pART b.Military continuedThe Kronsberg court case is very...

pART b.

Military continued
The Kronsberg court case is very unlikely to succeed as in part, they are currently not in qualified production, and hence Kongsberg can't be awarded contracts under a UMR order (Urgent Material Request). This is Kongsberg’s last chance to be awarded a “sole source” contract and if they lose, basically they can't tender again until 2008 at which time CROWS will have fielded around 2000 units and be embedded in the armed forces. (This is why Kongsberg is fighting so hard) The company is not too concerned as I think no company has won such a case before, even in “peace” times concerning the awarding of sole source contracts and the fact Kongsberg is a Norwegian company. General consensus is that the US Army alone requires around 9000 of these CROWS units going forward and funding will be at least for 1,000 units per year from 2008 onwards. Demand is likely to also come from the Air Force and Navy who are currently in testing.

One of EOS's senior directors (Ben Greene) is also relocating to the US to oversee the Tucson (CROWS) plant until the plant is running to capacity.

EOS is also developing the “Redback” unit which is a lighter version of CROWS which utilises the MS barrel and Singapore Technologies ammunition. Singapore Technologies is a Government owned business which sees strong potential for the Redback product in Asia. Their involvement will likely open up the market for EOS military products in Asia also.

Another product EOS is developing (which they are yet to announce) and is currently in testing is called “CROWS Light”,

Space tracking
Basically, this business unit is largely classified. Little comment was made at the AGM, only to say funding is expected as a best case by mid next year.

Comment: they did mention that the Australian/US Governments have recently put in place (the first ever)