Babcock inks deals to pitch Israeli tech for British radar, air defense programs

LONDON — Babcock International has signed it’s second deal in a fortnight aimed at offering Israeli technology for British defense programs .

The British company’s latest agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries and its subsidiary Elta Systems is aimed at proposing a long-range radar for the Defence Ministry’s Serpens program.

The program, valued in excess of £400 million (U.S. $486 million) is for the British Army’s next-generation weapon-locating system that needs to be able to detect and find hostile mortars, artillery and rockets.

The agreement will see Elta’s battle-proven Compact Multi-Mission Radar offered by Babcock in the U.K. Babcock said in an Aug. 11 statement that the system will be partly produced and integrated in the U.K.

Britain wants to replace its current capability, the Saab-supplied Mamba, around 2026. The Swedish company was awarded a £46 million deal in 2020 to extend the life of the program until Serpens is ready for deployment.

The agreement with IAI comes about two weeks after Babcock inked a deal with another Israeli company to propose technology to the British Army — on this occasion to offer a battle management, command, control, communications, computers and intelligence capability for a new ground-based air defense capability .

Babcock signed the memorandum of understanding with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to offer the latter’s Micad platform for the Defence Ministry’s Sky Sabre GBAD program, which is based on the Common Anti-Air Modular Missile built by the European consortium MBDA.

Babcock and Rafael have worked together in the delivery and maintenance of the Sky Sabre system since 2017, with the first units introduced to British forces in the Falklands .

“It makes clear sense for both parties to further develop the collaboration so that Micad can be readily offered into the wider land GBAD program,” Simon Holford, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance director at Babcock, said during the Farnborough Airshow last month when the tie-up was announced.

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

伦敦——巴布科克国际公司在两周内签署了第二份协议，旨在为英国国防项目提供以色列技术。

这家英国公司与以色列航空航天工业公司及其子公司埃尔塔系统公司达成的最新协议旨在为国防部的“蛇形”（Serpens）计划提供远程雷达。

该项目价值超过 4 亿英镑（4.86 亿美元），是为英国陆军研发的下一代武器定位系统，该系统需要能够探测和发现敌方迫击炮、火炮和火箭弹。

根据协议，巴布科克公司将在英国提供埃尔塔公司久经实战考验的紧凑型多任务雷达。巴布科克公司在8月11日的一份声明中表示，该系统的部分生产和集成工作将在英国进行。

英国希望在 2026 年左右替换其目前由萨博公司提供的 Mamba 防空导弹系统。2020 年，这家瑞典公司获得了一份价值 4600 万英镑的合同，以延长该项目的寿命，直到 Serpens 防空导弹系统准备就绪。

与以色列航空工业公司 (IAI) 的协议是在巴布科克公司与另一家以色列公司签署协议，向英国陆军提供技术方案约两周后达成的——这次是为新的地面防空能力提供作战管理、指挥、控制、通信、计算机和情报能力。

巴布科克公司与拉斐尔先进防御系统公司签署了谅解备忘录，向国防部的“天空军刀”地面防空导弹系统项目提供后者的Micad平台。该项目基于欧洲MBDA财团制造的通用防空模块化导弹。

自 2017 年以来，巴布科克和拉斐尔公司一直在天空佩刀系统的交付和维护方面开展合作，首批设备已交付给驻扎在福克兰群岛的英国军队。

“双方进一步发展合作，以便Micad能够随时投入到更广泛的陆地地面防空防御计划中，这对双方来说显然是有意义的，”巴布科克公司情报、监视和侦察主管西蒙·霍尔福德在上个月的范堡罗航展上宣布合作时表示。

Andrew Chuter 是《防务新闻》的英国记者。