Is there life on Mars? Not if we destroy it with poor space hygiene Stuart Clark
Next month, three new spacecraft arrive at Mars. Two represent firsts for their countries of origin, while the third opens a new era of Mars exploration. The first is the UAE’s Emirates Mars Mission, also known as Hope, which enters orbit on 9 February. Shortly after, China’s Tianwen-1 settles into the red planet’s gravitational grip and in April will deploy a lander carrying a rover to the surface.
Both of these missions are groundbreaking for their countries. If they are successful, their makers will join the US, Russia, Europe and India in having successfully sent spacecraft to Mars. However, it is the third mission that is destined to capture the most headlines.
Thales UK secures Indian partner for selling its Starstreak air-defense missile January 14 A Starstreak high velocity missile (HVM) system is manned by members of the British Royal Artillery during a media demonstration at Blackheath in southeast London in 2012. India s Bharat Dynamics Ltd is set to sell the weapon in India under a cooperation with Thales UK. (Carl Court /AFP/GettyImages) LONDON – The Northern Ireland arm of Thales UK has struck a partnering arrangement with Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) as part of its effort to secure a deal with the Indian military to purchase the British-developed Starstreak man-portable, air-defense system. In a statement the two companies said the tie-up will see BDL become a “part of the Starstreak global supply chain, providing the opportunity for export of Indian-manufactured components to existing and future Starstreak air defense customers, including the UK armed forces.”
7th January 2021 10:20 am
Thales UK CEO and Chairman Alex Cresswell believes that current and future challenges will provide opportunities for engineers that are too good to miss. Jason Ford reports.
Thales’ presence in the UK can be traced to Glasgow in the late 1880s when an engineer and a physicist responded to a tender from industry after the poor performance of artillery rangefinders during the Boer War.
The tender asked for improved equipment that could be operated by soldiers of ‘average intelligence’ and the two academics – who went onto form Barr & Stroud – cemented a relationship with the UK’s armed forces that continues to this day. Barr & Stroud’s range-finding technology was deployed on the Royal Navy’s first submarine and Thales has since gone on to provide periscopes, then optronic masts, to every single submarine in the Royal Navy.
KONGSBERG to Provide Remote Weapon Stations for British Boxer Vehicles Our Bureau 2205
PROTECTOR RS4 Remote Weapon Stations
Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS (KONGSBERG) has won a contract worth $117.9 million (1030 MNOK) to provide PROTECTOR RS4 Remote Weapon Stations (RWS) for British BOXER 8x8 vehicles.
The contract was awarded by Thales UK Ltd. under the Army’s Mechanized Infantry Vehicle (MIV) program.
KONGSBERG has provided UK with PROTECTOR RWS’s since 2008, and MIV is the seventh delivery contract including two upgrades for the British Armed Forces. The PROTECTOR RS4 RWS will be integrated on the British Army`s new fleet of BOXER 8x8 vehicles in close cooperation with Thales UK, Rheinmetall and KMW.
Subcontract for Kongsberg on British Army MIV contract follows similar awards for Dutch and German Boxers.
This is the seventh delivery contract (including two upgrades) for the UK armed forces to involve Protector, Kongsberg noted in a 22 December statement.
Protector RS4 RWS will be installed on the new fleet of British Army Boxer 8x8 vehicles which are being built under the MIV programme; Kongsberg will work in close cooperation with Thales UK, Rheinmetall and KMW.
The Kongsberg Protector M151 remote weapon station already arms the Royal Netherlands Army fleet of Boxer vehicles, while Shephard Defence Insight notes that the M153 Protector II armed with an H&K 40 mm automatic grenade launcher is being provided for German Boxers.