Qimtek

East Midlands based Atlas Composites is gearing up for a busy few months after winning a prestigious contract with British Cycling to help boost their chances of track success.

With the nation full of sporting anticipation over the next few weeks, carbon fibre composite components manufactured by Atlas Composites at its 25,000 square foot production facility, will hopefully help steer our cyclists to velodrome glory.

Thales UK has signed a £25m sub-contract to deliver a high-tech communication system for the Royal Navy's two new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

This contract win, which secures up to 50 local jobs at Thales's Crawley site, covers onboard and fleetwide communications, and is an important milestone in the develop ment programme for these ships, which will be named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

Sheffield heavy engineering concern, DavyMarkham has been awarded a massive $20 million order for the supply of mining hoists and associated electrical drives and controls, by top mid-tier gold producer IAMGOLD Corporation of Toronto, Canada. The contract includes the largest double drum hoist supplied to North America in recent times, with a diameter of 21ft (6.4m), a drum width of 8ft (2.4m) and a payload capacity of 44,000lbs (20,000kg).

Rolls-Royce has signed a $700m production contract with the US Naval Air Systems Command to produce 370 AE 1107C-Liberty engines for the marine corps MV-22 and the air force s CV-22 Osprey aircraft.

The five-year contract coincides with the first combat deployment of MV-22 aircraft that took place earlier this month.

QinetiQ expertise developed on Zephyr will be key to the programme's success.

Boeing has selected QinetiQ as its key technology partner for the $3.8m phase one portion of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Vulture air vehicle programme. QinetiQ's world-leading knowledge in solar-electric Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) will play a key role in meeting DARPA's objective to create a new category of ultra-long-endurance aircraft.

Rolls-Royce is to design and equip one of the world s most advanced seismic research vessels for China. The £13 million contract is also its first such contract in the important Chinese market for offshore seismic vessels.

The seismic streamer vessel has been ordered by BGP Marine China, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Company (CNPC). It will operate worldwide in support of oil and gas exploration and production.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has awarded Aker Solutions a contract worth $34m for a deepwater marine drilling riser.

The contract covers the delivery of a complete drilling riser system for a drillship with buoyancy package and associated equipment for a drillship that DSME is currently building.

ABB has been awarded $170m to supply two HVDC (high-voltage, direct current) converter stations for the Fenno-Skan 2 power link between Finland and Sweden.

The converter stations will be part of an 800MW extension of the existing 550MW Fenno-Skan 1 link, which was delivered by ABB in 1989.

Rolls-Royce announced today that Sichuan Airlines has chosen Trent 700 engines to power its fleet of three leased Airbus A330-200 twinjets from AerCap. The order includes a long term TotalCare® services agreement.

Mr. Lan Xinguo, Chairman of Sichuan Airlines said: The introduction of new-generation widebody aircraft to our fleet in 2010 will mark another phase in the growth of Sichuan Airlines. The Trent 700 will provide us with the best performance and flexibility for our Airbus A330 operations.

The US Army has awarded BAE Systems a contract worth $7m to upgrade its Bradley advanced training systems (BATS).

The contract covers the upgrades to the command and control of 34 previously fielded BATS and 17 systems currently being manufactured.

According to BAE Systems, the upgraded devices will help to train crew coordination skills in desert, urban and woodland terrain environments.

BAE Systems will carry out the upgrade work at its Orlando, Florida site.