BAE Systems is working at building up a low-profile Australian business in high-frequency radio technology, a key aim being to export skywave over-the-horizon radars.

BAE Systems Chairman Sir Roger Carr has described the company’s planned acquisitions of Collins’ Aerospace Military Global Positioning System and Raytheon’s Airborne Tactical Radios business as being at the “sweet spot” of the company’s strategic ambition.

The service says there are sufficient quantities of the airborne system to support the National Defense Strategy.

A multi-target air-to-air weapon and gun-armed close-support missile are among new projects DARPA plans to launch in fiscal 2021. New approaches to communicating in contested environments, attacking signals and countering laser weapons are also on the list.

The Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 defense budget request is “flat” for the Pentagon but doubles down on space, hypersonic and cyber capabilities against China, Russia and others and would make recent changes to the national security structure “irreversible,” officials said Feb 10.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), one of two large warship manufacturing companies for U.S. naval services, is continuing to make headway in its efforts to diversify its business portfolio with a major new U.S. Air Force contract to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

The U.S. Air Force is planning to hold its second demonstration of the Advanced Battle Management System in April, in which an unmanned aircraft system will fly with a government-owned open communication system used for translating waveforms to communicate with the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.

BAE is expected to pay $1.925 billion for Collins’ GPS business and another $275 million for Raytheon’s radio business