Daily news - Day 1
Mission accomplished for newest Chinook
The latest chapter in the long running story of the Chinook began recently at Boeing’s Rotorcraft Systems Philadelphia facility when the first of 452 CH-47F Chinook medium-transport helicopters was rolled out to the applause of employees and invited guests.
18 February, 2007
Transatlantic co-operation on future heavylift rotorcraft
The Boeing Company (Stand 2800) and Finmeccanica’s AgustaWestland (Stand 1706/1711 and OD1450) signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the beginning of February that has been designed to identify potential opportunities for the companies to work together to offer “effective and economic joint solutions for future heavylift rotorcraft requirements”.
18 February, 2007
World’s smallest handheld GPS
Opentec Solutions is introducing the Openfire Bullseye dGPS in the Team Australia pavilion. Developed as a result of collaboration between two companies that had the same idea but pooled their resources to achieve the optimum result, Bullseye incorporates the world’s smallest multiband satellite signal receiver. It also includes a powerful signal processing system for real-time corrected lat/long/altitude plots and a commercial-off-the-shelf PDA claimed to be the most rugged in the world.
18 February, 2007
Wolf pack cuts swathe through minefields
Its teeth may be as sharp as those of the four-legged canine it is named after, but the MineWolf uses its power and strength to hunt down one of the most abhorrent of warfighting tools.
In the past three years, more than nine million square metres of minefields have been cleared in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, operating in temperatures from –10 to +48ºC. Sudan, Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia have all benefited from the mine clearing solutions of the Swiss MineWolf Systems company (Outdoor Stand OD50). In each case, local operators have performed the operation, with MineWolf providing advice on achieving maximum productivity.
18 February, 2007
Fast target acquisition with new sights
Two new weapon sights are making their international debut here on Aimpoint’s stand (Stand CON10 in Swedish Pavilion). The CompM4 sight, which has already been selected by the US Army and is the subject of a contract for some 163,000 examples, was chosen after a series of competitive tests. These were held to determine if there was another sight available that performed better than the existing Aimpoint CompM2.
18 February, 2007
Tactical advantage
An emerging Australian company is set to enter the unmanned aerial vehicle battlespace after landing a major deal with an American manufacturer. Melbourne-based Recoilless Technologies International (RTI) will join forces with UAV manufacturer Tactical Aerospace Group (TAG) after signing a Joint Commercialization Agreement.
18 February, 2007
40mm grenade launcher from Rippel Effect
Being shown for the first time at IDEX this year is the new Extended Range Grenade Launcher 40mm (XRGL40), which has been developed as a private venture by South African company Rippel Effect (Stand 4516). This is now being put through final qualification tests and is expected to be ready to enter production in April this year. It is claimed that the new XRGL40 has a range of up to 800m and can fire six rounds in three seconds.
18 February, 2007
Unsung heroine supports Longbow
While the Chinook provides personnel and cargo transport and support, Boeing’s other helicopter – the AH-64D Apache Longbow – is probably the most potent rotary fighting machine in the world, blooded in such inhospitable theatres as Iraq and Afghanistan.
18 February, 2007
UAE’s Baynunah corvette modified for RAM missile
Contracts have been placed with Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) and French shipbuilder Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN) to modify the design of the UAE Naval Forces’ new Baynunah corvettes to enable the installation of the Raytheon Missile Systems Mk 31 Mod 1 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) inner-layer missile system.
18 February, 2007
A new STAMP from Turkey
Aselsan (Stand 3620 and OD1262) has designed and developed a stabilised turret for the integration of lightweight guns, which enables an automatic tracking and firing capability without being affected by the motion of the base platform. The company’s stabilised machine gun platform (STAMP) is primarily designed for use on naval platforms, although it can also be adapted for other platforms such as armoured patrol vehicles and stationary platforms.
18 February, 2007