Finmeccanica and Fincantieri have teamed up and secured a contract from the Italian Navy to add an extra ship to its contract for multi-mission vessels from Italian industry-taking the total contract order to seven ships. The original six-ship order, signed in May, envisaged four options. The seventh vessel constituted one of the options, but would be built at the same time as the original orders, the firms said. Read more >>

The Raytheon Company has received a modernization upgrade contract from the United States Army for their Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defense system radars, worth a maximum of $86.2 million. Read more >>

General Dynamics Mission Systems’ radios will provide the US Air Force Deployable Landing System (D-ILS) with a new communication systems. The new Thales built system will afford pilots the precision guidance necessary to land at locations where the existing air traffic control system is unavailable or where or where no infrastructure exists. This system would primarily be utilized within temporary airfield in isolated locations. Read more >>

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has announced that SSN 798, a Virginia-class attack submarine, will bear the name USS Massachusetts. The USS Massachusetts and its Virgina-class sister ships are advanced stealth, multimission, nuclear-powered submarines designed for deep ocean anti-submarine warfare and littoral (shallow water) operations. Virginia-class submarines are capable of attacking targets ashore with Tomahawk cruise missiles and conduct long-term, covert surveillance of land areas and littoral waters among other sea-based forces. Read more >>

Defense and security company Saab has recently signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the Naval Shipyard S.A. in Gdynia, Poland. The new contract lays the groundwork for a close cooperation to jointly provide naval solutions for the Polish Navy’s Orka submarine program under the order of the Polish Ministry of National Defence. The Orka submarine project will see the construction of several new classes of ships, as well as plans to obtain three submarines. The new submarines will replace the Polish Navy’s aging fleet of Kobben-class boats and single Project 877E submarine ORP Orzel. Read more >>