs.
"They are trying to develop their human resources here," Dunn said. "It's about utilizing the potential of their brain power, not creating [lower-skilled] work on the factory floor."
EADS partnered two years ago with Emirates Advanced Investments, based here, to create the C4 Advanced Solutions joint venture as part of its ECCS contract bid. That joint venture employs 60 staff, including 20 UAE citizens, but will now expand rapidly to execute the contract.
"The company will grow very quickly now," Guillou said.
EADS is unable to disclose details of the contract, Guillou said, but the main requirement is to develop and deploy a command-and-control system linking the various elements of the UAE Army, including logistics, intelligence and transformation of the vehicle fleet.
At the Idex show, the daily announcement of contracts included an 889.7 million UAE dirham ($242.3 million) contract for C4 Advanced Solutions to develop and upgrade networks and provision of technical manpower, the WAM official news agency said Feb. 23.
Thales had been a contender for the ECCS contract, which had attracted lively international bidding interest. Thales will act as a subcontractor, supplying a battle management system through Ampere Programas, a joint venture company held 51 percent by the Spanish Ampere group and 49 percent by the French systems company.