• U.S. military wants jumping robot

    DARPA funds a program to develop a hopping robot; the robot will be able to jump stairs and go over obstacles; it will be used for urban reconnaissance and intelligence gathering — although DARPA admits it could also be fitted with a raft of weapons; one of the requirement for the hopping robot: “’stick’ accurate landings”

  • Raytheon awarded Nextgen Air Transportation System contract

    Contract calls for Raytheon to study the Nextgen integrated communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) architecture and determine the NAS’s needs for 2018 to 2025

  • Qinetiq to acquire Cyveillance for $40 million

    Among the major winners of the administration’s 2010 defense budget will be defense contractors involved in cyber security, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; Qinetiq North America positions itself to benefit from the shift in the defense budget’s priorities by acquiring cyberspace intelligence specialist Cyveillance

  • ShotSpotter to acquire QinetiQ North America's SECURES

    ShotSpotter will acquire SECURES Acoustic Gunshot Detection System
    from QinetiQ North America, strengthening its position in the acoustic detection arena; 35 localities in the United States already deploy ShotSpotter systems in high-crime areas

  • BAE in $13 million deal to provide U.S. military with IFF transponders

    In an effort to reduce incidents of friendly fire on the battlefield, the U.S. military orders 500 identification friend or foe (IFF) digital transponders and spares for the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy; BAE has already delivered more than 4,000 common transponders

  • Japan to start developing swine flu vaccine

    CDC sends Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases a sample of the new type of flu strain, and NIID will begin to work on a modified swine flu virus, then distribute the virus to four Japanese vaccine makers and institutions

  • Surge in armored car sales in Brazil

    Brazilians have to live with exceedingly high levels of crime — in the late 1990s, for example, the UN ranked the Jardim Ângela section of São Paulo as the most violent neighborhood in the world — at the same time that government agencies, owing to corruption or incompetence, fail to provide security; São Paulo leads the country — and the world — in making and selling armored cars; tax breaks now allow the middle class to buy protection which once was the reserve of the rich

  • BAE in $61 million contract to service MRAPs

    The U.S. military buys more and more RG33 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to defend U.S. soldiers from IEDs; there is a need to service these lumbering vehicles, and BAE receives a contract to do so

  • More orders for AS&E's cargo screening vans bring in $4.7 million

    Massachusetts-based AS&E’s popular Z Backscatter Vans are becoming more popular; company receives $4.7 million order for the “drive-by” scanning system, following several other orders in the past month

  • Google rents goats for lawn maintenance

    Only in California: A Silicon Valley company has 800 goats it rents out for lawn maintenance and brush and weed control; Google rents 200 of the goats for its expansive Mountain View campus; goats come with a professional herder and a border collie

  • U.S. Navy nears decision on Littoral Combat Ship

    The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) will help the U.S. Navy counter growing “asymmetric” threats like coastal mines, quiet diesel submarines, global piracy, and terrorists on small fast attack boats; two teams — one led by General Dynamics, the other by Lockheed Martin — compete for a contract that could be worth more than $30 billion when all is said and done

  • Aussie explosive maker reports healthy returns

    Melbourne-based Orica is the world’s largest industrial explosives maker — and also the world’s largest producer of explosives used in land mines; results for the first half of 2009 shows increase of 15 percent in profit before one-time charges

  • Alion awarded $8.5 million U.S. Air Force contract

    Virginia-based employee-owned specialist awarded a follow-on contract to design and maintain a Web-based system that reports, assesses, and predicts Air Force readiness levels

  • ID scheme looks at gaining access

    Australia’s Centrelink agency has around 26,000 employees and administered more than $70 billion in payments and services to millions of customers annually; the agency has just developed a a more reliable ID authentication solution

  • Lockheed intensifies efforts to sell Turkey missile defense systems

    Turkey lives in a dangerous neighborhood; the accelerated pace of missile development by Iran has not gone unnoticed in Ankara, and Turkey wants to invest $4 billion in buying a missile defense system; Lockheed Martin teams up with Raytheon to win the contract