EADS, Astrium, Snare US$39.9 Million French Contract

The French military gave the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) and Astrium a Euro28 million ($39.9 million) contract, the company announced.

EADS Defence & Security and Astrium were chosen by the French armaments directorate (DGA) to provide design, development, installation and operational maintenance of the PHAROS system.

From 2009 on, PHAROS (Portail Hote d’Acces au Renseignement de l’Observation Spatiale) will enable the forces based in mainland France or deployed in theatres of operation abroad to have common access to the images acquired by the HELIOS (France), COSMO-SkyMed (Italy) and SAR-Lupe (Germany) military satellites and by Pl�iades, the future French dual satellite system.

The PHAROS project will be implemented jointly by teams specialized in intelligence systems within EADS Defence and Communications Systems (prime contractor), and Astrium Satellites Ground Systems (joint leading contractor), who will also rely on the expertise of three subcontractors: CAP Gemini, Pixelion and Gael Consultant.

The technical solution proposed by the industrial grouping and accepted by the DGA is based on a services-oriented architecture and involves the use of innovative technologies deriving from both the civil sphere (virtualization, image compression) and the military sphere (digitization).

Raytheon Gains $45.5 Million For Sensor Fusing

Raytheon received a $45.5 million Department of Defense (DOD) contract for sensor fusion and advanced networking technology, the company announced.

The company will provide the Raytheon Solipsys Tactical Component Network technology.

This award follows a similar procurement by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) earlier in the year to support ballistic missile defense system initiatives.

As part of this latest award, Raytheon Solipsys also provides run-time licensing of its Tactical Display Framework visualization product at no cost across all DOD and MDA programs.