Recent News

The VT Group has buckled to shareholder pressure and agreed to start talks with rival Babcock International about a potential £1.25bn deal to create a support services company with interests in defence, nuclear and rail.

VT and Babcock confirmed on 4th March 2010, they had “agreed a basis for a read more »

Construction has begun on the first of a new fleet of 60 tracked, armoured, earthmoving vehicles, which will give the Royal Engineers a powerful and versatile route clearing capability.

Manufacture of the first production hull for the new 'Terrier' vehicle began earlier this year at BAE Systems' Newcastle factory and read more »

Steel-cutting on a section of the hull of the first of the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers began at Portsmouth Thursday 25 February 2010.
 
Portsmouth, which will be the future home of both Queen Elizabeth Class carriers, became the fifth UK shipyard to be involved in read more »

SELEX Galileo, a Finmeccanica Company, has received a £19m Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar Technology Demonstrator Programme (TDP) contract from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (UK MoD). The contract includes development and build of a first of type, multi-function, wide field of regard AESA radar providing increased capability read more »

The Royal Engineers have fired their latest weapon in the battle against the Taliban for the first time, an exploding hose which punches safe passage through suspected IED belts.

The Python rocket is a trailer-mounted, rocket-propelled mine-clearing system pulled behind the Trojan armoured engineer tank. The Python system fires a read more »

A range of new technologies was showcased at the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) by UK companies that have recently been awarded research funding by the MoD.

Minister for Strategic Defence Acquisition Reform, Lord Drayson, said:
"The Centre for Defence Enterprise is a bridge for small and medium companies, read more »

British Airways as announced it would use low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from 2014 once Europe's first sustainable jet-fuel plant was built by US biofuels specialist Solena Group.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh said the "unique partnership" with Solena would put the airline on the road to read more »

Thales UK has announces that it has been awarded a contract by BAE Systems to upgrade three Trafalgar-class and three Astute- class submarines with the Sonar 2076 Stage 5 system.

These submarines are currently fitted with the 2076 Stage 4 system. Once all the work is completed, 2076 Stage 5 read more »

The Defence Green Paper, “Adaptability and Partnership: Issues for a Strategic Defence Review” (Cm 7794), was published on 3 February 2010.  The closing date for comment on the paper is 1st April 2010.

The Green Paper is the first part of the process leading to a new Strategic Defence Review, read more »

The Soteria Consortium has been chosen to provide a harmonised Search and Rescue Helicopter (SAR-H) service for the UK well into the 21st century, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Transport announced on Wednesday 10th February.

The MOD and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) together currently provide read more »

HMS Illustrious arrived at Rosyth on Tuesday 9th February in preparation for a 13 month docking period to start next month, in a £40 million contract awarded under the Surface Ship Support Alliance (the alliance between the MoD, Babcock and BAE Systems). This is the fifth refit to be undertaken read more »

General Dynamics UK and the MoD's Defence Support Group (DSG) have signed a high-level agreement on the FRES Specialist Vehicle (SV) programme. The Memorandum of Understanding would see substantial work taking place at DSG's Donnington facilities and become the basis for a long-term relationship in support of the UK's defence read more »

The Royal Navy warship HMS Chatham has arrived in the Gulf of Aden to take part in NATO's counter-piracy mission, Operation OCEAN SHIELD, off the Horn of Africa and in the Somali Basin.

The Plymouth-based Type 22 frigate and multi-national task groups are helping protect merchant ships, many of which read more »

The Ministry of Defence and Babcock have finalised a ground-breaking continuous engineering support (CES) arrangement for the long term support of Landing Craft.

The Royal Navy operates a flotilla of 33 craft made up of Landing Craft Utility (LCU) and Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP) operating from the Amphibious Capital read more »

A NEW cannon with innovative ammunition is on the way for Warrior and the first FRES  vehicles. 

DE&S has signed a contract for the supply of hardware for the 40mm Cased Telescoped Cannon and Ammunition System to support demonstration trials for both vehicles.

The new design sees the projectile packed read more »

A Royal Air Force officer became the first active-duty service pilot from the United Kingdom to take to the skies in a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

RAF Squadron Leader Steve Long piloted the F-35B over the US Naval Air Station Patuxent read more »

Defence Estates (DE) has awarded QinetiQ a contract to manage the Ministry of Defence's air weapons training activity in the UK over the next three years.

The contract, worth over £5 million, includes an option to extend the arrangement by up to two years.

The new deal comes into effect read more »

A foggy grey Cornish afternoon was the setting for the first landings of an amphibious exercise taking place last week off the south west coast of Britain involving Royal Navy ships,Royal Marines and soldiers.

Exercise South West Sword was designed to test Plymouth-based assault ship HMS Albion's capabilities as the read more »

The first four upgraded Lynx Mk9 helicopters, which are to be sent to Afghanistan, have re-entered service, with three of the aircraft now being used for training, prior to deployment, at 9 Regiment Army Air Corps in Dishforth, North Yorkshire.

The upgrades on initially twelve Mk9s were ordered by the read more »

Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has signed an innovative service contract worth £865 million with the UK Ministry of Defence to support the Royal Air Force's fleet of Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft which are powered by EJ200 engines, assembled by Rolls-Royce in Bristol.

Under the terms of the contract, which read more »

Contracts worth £333m have been awarded by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) to companies across the United Kingdom to help build the Royal Navy's new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

Five sub-contracts have been awarded to suppliers from Glasgow to Portsmouth for equipment to be installed on the ships and read more »

Contracts have been signed for the RAF's seventh C-17 strategic transport aircraft to increase the size of the fleet that has seen heavy usage during recent operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Boeing C-17 Globemaster has proven extremely popular with the RAF and can operate in both strategic and tactical read more »

The head of European plane maker Airbus is preparing to ditch its A400M military transport project which is bogged down in talks with clients, a German press report said on Tuesday 5th January 2010.

Thomas Enders reportedly told a group of Airbus directors last month he "no longer believed in read more »

The past year has, on the whole, been a very positive year for Defence Solutions Ltd.  Whilst the first 6 months proved to be rather steady, the last 6 months has seen our business steadily grow, the result of which has also caused us to increase our number of staff.

One of the Royal Navy's most advanced Type 23 frigates has re-entered operational service, fitted with Thales's Sonar 2087 system, following a period of intensive sea trials.

HMS Sutherland has been declared fit for operational service after trials of its major sonar and defensive systems, and now becomes the sixth read more »

The Ministry of Defence will give a major boost to the military helicopter fleet with the provision of 22 new Chinook helicopters, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth announced on Tuesday 15 December 2009.

The first ten new Chinooks will start to roll off the production line in 2012 and be completed read more »

Statistics released by UK Trade & Investment’s Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) show that the UK was the second most successful global exporter in 2008, achieving £4.2b, 17% share of the global market for defence exports, close to the longer term target figure of 20%.

Over the last 5 read more »

Plans to reprioritise Defence spending to help achieve success in Afghanistan, the top military priority, and balance the books, have been announced by Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth on Tuesday 15 December 2009.

The MOD has therefore announced today a £900m package of enhancements for operations in Afghanistan. This package will read more »

The first of 62 Wildcat helicopters which have been ordered for the Royal Navy and Army has successfully undertaken its first test flight at AgustaWestland's Yeovil plant in Somerset

The Wildcat represents a considerable advance over its well-established predecessor, Lynx, benefiting from simpler and more robust airframe construction, fully integrated read more »

As part of the asssistance that Defence Solutions Ltd is providing to the Team Humber Marine Alliance, we arranged for 9 companies, from the Hull and Humber area, to visit the Defence Support Group (DSG) at Catterick on the 12 November 2009.  Besides being briefed by the Head of Strategy read more »

A report has revealed that BAE Systems Surface Ships, formerly BVT Surface Fleet, added almost £6million to the UK economy and supported almost 15,000 jobs last year, demonstrating the economic and social value of the warship industry to the UK.

The study by the University of Strathclyde's Fraser of Allander read more »

A major research fund aiming to reduce traffic congestion and improve the UK’s transport infrastructure has officially opened to applications.

Funded through the Technology Strategy Board’s Intelligent Transport Systems and Services Innovation Platform, a total of £10 million is up for grabs through the new Informed Logistics competition.                     

Organisations are read more »

BAE Systems has announced, on 30th October, that it has acquired VT Group's 45% shareholding in BVT Surface Fleet Limited (BVT).

BVT is now wholly owned by BAE Systems and will be renamed BAE Systems Surface Ships Limited.

Nigel Whitehead, BAE Systems' Group Managing Director, Programmes & Support, said: "Bringing read more »

After an ISO 9001 Continuing Assessment visit, from one of the BSI assessment team, Defence Solutions received an excellent report and because we had encompassed the new 2008 regulations into our Quality Management System we have been upgraded to ISO 9001 - 2008.

Certainly, it is excellent news not just read more »

Please make a note of our new address, telephone and fax numbers;

Defence Solutions Ltd
Melton Court
Gibson Lane
Melton
Hull
HU14 3HH

Telephone Number: +44 (0) 1482 638460

Fax Number: +44 (0) 1526 322782

A ground-breaking armour system and a fleet of new armoured vehicles that will provide

better protection to troops in Afghanistan was unveiled at the (DVD) event on Wednesday 24

June 2009.

The revolutionary, textile-based TARIAN vehicle armour system will give lightweight

protection against rocket-propelled grenades, in place of the current bar read more »

Defence Solutions Ltd has been successful in becoming a participating contractor in the MoD Multi-Particpant Framework Agreement for Technical Support - FATS/3 contract.  Whilst Defence Solutions Ltd had already been an MoD FATS2 contractor it is particuarly pleasing to be once again accredited and the company looks foward to responding read more »