While the present climate for the defense industry has most of the major players and in turn their sub-contractors wary of making any strong predictions of how their business will fare into 2011, over two dozen contract awards worth in excess of a billion dollars were noted over November to December in the ADS report “Defense Electronics Industry Review: November-December 2010”.  Some examples included: 

• Northrop Grumman could expect to receive an approximately $920 m share of the entire $2.3 bn award for the purchase of up to 670 LITENING SE advanced targeting pods through 2017 as part of the Air Force's Advanced Targeting Pod – Sensor Enhancement (ATP-SE) program
• Other Navy news included another success for Lockheed Martin for $97 m award for the DDG AEGIS production contract
• Boeing gained an extension to its Small Diameter Bomb contract with a $106 m award;
• LONGBOW Limited Liability Company, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, received a $26.8 m contract from the US Army Aviation and Missile Command for LONGBOW Fire Control Radar (FCR) Life Cycle Contractor Support;
• The French arms procurement agency DGA awarded Astrium a €795 m contract for two satellites for the optical space component (CSO) that will replace the current HELIOS 2 military observation satellites.
• Raytheon received a contract totaling $240 m for the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke class of warships for AEGIS radar systems.

Merger & Acquisition activity in the sector remains steady and could increase thanks to cash rich larger firms looking to secure market share moving into 2011.  Investment in next-generation materials and device technologies continues as evidenced by TriQuint receiving a $17.5 M manufacturing development contract from the US Air Force. US and allied nations therefore look to be well set for access to the new technologies that can further boost force effectiveness.In addition, there have been new orders placed for parts in several key new programs. High profile once again has been the implementation of new-generation AESA radars for both airborne and shipboard platforms. Much of this has been confined to the US but Cassidian Electronics also reported further progress for its E-SCAN phased array radar technology with an award from the German Navy.