Defence`s Feeds

BAE Systems has received a contract to manufacture and deliver five Bofors 40 Mk4 Naval Guns for the Brazilian Navy's 500T Macae-class patrol vessels.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

B-52 Stratofortress bomber doing what it does best.

The photographs in this post were taken during a combined live fire demonstration in Wadi Shadiya, Jordan, May 18.

They show a B-52H from 2nd Bomb Wing, from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, drop some 500-lb GBU-38 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs during the “monumental military demonstration” that was the final event of Exercise “Eager Lion” a recurring multinational exercise designed to strengthen military-to-military relationships, increase interoperability between partner nations, and enhance regional security and stability.

Noteworthy, the two B-52 Stratofortress bombers that marked the first participation of strategic bombers to Eager Lion, performed a 30-plus hour, 14,000 mile nonstop mission to the U.S. Central Command area of operations.

They coordinated the attack with Jordanian JTACs (Joint Terminal Attack Controllers) and, after the attack run, overflew the range escorted by two Royal Jordanian Air Force F-16s.

In addition to 5,000 U.S. servicemen, the two-week yearly exercise saw the participation of Jordanian forces as well as contingents from 16 other countries for a total force of about 10,000 troops.

The exercise was held among five sites across Jordan and based on the scenario of a friendly contingent committed to the aid of an allied nation under threat by an aggressive neighbor. Along with the U.S. Air Force strategic bombers, Jordanian tactical planes and U.S. Army helicopters of the 185th Theater Aviation Brigade’s aviation task force, EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) teams, Seabees and patrol craft were used to perform port security in Aqaba, Jordan’s only coastal city, while a Marine crisis-response force out of Kuwait took part in the drills, practicing non-combatant evacuation operation (NCO) by means of MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft in the north.

Image credit: U.S. Marine Corps

 

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The System Design Authority is part of Maritime Platform Systems, which itself is part of the Ships Operating Centre within the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation.

The European Defence Agency and the Egmont Institute are proud to announce that the 2015 EDA-Egmont PhD prize has been awarded to Mr. Andrea Gilli for his research work on armaments cooperation.

The EDA-Egmont PhD prize was created in 2013 to stimulate research in the field of European defence, security and strategy. The prize rewards research work undertaken as part of a PhD thesis carried out at a recognised academic institution.

The 2015 was awarded to Andrea Gilli, Post-doctoral Fellow, Center for Security Studies, Metropolitan University Prague, for his thesis entitled “Unipolarity, Technological Change and Arms Manufacturing: Industrial Alliances in the European Defense Industry”.

“Tackling the issue of armaments cooperation, which is not just highly political but also very technical, takes daring on the part of a young PhD candidate – Andrea Gilli has succeeded brilliantly”, Prof Sven Biscop of Egmont, Jury Chair, underlines. “His dissertation is most enlightening and very readable, for academics and practitioners alike. Unlike many dissertations about European topics, Gilli does not attempt to bring a good news show. Instead he demonstrates why armaments cooperation is most difficult where intuitively one would expect it to be most evident. From that dour lesson, policy implications can be drawn and a way for the future charted. A well-earned doctorate, to which the jury unanimously added the 2nd EDA-Egmont Prize”.

Eight thesis were submitted for the EDA-Egmont Prize. The award jury, chaired by Prof Sven Biscop, was composed of Mr. Jorge Domecq, EDA Chief Executive; General Patrick de Rousiers, EU Military Committee Chairman; Dr Antonio Missiroli, EUISS Director; Prof Jolyon Howorth, University of Bath / Yale University; Dr Hilmar Linnenkamp, Adviser SWP; and Prof Richard Whitman, University of Kent.

“The EDA-Egmont PhD prize is meant to boost innovative research in the field of European defence and security”, EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq stresses. “This year’s winner will not only be awarded a €2000 grant but will also have the opportunity to share his views with high-level executives during the upcoming EDA Annual Conference on 16 November, effectively bridging the gap between research and European policy-making mechanisms”, he adds.

 

More information

• European Defence Agency

  eric.platteau@eda.europa.eu / +32 (0)2 504 2823

• Egmont Institute
  s.biscop@egmontinstitute.be / +32 (0)2 213 40 23

 

In addition, to the plenary session, there were two panels at this year’s MCIS conference. The second, on the role of military and political instruments in ensuring regional and global stability was the more interesting of the two. The main speaker was Andrey Kartopolov, the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian military’s General Staff. Kartapolov focused on the threats posed to Russia by NATO.

He started by reminding the audience that NATO was founded to stop the spread of Communism in Europe. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in 1991, the new Russia sought to become close to the West. The Russian government made unprecedented concessions to the West, including removing its troops from Europe and handing over its military bases to the countries of Eastern Europe. The west took this as a demonstration of Russian weakness, rather than an offer of peace and partnership. The US wanted to be the sole superpower and chose to ignore Russian interests. Washington saw Russia as a source of cheap resources that it would like to control. In order to achieve these goals, the US has consistently sought to weaken Russia’s influence in the international system and in the post-Soviet space.

NATO has brought its military infrastructure up to Russia’s borders. As a result, the entire territory of European Russia is under the threat of NATO air attack, with the time it would take NATO assets to reach critical Russian infrastructure having been cut in half. This is why a number of military facilities in the Baltic States, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria have been modernized to NATO standard since 2008. Furthermore, NATO is organizing military equipment storage bases on the territory of a number of East European states. This will allow NATO to rapidly deploy its first response forces near our borders and also decrease the amount of time it will take for additional forces to be transferred from the continental US and from Britain. Support agreements signed with Finland and Sweden have legitimized the presence of NATO forces on the territory of these countries and will allow the use of their infrastructure for the transfer of coalition forces to northern Europe.

NATO has increased its military strength in recent years, as the US has provided modern arms to its East European allies, including JASSM LRCMs. This will allow NATO to attack targets deep in Russian territory while avoiding Russian air defenses.

At the same time, the US is still trying to convince Russia that its strategic missile defense systems do not present a threat to Russia while refusing to take into account that Standard-3 missiles could in the future be capable of intercepting Russian ICBMs. Furthermore, the vertical launchers used by missile defense systems could also be used to launch Tomahawk missiles.

Since the start of the crisis in Ukraine, NATO activity has become strongly anti-Russian in its nature. Under the banner of countering Russian expansion, the alliance has systematically expanded its military presence on Russia’s borders. At the present time, NATO has instituted a constant rotational presence of military forces in Eastern Europe, including up to 30 combat aircraft, at least 300 pieces of armor, and more than 1500 US military personnel. US and other NATO navies have almost constant ship presence in the Black Sea, while the frequency of reconnaissance aircraft flights have doubled compared to 2013. Since January 2015, there have been regular flights by Global Hawk UAVs over the Black Sea and in March they were expanded to include flights over Ukrainian airspace.

NATO exercise activity increased by 80% in 2014. Exercises such as Baltops and Sabre Strike were carried out next to Russia’s borders and were openly anti-Russian in their nature. During these exercises, the NATO forces group in the Baltic region included 10,000 personnel, 1500 pieces of armor, up to 80 aircraft, and around 50 combat ships. Five US strategic bombers were also involved, deploying from airfields in the UK.

In the aftermath of the Wales summit, NATO is planning additional increases in force structure for next year, including a rapid response force of 30,000 personnel and a spearhead force of 5,000 personnel that can be ready to deploy in 2-7 days. AThe deployment of these forces will be organized by six command centers that will be established in the Baltic States, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Kartapolov’s conclusions regarding NATO’s activity and intentions highlighted US efforts to turn NATO into an instrument designed to contain Russia and ensure US global dominance. He also highlighted that bringing NATO infrastructure to Russia’s borders will allow its air attack forces to penetrate deep into Russian territory, while reducing their response time, and in the future may allow the US to counter Russian strategic deterrence forces.

Kartapolov noted that Russia will have to take measures in response and argued that instead of mindlessly expanding NATO to include new members that were not ready for membership and placing members’ armed forces next to Russia’s borders, NATO should have been focusing on more significant threats (such as Islamic extremism and terrorism).

In good Soviet tradition, Kartapolov concluded his speech with a slide showing a citation from a speech by President Putin, in which he states that “Russia is not looking to start a military standoff with the West or to threaten anyone. But we will not allow anyone to use the language of force against us and will stand up for our national interests using all of the means at our disposal.”

In addition to General Kartapolov, there were several other speakers on the panel. Here are highlights from some of their remarks:

Jean Pierre Chevenement — French Special Representative on relations with Russia

• The crisis in Ukraine could have been avoided. Maintaining a frozen conflict is not in anyone’s interest, but will only help extremists.
• Need to declare Ukraine’s neutrality.
• Need to follow UNSC rules in order to avoid a new Cold War.

General Rivera — Head of Cuban military intelligence

• Color revolutions and hybrid warfare have become state policy for some countries.
• The US is still fighting against Cuba through subversion.
• Other Latin American states don’t interfere in each other’s affairs.

General Yao Yunzhu — Director of China-US Defense Relations Center

• Cold War legacies are still with us.
• New security mechanisms are needed to maintain stability in the world.
• US alliance networks in Asia-Pacific have become a de facto security architecture in the region.
• Asia needs a security architecture that includes China. China wants an inclusive security partnership, rather than alliances.
• The balance of nuclear forces prevented an active war during the Cold War period.
• The desire for absolute security on the part of any state will upset strategic stability.
• Missile defense upsets the balance of deterrence and could lead to future arms races.

Americas

• The Marine Corps has begun testing its F-35Bs aboard USS Wasp (LHD-1), with these tests set to last two weeks. Six of the aircraft are being tested for specific abilities as part of Operational Testing (OT-1); these include digital interoperability between aircraft and ship systems, something particularly sensitive given the aircraft’s recent software problems. The USMC decided to push ahead regardless of 2B software issues, with the intention of hitting IOC in July.

• Raytheon has further complicated the Air Force’s $1 billion 3DERLL radar program by appealing a federal judge’s decision last week to allow the Air Force to re-evaluate bids. The company previously filed a lawsuit when the Air Force tried to re-open the competition as a result of challenges by competitors Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

• The Air Force is planning on launching two X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles into orbit on Wednesday, which will see the testing of a plasma-based propulsion system previously reported here. This will be the fourth X-37 mission, with the mission also testing materials for NASA. The the third mission lasted 674 days, with no information on how long this latest will last.

• The Navy has laid down the keel of SSN 789 at Huntington Ingalls Industries. The Virginia-class fast attack sub is the newest of the class, following on the tails of the Colorado, which was laid-down in March. This new boat – the sixteenth – will be named the Indiana. Navy leader have been pushing for the Virginia-class to possess more firepower.

• On Tuesday the Army awarded LockheedMartin a $30 million modification to convert 200 ATM-114Q-6 Hellfire training missiles to ground-attack missiles (AGM-114R-9B-1), with the work set to last two years. Also on Tuesday the Navy awarded Whiting Turner Contract Co a $30.3 million contract to construct a power and propulsion high bay test facility at Philadelphia Navy Yard. The work is expected to run until November next year.

• The aircraft of the Navy’s Naval Air Arm in one graphic.

Europe

• Airbus has ordered software checks on the A400M aircraft following the crash of one of the aircraft earlier this month during a test flight. The company announced that it has released a notice to A400M customers asking them to inspect the aircraft’s Electronic Control Unit, which help control its Europrop International TP400-D6 turboprop engines. Europe’s largest defense project, the aircraft has been grounded by many users following the crash which killed four people. The aircraft has been ordered by eight nations.

• Russia will close [Russian] NATO’s supply line through its territory to Afghanistan. The rationale given is the end of provisions given under UN Security Council Resolution 1386, which cleared international troops to operate in the country, with this resolution expiring at the end of 2014. Although the number of NATO troops operating in the country is reduced from the number at the peak of the conflict and the use of Russia’s Ulyanovsk as a transit hub has subsided considerably, this closure will complicate the logistical resupply of the thousands of troops and support personnel remaining. The principle supply line is now through Pakistan. Russia threatened to close the supply line before in 2011, in an attempt to pressure NATO to limit its missile defense coverage.

Asia

• On Tuesday the Australian Defense Ministry announced a $61.4 million contract with Harris Corporation’s Australian subsidiary for tactical radio support, which will see the company maintaining 15,000 radios previously sold through various follow-on contracts in addition to an original 2010, $112 million contract.

• India is planning on deploying its SU-30MKI fighters to Britain later year, with a potential deployment to the US pencilled in for next year. The fighters will be accompanied by Il-78 refuelers, with the jets scheduled to take part in joint exercises with the Royal Air Force in July and August. If they head to the US, the Flankers may take part in the Air Force’s Red Flag exercise.

• However, one of the Indian Air Force’s Flanker fleet went down on Tuesday, with the pilots ejecting safely. The Indian fleet of SU-30MKIs has been plagued with reliability issues, with the entire fleet grounded in October last year following a similar crash.

Today’s Video

• Jumping out of a CH-47…

F-35B: off probation
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The $382 billion F-35 Joint Strike fighter program may well be the largest single global defense program in history. This major multinational program is intended to produce an “affordably stealthy” multi-role fighter that will have 3 variants: the F-35A conventional version for the US Air Force et. al.; the F-35B Short Take-Off, Vertical Landing for the US Marines, British Royal Navy, et. al.; and the F-35C conventional carrier-launched version for the US Navy. The aircraft is named after Lockheed’s famous WW2 P-38 Lightning, and the Mach 2, stacked-engine English Electric (now BAE) Lightning jet. Lightning II system development partners included The USA & Britain (Tier 1), Italy and the Netherlands (Tier 2), and Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Turkey (Tier 3), with Singapore and Israel as “Security Cooperation Partners,” and Japan as the 1st export customer.

The big question for Lockheed Martin is whether, and when, many of these partner countries will begin placing purchase orders. This updated article has expanded to feature more detail regarding the F-35 program, including contracts, sub-contracts, and notable events and reports during 2012-2013.

The F-35 Lightning II Fighter Family F-35 Family Variants: Door A, B, or C? Figure 1: F-35 Variants.

The above table illustrates the key differences between the baseline F-35A, the Short Take-Off, Vertical Landing (STOVL) capable F-35B, and the catapult-launched F-35C naval variant. Additional explanations follow.

The F-35A CTOL F-35A, doors open
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The F-35A is sometimes called the CTOL (Conventional Take-Off and Landing) version. It’s the USAF’s version, and is expected to make up most of the plane’s export orders. It’s also expected to be the least expensive F-35, in part because it will have the largest production run. The USAF currently estimates its average flyaway cost after 2017 at $108.3 million, but early production models ordered in FY 2012 will cost over $150 million.

Its main difference from other versions is its wider 9g maneuverability limits, though its air-air combat flight benchmarks are only on par with the F-16. Canard equipped “4+ generation” adversaries like the Eurofighter, and thrust-vectored fighters like the F-22A, MiG-35, SU-35, etc., will still enjoy certain kinetic advantages. The F-35 hopes to mitigate them using its improved stealth to shrink detection ranges, the lack of drag from weapons in its internal bays, and its current electronic superiority.

The second major physical difference between the F-35A and the rest of the Lightning family is its internal 25mm cannon, instead of using a weapons station for a semi-stealthy gun pod option. The USAF removed guns from some of its planes back in the 1960s, and didn’t enjoy the resulting experiences in Vietnam. It has kept guns on all of its fighters ever since, including the stealthy F-22 and F-35. Many allies wanted the 27mm Mauser cannon installed instead, as it’s widely believed to offer the world’s best combination of firing rate and hitting power. In the end, however, ammunition standardization benefits involving 25mm land and sea platforms trumped pure performance.

The 3rd difference is that the F-35A uses a dorsal refueling receptacle that is refueled using an aerial tanker boom, instead of the probe-and-drogue method favored by the US Navy and many American allies.

The F-35A was the first variant to fly, in 2009. Unfortunately, it looks like it won’t reach Initial Operational Capability (IOC) until 2017 or 2018.

The F-35B STOVL (Short Take-Off, Vertical Landing) F-35B features
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The F-35B is expected to be the most expensive Lightning II fighter variant. According to US Navy documents, even planes bought after 2017 are expected to have an average flyaway cost of $135 million each. It will serve the US Marines, Royal Navy, other navies with ski-ramp equipped LHDs or small carriers, and militaries looking for an “expeditionary airplane” that can take off in short distances and land vertically. To accomplish this, the F-35B has a large fan behind the cockpit, and nozzles that go out to the wing undersides. Unlike the F-35A, it will use a retractable mid-air refueling probe, which is standard for the US Navy and for many American allies.

Those capabilities gives the plane a unique niche, but a unique niche also means unique challenges, and the responses to those challenges have changed the aircraft. In 2005, the JSF program took a 1-year delay because the design was deemed overweight by about 3,000 pounds. The program decided to reduce weight rather than run the engine hotter, because the latter choice would have sharply reduced the durability of engine components and driven life cycle costs higher. Weight cutting became a focus of various engineering teams, with especial focus on the F-35B because the weight was most critical to that design. Those efforts pushed the F-35B’s design, and changed its airframe. The F-35B gives up some range, some bomb load (it cannot carry 2,000 pound weapons internally, and the shape of its bay may make some weapons a challenge to carry), some structural strength (7g maneuvers design maximum), and the 25mm internal gun.

The F-35B completed its Critical Design Review in October 2006, and the 2nd production F-35 was a STOVL variant. Per the revised Sept 16/10 program plan, the USMC’s VMA-332 in Yuma, AZ must have 10 F-35Bs equipped with Block IIB software, with 6 aircraft capable of austere and/or ship-based operations, and all aircraft meeting the 7g and 50-degree angle of attack specifications, in order to declare Initial Operational Capability.

Flight testing began in 2009, and IOC was expected by December 2012, but flight testing fell way behind thanks to a series of technical delays. By 2013, the first operational planes were fielded to the USMC at Yuma, AZ. The USMC is currently aiming for a 2015 IOC, but it would involve just Block 2B software loads that will limit the F-35B’s combat capability. Even then, the Pentagon’s 2012 DOT&E report isn’t grounds for software schedule optimism. Planes with full Block 3 initial combat capability are unlikely to be fielded before 2018.

The F-35C carrier-based fighter USN F-35C
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The F-35C is instantly recognizable. It features 30% more wing area than other designs, with larger tails and control surfaces, plus wingtip ailerons. These changes provide the precise slow-speed handling required for carrier approaches, and extend range a bit. The F-35C’s internal structure is strengthened to withstand the punishment dished out by the catapult launches and controlled crashes of carrier launch and recovery, an arrester hook is added to the airframe, and the fighter gets a retractable refueling probe. According to US Navy documents, average flyaway costs for F-35Cs bought after 2017 will be $125.9 million each.

The US Navy gave up the internal gun, and the aircraft will be restricted to 7.5g maneuvers. That’s only slightly lower than the existing F/A-18E Super Hornet’s 7.6g, but significantly lower than the 9g limit for Dassault’s carrier-capable Rafale-M.

The F-35C is expected to be the US Navy’s high-end fighter, as well as its high-end strike aircraft. This means that any performance or survivability issues will have a disproportionate effect on the US Navy’s future ability to project power around the world.

The F-35C will be the last variant designed; it passed its Critical Design Review in June 2007, and the first production version was scheduled to fly in January 2009. The F-35C’s rollout did not take place until July 2009, however, and first flight didn’t take place until June 2010. Initial Operational Capability was scheduled for 2014, but looks set to slip to 2019.

F-35s: Key Features F-35 Variants
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Stealth. The F-35 is designed as an ‘affordable stealth’ counterpart to the F-22 Raptor air dominance fighter, one that can share “first day of the war” duties against defended targets but can’t perform air-air or air-ground missions to the same standard. The F-35 has a larger single engine instead of the Raptor’s twin thrust-vectoring F119s, removing both supercruise (sustained flight above Mach 1) and super-maneuverability options. The F-22A is also a much stealthier aircraft from all angles, and independent analysis & modeling has concluded that the F-35’s stealth will be weaker from the sides and the rear. Even so, the F-35 is an improvement over existing ‘teen series’ fighters and even beats Generation 4+ options like the Eurofighter, Rafale, and JAS-39 Gripen.

Engine. The F-35 was set to offer interchangeable engine options. That has been an important feature for global F-16 and F-15 customers, improving both costs and performance, and providing added readiness insurance for dual-engine fleets. Pratt & Whitney’s lobbying eventually forced GE & Rolls-Royce’s F136 out of the F-35 program, and made their F135-PW-100 engine the only choice for global F-35 fleets. A special F-135-PW-600 version with Rolls Royce’s LiftFan add-on, and a nozzle that can rotate to point down, will power the vertical-landing F-35B.

The US military had better hope that an engine design problem never grounds all of their fighters. While they’re at it, they should hope that maintenance contracts somehow remain reasonable in the absence of any competitive alternative.

F-35’s APG-81
AESA Radar
click to play video

Sensors. The Lightning II will equipped to levels that would once have defined a high-end reconnaissance aircraft. Its advanced APG-81 AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar is smaller and less powerful than the F-22A’s APG-77v1; but still offers the strong AESA advantages of simultaneous air-air and air-ground capabilities, major maintenance & availability improvements, and secure, high-bandwidth communications benefits. The F-35 also shares a “sensor fusion” design advance with the F-22, based on sensors of various types embedded all around the airframe. This sensor set is even more extensive than the F-22’s. Both planes will be able to perform as reconnaissance aircraft, though the F-35 will have superior infrared and ground-looking sensors. Both aircraft will also have the potential to act as electronic warfare aircraft.

These sensors are connected to a lot of computing power, in order to create single-picture view that lets the pilot see everything on one big 20″ LCD screen and just fly the plane, rather than pushing buttons to switch from one view to another and trying to figure it all out. As part of that sensor fusion, the F-35 will be the first plane is several decades to fly without a heads-up display. Instead, pilots will wear Elbit/Rockwell’s JHMDS helmet or BAE’s HMSS, and have all of that information projected wherever they look.

Maintenance. The F-35 has a large number of design features that aim to simplify maintenance and keep life cycle costs down. Since operations and maintenance are usually about 65% or more of a fighter’s lifetime cost, this is one the most important and overlooked aspects of fighter selection.

Stealth aircraft have always had much higher maintenance costs, but the F-35’s designers hope that new measures can reverse that trend. Some of the plane’s stealth coatings are being baked into composite airplane parts, for instance, in the hope that customers will need fewer “Martians” (Materials Application and Repair Specialists) around to apply stealth tapes and putties before each mission. Technical innovations like self-diagnosing aircraft wiring aim to eliminate one of the toughest problems for any mechanic, and the fleet-wide ALIS information and diagnostic system is designed to shift the fleet from scheduled maintenance to maintenance only as needed.

Despite these measure, March 2012 operations and maintenance projections have the F-35 at 142% O&M cost, relative to any F-16s they’ll replace. It remains to be seen if the advantages of F-35 innovations manage to fulfill their promise, or if projections that they’ll be outweighed in the end by increased internal complexity, and by the proliferation of fault-prone electronics, come true. That has certainly been the general trend over the last 50 years of fighter development, with a very few notable exceptions like the F-16, A-10, and JAS-39.

Pimp My Ride: Weapons & Accessories Initial hopes – changed
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The F-35’s internal weapon bay gives it the ability to carry larger bombs and missiles, but the price is that F-35s can carry just 2 internal air-to-air weapons, instead of a maximum of 8 on the F-22A. As the F-35 variant table (Fig. 1) shows, development, testing, and software issues have also combined to give initial F-35 fleets a very narrow set of weapons. The initial operational set that comes with Block III software has about the same weapon options as the single-role F-22A.

That’s expected to change, eventually. A large order base, and a wide international client base, will provide considerable incentive for manufacturers to qualify their weapons for the F-35. MBDA has already pledged a compatible version of its long-range Meteor air-air missile, for instance, and Britain wants to add MBDA’s SPEAR medium-range strike missile as soon as possible. Other manufacturers can be expected to follow. Norway is already developing its stealthy Joint Strike Missile with the F-35 as its explicit target, including the ability to fit the missile into the plane’s internal bays. Denmark’s Terma has turned their 25mm gun pod into a multi-mission pod that can accept a variety of sensors and equipment. Lockheed Martin’s Israeli customer is already incorporating its own electronic counter-measures systems in their F-35i, and they are certain to push for a range of Israeli weapons, including the Python-5 SRAAM(Short Range Air-to-Air Missile) and various other smart bombs and missiles.

The bottlenecks will be two-fold.

The 1st bottleneck is American insistence on retaining all source codes, and having Lockheed Martin perform all modifications at their reprogramming facility. Unless Lockheed produces a full development environment workaround, dealing with the growing queue of requests can easily become a problem. The firm’s new Universal Armament Interface could offer the foundation for a way forward, if they decide to take it. The other question involves conflict-of-interest issues, in which Lockheed Martin or the US government decides to use the bottleneck as a way of shutting competitors out of a potential export market. These kinds of concerns have already led to pushback in Australia, Britain, and Israel.

The 2nd bottleneck involves testing resources. The F-35 testing program has fallen significantly behind schedule, and IOCs for some versions have already slipped by 5-6 years. Test time required to qualify new equipment is going to be a very secondary priority until 2018-2019, and even the few customers buying their own Initial Operational Testing & Evaluation (IOT&E) fighters are going to need them for their assigned training roles.

The F-35 Family: Controversies and Competitions See me, hear me?
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The program’s biggest controversies revolve around 3 issues: effectiveness, affordability, and control. A 4th issue, noise, isn’t significant yet, but could become so.

Effectiveness: When the F-35 Lightning II is compared with the larger and more expensive F-22A, the Raptor is a much stealthier aircraft, and its stealth is more uniform. The F-35’s design is optimized for “low-observable” stealth when viewed from the front, with less stealth to radars looking at it from the sides, and less still when targeted from the rear. It also lacks the Raptor’s supercruise (sustained flight above Mach 1) and super-maneuverability thrust-vectoring options, which work with stealth to help the F-22 engage and disengage from combat at will. Lockheed Martin claims that the F-35 design is optimized for trans-sonic acceleration, but testing results question those claims, and the Raptor can cruise without afterburners at the F-35’s theoretical maximum speed. That’s important, because fuel usage skyrockets with afterburners on, limiting total supersonic time for fighters like the F-35.

These relative drawbacks have led to questions about the F-35’s continued suitability against the most modern current air defense threats, and against the evolved threats it can expect to face over a service lifetime that’s expected to stretch until 2050 at least.

F-35 EO DAS
click for video

Where the F-35 does come out ahead is internal carriage space. F-35A/C variants will offer larger capacity internal bays for weapons, allowing a wider selection of stealth-preserving internal ordnance. The price is that slight bulges were added to the production F-35’s underside profile in order to accommodate that space, making them less stealthy from the side than the original X-35 designs.

Sensors are another F-35 advantage. All F-35s also boast more embedded sensors than the F-22, with an especial advantage in infrared and ground-looking sensors. Though this feature has yet to be tested in combat, the F-35’s all-aspect Distributed Aperture Sensors (DAS) reportedly allow 360-degree targeting of aircraft around the F-35. If that works, the inertial guidance and datalink features of modern infrared missiles like the AIM-9X Sidewinder and AIM-132 ASRAAM can already take full advantage of it.

Which customers can live with these relative disadvantages as an acceptable trade-off, and which will be badly hurt by them? Will the F-35 be a fighter that’s unable to handle high-end scenarios, while also being far too expensive to field and operate in low-end scenarios? Even if that’s true, could countries who want one type of multi-role fighter still be best served by the F-35, as opposed to other options? That will depend, in part, on…

F-35 commonality
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Affordability: The F-35 family was designed to be much more affordable than the F-22, but a number of factors are narrowing that gap.

One is cost growth in the program. This has been documented by the GAO, and statements and reports from the US DoD are beginning to follow the same kind of “rising spiral of admissions” pattern seen in past programs.

The 2nd is loss of parts commonality between the 3 models, which the GAO has cited as falling below the level required to produce significant savings. In March 2013, the JSF PEO placed the figure at just 25-30%.

A 3rd is production policy. The US GAO in particular believes that the program’s policy of beginning production several years before testing is complete, only adds to the risks of future price hikes and operating cost shocks. It also forces a lot of expensive rewaork to jets that are bought before problems are found. Part of the rationale for accepting concurrency risks and costs involves…

The 4th factor: lateness. The program as a whole is about 5-7 years behind its ideal point, relative to the replacement cycle for fighters around the globe. F-35 program customers thus find themselves in the unenviable position of having to commit to a fighter that hasn’t completed testing, and doesn’t have reliable future purchase or operating costs, while buying the expensive way from early production batches. The program office hopes to drop the flyaway price of an F-35A to $90 million by 2020, but current Pentagon budget documents list an average production cost of $105-120 million per F-35A-C, from 2017 to the end of the program.

Control: This has been a big issue in the past for customers like Britain and Australia, and has now become an issue for Israel as well. Without control over software source codes, integration of new weapons and algorithms can be controlled by the whims and interests of American politicians and defense contractors. On the other hand, America sees wider access to those fundamental building blocks as a security risk. Arrangements with Britain and Australia appear to have finessed this debate, without removing it.

Noise: The F135 engine’s size and power are unprecedented in a fighter, but that has a corollary. Environmental impact studies in Florida showed that the F-35A is approximately twice as noisy as the larger, twin-engine F-15 fighter, and over 3.5 times as noisy as the F-16s they’re scheduled to replace. That has led to noise complaints from local communities in the USA and abroad, and seems likely to create a broad swathe of local political issues as customers deploy them. In some countries, it may add costs, as governments are forced to compensate or even to buy out nearby homeowners affected by the noise.

Each customer must weigh the issues above against its own defense and industrial needs, and come to a decision. In-depth, updated DID articles that address some of these issues in more detail include:

• The F-35’s Air-to-Air Capability Controversy. A comprehensive look at the issue, and its consequences.

• F-35: I am Fighter, Hear Me Roar. Noise could become a serious political issue for the F-35.

• The Great Engine War II The Pentagon finally canceled GE/RR’s F136 alternative engine project to rely entirely on Pratt & Whitney’s F135, over the objections of its GAO auditors.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: The Program 1st British F-35B
(click to view full)

Is the F-35 an industrial program for a fighter, or a fighter with an industrial program? Beyond the initial competition between Lockheed Martin’s X-35 and Boeing’s X-32, the Joint Strike Fighter was envisioned from the outset as a program that would make sense using either interpretation. A wide set of consortium partners and national government investments would form an interlocking set of commitments, drawing on a wide range of global industrial expertise and making the program very difficult for any one party to back out of or cancel.

The JSF program is ‘tiered,’ with 4 possible levels of participation based on admission levels and funding commitments for the System Design & Development (SDD) phase. All Tier 1-3 nations have also signed MoUs for the Production Phase. This is not a commitment to buy, just the phase in which production arrangements are hammered out – subject to revision, of course, if that country decides not to buy F-35s. Consortium partners and customers to date include:

• Tier 1 Partners: The USA (majority commitment), Britain
  
• Tier 2 Partners: Italy; The Netherlands
  
• Tier 3 Partners: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Turkey
  
• Security Cooperative Participants status: Israel (20-75), Singapore.
  
• Exports: Japan (42).

Italy has expressed an interest in a Lockheed-Martin Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) plant for European orders, and Fellow Tier 1 partner Britain is examining a FACO of its own for BAE. The Netherlands, meanwhile, wants to be a center for engine sustainment and heavy maintenance. The Dutch have signed an agreement with Italy to help each country get what it wants; Norway was added to that agreement in June 2007.

Lightning II official rollout
(click to view full)

The first test aircraft, an F-35A model AA-1, had its formal rollout on July 7/06. The F-35’s forced redesign for weight reasons has led to F-35 AA-1 being a unique airframe used to validate design, manufacturing, assembly and test processes. A total of 23 test aircraft will be built for various purposes (15 flight, 7 non-flight, 1 radar signature), but the exact order of build for the variants involved has shifted several times.

The testing phase was originally supposed to end in 2013, but is now officially scheduled to continue until 2018. Funding for the first sets of production-model aircraft is approved, parts fabrication began in June 2007, and component assembly began later in 2007. F-35As have already been delivered to the USAF – a sore point with the US Congress’ Government Accountability Office, which believes this dual-track approach overlapping testing with production increases project risks. Production will continue to ramp up year-to-year, and by the time the F-35 is expected to reach Full-Rate Production, the program intends to build 240 F-35s per year.

To do that, they’ll need orders. So far, only the USA, Israel, and Japan have placed orders for production F-35s that go beyond training & test aircraft.

Delays in fielding the initial set of test aircraft, fewer than expected flights, and questions about that ambitious ramp up schedule have reportedly led the Pentagon to re-examine these schedules. Development is now expected to last into FY 2019 or later.

Industrial Innovation F-35B JSF Cutaway
by John Batchelor
(click to view full)

At present, F-35 production is led by Lockheed Martin, with BAE and Northrop-Grumman playing major supporting roles, and many subcontractors below that.

BAE Systems is deriving substantial benefits from Britain’s Tier 1 partner status, and Northrop Grumman is responsible for the F-35’s important ‘center barrel’ section, where the wings attach to the fuselage, and also provides many of the aircraft’s key sensors.

F-35 main production and final assembly is currently slated to take place in Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, TX plant. To cut F-35 production cycle time, the team produces major sections of the aircraft at different feeder plants, and “mates” the assemblies at Fort Worth. This is normal in the auto industry, but it’s a departure from the usual fighter-building process.

AF-1 center barrel
(click to view full)

The precise tolerances required for a stealthy fighter, however, are much more exacting than even high-end autos. In order to avoid subtly mismatched seams, which become radar reflection points, parts need to fit together so precisely that some machines are compensating for the phases of the moon!

Even the best machines won’t do any good if the various components aren’t already an excellent fit. To cope, Manufacturing Business Technology reports that the JSF manufacturing team has turned to an integrated back-end IT system. It begins with 3D engineering models (Dassault Systemes CATIA CAD), and extends into production management, where the company has rolled out a manufacturing execution system to handle electronic work instructions, workflow and process modeling, serialized parts data, quality records tracking, etc. (Visiprise).

This combination has enabled greater use of techniques like automated drilling, even as other software (Siemens PLM, TeamCenter) enables product record management and electronic collaboration around designs. On the back-end, the team uses a custom system it calls Production & Inventory Optimization System (PIOS) for manufacturing resources planning and supply chain management; it began using ERP software (SAP) in January 2008 for financials, and may eventually use it to handle supply-chain functions too.

This ‘digital thread’ has been very successful for the team, with part fits showing incredible precision, and successful coordination of plants around the end schedule for key events like the Dec 18/07 F-35B rollout. The system’s ultimate goal is to cut a plane’s production cycle time from the usual 27-30 months to about 12 months, and shrink a 15-20 day cycle to just 6-8 days from order creation to printed & matched manufacturing orders.

Testing, Testing F-35C weapon carriage
(click to view full)

The F-35’s development and testing program was originally supposed to end in 2013. Current estimates involve a 2018 finish for all 3 models, with Block 3F software installed and a smaller set of integrated weapons than initially planned.

The F-35’s development schedule has steadily slipped, and a combination of development and production difficulties left Lockheed Martin significantly behind their planned testing schedule. The company has made a point of highlighting testing progress in 2012, as they finally got ahead of the annual curve:

F-35 JSF family: Testing statistics
(click to view full) Excel
download

Staying ahead of planned testing points and flights is laudable, but it doesn’t guarantee that the fighter itself is ahead of where it should be on the development curve. Bringing test points forward from future years can keep the numbers even. It won’t solve issues like late software delivery, which is preventing F-35s from fulfilling a number of planned testing points, and makes any combat related testing useless. The F-35s will also need changes in a number of areas, from their horizontal stabilizers to the F-35B’s complex system of lift fans and doors. Those changes will require further testing afterward, adding more test points to the program each time an issue is found. The table below outlines key issues as of 2012, and both of these testing-related datasets are available for download by subscribers:

F-35 JSF family: DOT&E’s key 2012 findings
(click to view full) F-35 JSF: Programs by Country Joint Strike Fighter
(click to view full)

The F-35 is a multinational program, and one of its challenges involves keeping all of the program’s partners moving forward. Each partner has its own issues, and increasingly, its own timeline.

Since early-production fighters can add 50-100% to the cost of full-rate production planes, most of these timelines are determined by how cost-sensitive each customer is.

Home Base: The American Program

In many ways, the American F-35 program sets the tone for all others. Countries that want the F-35, like Japan, are already seeing price hikes because of American decisions to slow initial F-35 production. Current per-plane costs are over $120 million, with initial spares and training infrastructure added on top of that. That price is expected to come down, but it requires volume orders. That means someone has to spend the money, and right now, that someone is the USA.

This leaves the United States on the horns of a dilemma.

One nightmare scenario is a fate similar to the high-end F-22A Raptor, which was initially supposed to field 1,000 fighters, but ended up producing just 183 thanks to spiraling development costs, unexpected upgrade costs, and production costs that never benefited from full economies of scale. Cuts led to continued high prices, which led to more cuts. That scenario would spell disaster for other F-35 customers, who would end up paying far more per plane than they had expected. Some would then defect, driving up prices again for the countries who remained.

The other nightmare scenario for the USA involves significant problems discovered in testing, which then require costly and extensive retrofits to the 400+ F-35 fighters that will be produced before the test program ends. This parallel test/production model has been the subject of heavy criticism from the US government’s GAO auditors. It’s a form of “political engineering” designed to make cancellation too expensive for politicians, even if it leads to sharply higher final costs, or hurts the future fleet.

F-35A
(click to view full)

American purchase decisions can be described as a balancing act between these nightmares. If they spend too much money ramping up production, other countries are more likely to buy as prices drop, but the USAF could be on the hook for a huge retrofit bill that it can’t afford. If they throttle their efforts back too far in order to avoid retrofit risk, it makes defections by existing JSF partners more likely, and hurts the fighter’s chances of landing export sales.

Lockheed Martin has tried to thread this needle by getting multiple JSF consortium members to commit to a joint buy, in order to create a big enough pool of secure orders to drive down purchase costs for everyone. So far, they’ve been unable to get the signatures they need.

Excel
download

Meanwhile, past and planned American F-35 budgets for all variants are graphed below, with an Excel download as a bonus. Note that R&D forecasts aren’t yet published as a single figure beyond FY 2013:

USAF: F-35A
(click to view full) USN: F-35B & F-35C
(click to view full) Australia (Tier 3) The legacy roster
(click to view full)

Australia was originally going to replace its long-range F-111 fighter-bomber and F/A-18 AM/BM Hornet fighter fleets with a single fleet of 100 F-35A aircraft. Current plans for the F-35 are less clear. A change of governing parties hasn’t shifted Australia’s long-term commitment to the F-35A yet, but rising costs could do so.

In November 2009, the Government approved funding for Phase 2A/B (Stage 1) to acquire 14 F-35As, at a cost of about A$ 2.75 billion. In October 2010, they formally submitted a Partner Procurement Request (PPR) to the US Government, and expect a FY 2012 order for 2 initial F-35As, for delivery in 2014-15. Those 2 planes will remain in the United States for testing and pilot training. The next 12 planes would have been based in Australia, and their Year of Decision will now be 2014-15, which may also cover the Stage 2 buy of 58 planes (TL: 72). Deliveries of operational fighters aren’t expected until 2017-2019 now, which means that RAAF F-35As won’t be flying in Australia until around 2020. The AIR 6000 Phase 2C decision to add another 24 F-35s or so, and raise Australia’s total buy to 96+, won’t happen until 2018-19 at the earliest.

As of 2014, The Royal Australian Navy will begin receiving Canberra Class LHD ships that could deploy F-35Bs, but at present there are no plans to host fighters on board. If those plans change, the AIR 6000 Phase 2C decision is the likely inflection point.

The inflection point for a single fighter fleet has already passed. In May 2007, delays to the F-35 program pushed the RAAF to buy 24 F/A-18F Block II Super Hornets as an interim capability. Those aircraft have all been delivered now, and 12 of them are set to convert to EA-18G Growler tactical jamming fighters. F-35 delays may push Australia to order more Super Hornets, and the hard reality is that each new Super Hornet bought probably subtracts an F-35A from future orders.

Britain (Tier 1) RN CVF Concept
(click to view full)

Britain is the only Tier 1 partner outside the USA, and they have invested about $2 billion equivalent in the F-35’s development. They took delivery of their 1st IOT&E training and test aircraft in July 2012.

Britain’s original plan involved buying 138 F-35B STOVL planes for deployment on land and on their new aircraft carriers, but that will now shrink to an undetermined number.

The UK MoD has also switched back and forth between the F-35B and the catapult-launched F-35C. The F-35C’s range and weapon capacity give it significant time-over-target advantages in a Falkland Islands kind of scenario. On the flip side, the F-35B can fly from forward operating bases in situations like Afghanistan, allowing fewer planes to generate more sorties in the same time frame. The determining factor that switched Britain back to the F-35B was the cost of modifying its aircraft carriers.

Canada (Tier 3) CF-18, 20-year colors
(click to view full)

In July 2010, Canada committed to buy 65 F-35As as its future fighter force, with an envisioned budget up to C$ 9 billion for the fighters, plus C$ 7 billion for 20 years of support. All without a competition. That decision has been beset by controversy ever since, and the Conservative Party government claims that they aren’t committed to buy the F-35A yet. On the other hand, they haven’t made any substantive concessions, or meaningful changes to their plans, aside from promising that if F-35 costs continue to rise, Canada will just buy fewer planes within its budget.

Canada will probably sign a contract by 2015, which would make it too expensive for any successor governments to cancel the program. If the Conservative Party government doesn’t sign a contract before the next election, they had better win again. Otherwise, the conduct of this acquisition program has so antagonized the opposition Liberal and NDP parties that the F-35 buy will be a priority target for cancellation.

In November 2012, the first cracks appeared in the government’s stone wall. The Public Works ministry took over the lead role from DND, and said that the military’s original statement of requirements would be suspended while the government reviewed fighter options. Read full coverage, including industrial participants, over at “Canada Preparing to Replace its CF-18 Hornets.”

Denmark (Tier 3) Danish F-16 MLU
(click to view full)

Denmark is a consortium member, but they threw their F-16 fighter replacement order open to competition in 2007. The F-35A was competing against Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet and Sweden’s JAS-39E/F Gripen, but an April 2010 decision delayed the competition. The Danes reportedly have about 30 operational F-16s in 2013, with another 15 stored in reserve.

The F-16 replacement process has started again as promised, with EADS’ Eurofighter Typhoon added to the mix of invitees. A decision to buy 24-32 fighters is now expected by June 2015.

Italy (Tier 2) CVH Cavour
(click to view full)

Italy has made significant investments in JSF development, and the country intends to host a European Final Assembly and Check-Out (FACO) production line in Cameri, near Milan.

The navy’s ITS Cavour aircraft carrier will need at least 22 F-35Bs to replace its AV-8 Harrier fighters, but Europe and Italy’s slow-motion fiscal calamity makes the rest of its buy far less certain. The original plan involved 131 F-35s for the Army and Navy, but a February 2012 decision has scaled plans back to 90 fighters. The Italians are still discussing whether to buy a mix of F-35As and F-35Bs for the air force, but cost pressures are likely to push the Aeronautica Militare toward F-35As.

Given Italy’s rising borrowing costs, and the air force’s modern fleet of 96 Eurofighter Typhoons, further cuts in Aeronautica Militare F-35 purchases would be a reasonable expectation.

The Netherlands (Tier 2) Dutch F-16s,
Afghanistan
(click to view full)

The F-35 is the Ministerie van Defensie’s choice, but instability in successive Dutch governments has prevented a clear decision. The Netherlands plans to buy up to 85 fighters, and as one of the two JSF Tier 2 partners, they want to place a European maintenance hub in the Netherlands. Industry benefits figure heavily in their decision, and participation in the JSF program was structured as a payback scheme. That has sometimes created a strained relationship between the government and participating firms.

Cost is a serious issue. A September 2009 media report revealed that Saab submitted a bid for 85 ready-to-fly JAS-39NL Gripen fighters, at a reported cost of EUR 4.8 billion. In contrast, a December 2010 report to the Dutch Parliament placed the expected purchase cost of 85 F-35As at EUR 7.6 billion, and the government has said that if costs continue to rise, the only change will be fewer fighters bought.

Costs have risen, even as budgets shrank. A 2012 Rekenkamer report revealed that the MvD was admitting a ceiling of just 56 F-35As, given their EUR 4.05 billion budget. That isn’t enough for their current responsibilities, and their notional EUR 68.6 million/ $89 million per plane figure is significantly less than the Pentagon’s post-2017 average cost projection of $108 million – which allows just 48 Dutch F-35As. Throw in the 21% Dutch Value Added Tax, and the real number could be as low as 33-38 F-35As.

Keeping its F-16s flying until the required 2027 date is expected to cost another EUR 335 million, and must be figured into the total cost, even if it comes from a separate budget item. A slip to 2029, or another fighter option that took that much more time, brings that total added cost to EUR 515 million.

Finally, F-35 maintenance and operating costs are expected to be higher than either the current F-16s (+42% American projection), or the Gripen. That affects the number that can be kept flying under future budgets. The 2012 Rekenkamer report says that estimates for 30 years of F-35A operations & maintenance, exclusive of fuel, have risen from EUR 2.9 billion for 85 planes in 2001, to EUR 14.2 billion. Buying 68 aircraft only drops this estimate to EUR 13.2 billion, and that non-linear drop makes it likely that O&M costs for a fleet of 42-48 F-35As, over 30 years, would be well over EUR 200 million per-plane.

A final decision is scheduled for 2015, but successive coalition governments have been pushing through contracts for initial F-35 test aircraft, as a way of entrenching their country’s commitment. A July 2012 vote left only the center-right VVD and Christian Democrats supporting an F-35 buy, and after the elections, a coalition with the opposition PvdA Labour party changed the process for reaching that 2015 decision. Whether it will change anything else remains to be seen.

Norway (Tier 3) RNoAF F-16,
off to Libya
(click to view full)

Norway picked the F-35A in November 2008, after a competition that Wikileaks documents suggest was a sham. Parliamentary opposition finally caved in July 2011, and purchases began in 2012. They will buy 46-52 F-35s, with an initial 4 training aircraft slated to begin delivery in 2015. Another 42-48 planned fighters are slated to begin turning into contracts as of 2017, and the program’s official overall cost currently lists as NOK 60 billion/ $FY12 10 billion. Basing will be at Orland AB, with a satellite forward operating base up north at Evenes.

As part of their program, Norway’s Kongsberg is developing a stealthy, sub-sonic Joint Strike Missile (JSM/NSM) that will be able to hit ships or land targets, and can be carried inside the F-35A/C weapons bay. Its positioning as an internally-carried cruise missile will be unique, and Australia has already indicated interest. At present, however, there’s no firm date for integration.

Read “F-35 Lightning II Wins Norway’s (Fake) Competition” for full coverage.

Turkey (Tier 3) TuAF F-16s
(click to view full)

Turkey had talked about ordering up to 100 F-35A fighters, as the long-term replacement for its 240-plane F-16 fleet. beyond the program’s industrial benefits, they also have a geopolitical rationale. Turkey’s main rival, Greece, has been crippled by its fiscal situation, and is not an F-35 program participant. They’re unlikely to field any fighters with technology beyond their existing F-16s for quite some time, and Turkey wants an edge. The Turks are also beginning to project influence into Central Asia, have neighbors in Syria, Iraq and Iran that bear watching, and are stoking a growing level of friction with Israel, an F-35 customer.

In the near term, a combination of new buys and upgrades will ensure a long life for Turkey’s F-16s. Current plans still involve 100 F-35s, and 2012 saw the first contract – but by January 2013, Turkey was postponing its purchase of 2 training and test aircraft. The overall program is expected to cost around $16 billion.

Israel (Security Cooperation Partner) Israeli F-16C
(click to view full)

With 326 F-16s in the IAF (224 F-16A-D, 102 F-16i), Israel is the largest F-16 operator outside of the United States. Their commitment to regional superiority made them the first country outside the USA to commit to a production F-35 buy in October 2010, with a contract for 20 “F-35is” and options to raise that number to 75 planes. The F-22 Raptor had been their preferred choice, but America refused to export it.

The Israelis got some concessions from Lockheed Martin and the US government, including the ability to insert their own ECM(Electronic Counter Measures) defensive equipment. Their F-35i will also carry compatible communications equipment and some avionics, and the Israelis are expected to push for early integration of their own weapons, like RAFAEL’s Python 5 short-range air-to-air missile and Spice GPS/IIR guided smart bomb. F-35i system development contracts began in August 2012.

Read “Israeli Plans to Buy F-35s Moving Forward” for full coverage.

Singapore (Security Cooperation Partner) RSAF F-16D
(click to view full)

Singapore expects to replace its 74-plane F-16 fleet with F-35s, but they have a lot of timing flexibility. A program of significant fleet upgrades to F-16V status is expected to begin within the next year, giving them a plane that’s more advanced than USAF F-16s. Their new fleet of 20 high-end F-15SGs are already more advanced than the USAF’s Strike Eagles, and their combined fleet size and quality is expected to keep them comfortably ahead of their neighbors for a while.

In the nearer term, their fleet of about 34 upgraded F-5S/T fighters will need replacement. Singapore is reported to be about to announce an order for 12 F-35Bs, as part of a larger export approval request that could go as high as 75 planes. Their alternative would be to order more F-15SGs as F-5 replacements, and wait until it was time to begin replacing their F-16s. An order of 12 Strike Eagles would cost less, and would offer a much wider array of capabilities until about 2025 or later. F-35Bs would offer more risk, and would enter service much later, in exchange for stealth and the ability to take off and land from damaged runways.

Exports: Beyond the Program Team

Japan F-4EJ “Kai(zen)”
(click to view full)

The F-22 Raptor had been Japan’s preferred choice, but America refused to export it. In December 2011, therefore, Japan picked the F-35A over Boeing’s F/A-18E Super Hornet International, and the Eurofighter Typhoon. The F-35A was said to have the best capabilities, based only on mathematical analysis of the paper submissions Japan received. It eked out a narrow “Gilligan win” on overall cost by offering dorsal aerial refueling and finishing 2nd in both sub-categories, and was even with the others in terms of maintenance contracts offered. The only major category it lost was domestic industrial participation, but the winning Eurofighter bid had cost issues with that aspect of its submission.

The JASDF has an approved Foreign Military Sale request for 42 F-35As, and has committed to 4 so far. This set of 42 F-35As will replace its fleet of 91 upgraded F-4 “Phantom Kai” fighters. Eventually, Japan will also need to replace about 213 F-15J Eagle air superiority fighters with at least 100 new planes, but the F-35 will have to compete for that.

Past fighter orders from Japan have involved extensive license production. So far, reports and documents indicate that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. will be involved in work on F-35 aircraft bodies, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. on mission-related avionics, and IHI Corp. on F135 engines.

Read “Japan’s Next Fighters: F-35 Wins The F-X Competition” for full coverage.

Future Sales Opportunities F-15 Silent Eagles
Boeing concept
(click to view full)

Lockheed Martin continues to promote the F-35 in the international market, but its priority is securing production orders from the countries that are already part of the JSF consortium.

South Korea’s F-X-III fighter competition is probably the F-35’s biggest near-term export opportunity. The F-35 is competing against Boeing’s stealth-enhanced F-15SE Silent Eagle and the Eurofighter Typhoon for that 60-plane order.

A number of Middle Eastern countries are shopping for fighter jets, including the UAE, Oman, and Qatar. Kuwait is expected to join them soon. So far, the F-35 hasn’t featured prominently in reporting about these competitions. It isn’t a contender in Oman, and the UAE’s focus appears to be fixed on either France’s Rafale or the Eurofighter Typhoon.

In Europe, Belgium and Portugal will need to replace their F-16s pretty soon, but political and fiscal woes make such buys unlikely. Eastern European countries either have medium-to-long term commitments in place, or are too small and poor to be likely F-35 customers. Lockheed Martin’s brightest hope beyond its existing consortium partners is probably Spain. Like Italy, Spain will eventually need to either buy the F-35B as its only real option to replace the AV-8 Matadors (Harriers) on the Juan Carlos I, or downgrade the ship to a helicopter and UAV carrier. Europe’s slow-motion collapse has pushed its fiscal difficulties close to their limit, however, and there are no Spanish plans at present for an F-35 buy.

The F-35 has been promoted to India, especially as a naval fighter option for its new carriers. It was not a contender for India’s M-MRCA buy, however, and prospects for a future sale seem dim due to competition from a range of existing naval (MiG-29K, Tejas naval) and air force (SU-30MKI, SU-50i FGFA) program commitments.

F-35 Contracts & Decisions

LRIP = Low Rate Initial Production. Unless otherwise noted, US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Patuxent River, MD manages these contracts.

FY 2013 – 2015

F-35A & F-22A,
Eglin AFB
(click to view full)

May 20/15: The Marine Corps has begun testing its F-35Bs aboard USS Wasp (LHD-1), with these tests set to last two weeks. Six of the aircraft are being tested for specific abilities as part of Operational Testing (OT-1); these include digital interoperability between aircraft and ship systems, something particularly sensitive given the aircraft’s recent software problems. The USMC decided to push ahead regardless of 2B software issues, with the intention of hitting IOC in July.

March 26/13: Singapore. AOL Defense is reporting that Singapore will order 12 F-35Bs within 10 days, while others take a more measured tone. Agence France-Presse cite Singaporean sources as saying they’re in the final stages of evaluating the F-35, which tracks with statements by Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen. Even so, the plane’s very incomplete capabilities mean that part of Singapore’s evaluation is just paper and promises at this point. Singapore’s RSIS points out that the country has traditionally been cautious in its defense buys, restricting themselves to proven platforms.

Singapore’s fleet of about 34 upgraded F-5S/T fighters were bought in the 1970s, and they do need replacement. The RSAF’s alternative would be to order more F-15SG Strike Eagles as F-5 replacements, and wait several years before ordering F-35s. The Strike Eagles would cost less at present, and would offer a much wider array of weapons until about 2025 or later. F-35Bs would offer more risk, and would enter service much later than F-15SGs, in exchange for better stealth, and the ability to take off and land from damaged runways. Either way, a DSCA-approved export request would be required before any order can be placed. The most we can expect within 10 days is a State Department announcement. AOL Defence | AFP | Reuters | Eurasia Review.

March 26/13: UK. The Ministry of Defence announces that RAF Marham, which had hosted Tornados until the fighters were retired to save on support costs, will become Britain’s main base for F-35s. It will also act as a support center, performing depth maintenance. RAF | BBC.

March 25/13: Engine. Bloomberg reports that Rolls-Royce was an average of 160 days late with its F135-PW-600 LiftFan engine parts deliveries in 2012. Subcontractor errors were part of the problem:

“There have been issues such as corrosion on some of the gears and some undersized holes,” Jacqueline Noble, a spokeswoman for the defense agency, said in the [emailed] statement [to Bloomberg]. While London-based Rolls-Royce and its subcontractors have made progress, the need to fix fan parts that don’t meet specifications “is still a concern,” she said.”

March 25/13: Japan LRIP-8. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $40.2 million fixed-price-incentive (firm-target), contract to provide long lead-time parts, materials and components required for the delivery of 4 Japanese F-35As, as part of Low Rate Initial Production Lot 8. See also June 29/12 entry.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, and is expected to be complete in February 2014. All funds are committed immediately, and this contract was not competitively procured by US Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD, who is acting as Japan’s agent through the FMS process (N00019-13-C-0014).

March 21/13: Netherlands. The 2 Dutch IOT&E F-35As are already slated to go into storage until 2015, because the jets aren’t fit for purpose yet (q.v. Feb 11/13). Now Reuters reports that the Dutch are looking to cut their planned order of 85 F-35As by 17-33 planes. On the surface, this isn’t exactly news, as the MvD was known to be looking at a 56 plane order (-29 aircraft) when the Oct 24/12 Rekenkamer report came out. Reuters gives a figure of 52-68 planes and a budget of EUR 4.5 billion, but full replacement of the RNLAF’s reduced fleet of 68 F-16s with F-35As doesn’t square with that budget. A “defense source close to the talks” is quoted as saying that an F-35A order could drop as low as 33-35 planes (-50 or more aircraft), based on Rekenkamer estimates.

That can’t be welcome news to the F-35 program, which expects to have foreign orders making up half of production after LRIP Lot 8 in 2014 (q.v. March 12/13). For the RNLAF, Defense Aerospace cites Dutch Parliamentary documents which size their operational F-16 fleet at just 24 / 68 planes, due to maintenance issues and lack of spare parts. That’s a bit of a crisis; meanwhile, the larger question is whether 24-35 fighters is even close to adequate for future needs.

The new coalition, sworn into office in November 2012, expects to finalize a new defense policy and fighter purchase plans later in 2013. Defense Aerospace reports that the Dutch Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence has already scheduled presentations from Boeing (F/A-18 Super Hornet family) and Saab (JAS-39E/F Gripen), and the Eurofighter consortium has told the publication that they’re keeping an eye on developments. Reuters | Defense Aerospace.

March 20/13: Australia. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives an unfinalized, not-to-exceed $9.8 million modification for Australian-specific non-recurring support activities. It includes ALIS equipment and sustainment and logistics support, and will be bought under the LRIP Lot 6 contract. $4.9 million is committed immediately.

Australia was set to buy 2 F-35As for IOT&E preparation under LRIP Lot 6. The timing of their follow-on buy of 12 F-35As may be uncertain, but this contract seems to indicate that they’ll buy the 2 IOT&E jets (see also March 5/13). Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be complete in January 2019. US NAVAIR in Patuxent River, MD manages the contract (N00019-11-C-0083).

March 13/13: Denmark. The Danes pick up their fighter competition as promised, following their announced hiatus in April 2010. Invited bidders include the same set of Lockheed Martin (F-35A), Boeing (Super Hornet), and Saab (JAS-39E/F) – plus EADS (Eurofighter), who had withdrawn from the Danish competition in 2007. The goal of a 2014 F-16 replacement decision has been moved a bit farther back, and now involves a recommendation by the end of 2014, and a selection by June 2015.

The Flyvevabnet are reported to have 30 operational F-16s, with 15 more in reserve, out of an original order of 58. Past statements indicate that they’re looking to buy around 25 fighters as replacements, but there are reports of a range from 24-32, depending on price. Danish Forsvarsministeriet [in Danish] | Eurofighter GmbH | Saab | JSF Nieuws.

March 12/13: Issues & allies. JSF PEO Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher C. Bogdan, USAF, offers a number of important pieces of information at the Credit Suisse/McAleese defense programs conference in Washington, DC. One is that he hopes to have unit cost, including the engine, down to $90 million by 2020 – about 10% lower than current Pentagon estimates beyond 2017. Allies “need to know where their money is going”, especially since orders after LRIP-8 (2014) are expected to be about 50% allied buys. Unfortunately there’s an issue with IOT&E processes, which has been left unaddressed until the issue became a source of buying uncertainty:

“Adding insult to injury, the JSF program office classified all documents as “U.S. only,” which upset partner nations. Even if they are all buying the same aircraft, each country has its own air-worthiness qualification processes and other administrative procedures that require they have access to the aircraft’s technical data. JSF officials are working to re-classify the documentation, Bogdan said.”

Regarding Operations & Support costs, which are over 2/3 of a weapon system’s lifetime cost: “If we don’t start doing things today to bring down O&S now, there will be a point when the services will see this aircraft as unaffordable.”

Most of those costs trace back to design, so changes at this point are possible, but difficult. One design and support issue is that the 80% commonality between variants envisaged at the program’s outset is now closer to 25-30%. That means more expensive non-common parts due to lower production runs, larger inventories for support of multiple types in places like the USA and Italy, more custom work for future changes, etc. Information Dissemination | National Defense.

March 11/13: GAO Report. The GAO releases its annual F-35 program report: “Current Outlook Is Improved, but Long-Term Affordability Is a Major Concern“. Some manufacturing indices like labor hours per jet delivery rate are getting better, but operations and maintenance costs are a serious problem, and F-35 acquisition funding requirements average $12.6 billion annually through 2037.

There’s much, much more. It’s difficult to summarize this report, and worth reading it in full.

March 9/13: Cost sensitivity. Reuters gets their hands on an advance draft of a GAO report, which looks at the F-35’s sustainment and purchase costs. The GAO’s estimate to refurbish produced F-35s to incorporate fixes required by discoveries during testing? $1.7 billion. That’s a lot, but it’s a decision that touches on the next area they examine: what happens if some countries don’t buy, or the USA buys fewer?

Current American plans will average $10.6 billion per year until 2037 [DID: it turns out to be $12.6 billion]. Average costs have already climbed from $69 million to $137 million, and would rise by another 9% if the USA dropped its orders from 2,443 – 1,500 (to $150 million). They would rise by 6% (to $145 million) if all 8 foreign partners cut their planned 697 orders, but the USA kept its own. The combination? More than additive, at 19% (to $163 million).

Here’s the thing. The GAO is calculating averages, but all F-35 partners including the USA, have a limited window of safe remaining life for their fighter fleets. That forces them to place earlier orders, which can cost a lot more than “average over all production” estimates. They’re also more price sensitive to production cuts, since fewer planes per year are being built at this stage. A design that isn’t done testing adds another disincentive, and the combination of unready planes and spiraling costs for near-term buys can force quite a few cancellations and reductions. Each cancellation may be minor in the long term, but it’s a larger cost hike in the short term, which ensures that the long term production figure never arrives.

One response just starts production earlier, and lets the main partner eat most of the concurrency costs. So, was the $1.7 billion concurrency cost worth it, in order to speed up the purchase schedule and production ramp-up by 5-6 years? That’s an individual judgement. Reuters | IBT.

March 6/13: DOT&E OUE. The POGO NGO gets its hands on a copy of the Pentagon’s Operational Utility Evaluation for initial F-35A training, dated Feb 15/13. While DOT&E cautions that you can’t draw any meaningful conclusions from a system this immature, some of their observations and trends are relevant and concerning.

Not training ready. To begin at the beginning, current F-35s aren’t even close to suitable for new-pilot training, and are very marginal even for experienced pilot training. This situation, and the long list of accompanying flight restrictions, is normal for an aircraft mid-way through its testing phase. What’s different is that continued program delays would leave the US military unable to stream new pilots to its production aircraft.

Touch screens. A notable but less urgent design deficiency involves the touch screen display, which may need to be used less. Using it to control radios, for instance, is a bad idea, especially at high Gs and under stress. To duplicate this feeling, have a jumpy 3-year old grab and flail at your arm while you’re trying to operate a computer mouse. MIL-STD-1472G already prohibits this sort of thing as a sole option, and voice recognition is intended to fix the problem. Until it’s ready, of course, we won’t know if it has its own issues.

Visibility. The most serious deficiency remains technical problems with the pilot’s ambitious Helmet-Mounted Display, coupled with a designed-in lack of rear visibility that HMDS needs to overcome using the plane’s embedded sensors. The visibility is poor in order to improve stealth vs. a full bubble canopy; and also to keep design commonality with the STOVL F-35B, which mounts its lift fan and doors behind the pilot. The OUE’s experienced F-16 and A-10 pilots were universal in their criticism, saying that poor to no rear visibility made basic tasks like keeping formation more challenging, and was a deficiency in combat situations.

It’s also a maintenance risk, of course, since all associated systems must be working or the planes will be at a large combat disadvantage. The likely result? Either lower readiness rates, higher maintenance costs, or both. Those are both areas where the F-35 remains behind the curve, with potentially dire fiscal consequences. POGO summary | Full Report [PDF]

March 5/13: LRIP-6. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a not-to-exceed $72.2 million unfinalized LRIP Lot 6 contract modification. It buys F-35A support equipment for Luke AFB’s Pilot Training Center 1. It also covers associated Data Quality Integration Management supplier support tasks, and all other sustainment data products for the USAF and the governments of Italy and Australia. The contract is split-funded by the USAF ($55.0M/ 76.2%); Italy ($10.3M/ 14.3%); and Australia ($6.9/ 9.5%).

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be complete in August 2014. $36.1 million is committed immediately (N00019-11-C-0083). This brings total LRIP-6 contracts to $5.674 billion.

March 1/13: Return to flight. The Pentagon lifts the grounding order on its F-35 fleets, after inspecting fleet engines. The engine in question belonged to a plane used for flight envelope expansion testing, and had been operated for an extended time at high temperatures.

“Prolonged exposure to high levels of heat and other operational stressors on this specific engine were determined to be the cause of the crack [as opposed to high-cycle fatigue, which would force a redesign].”

The engineers believe no redesign is needed. Pentagon | Reuters.

Grounding lifted

Feb 28/13: Block 8 long-lead. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $333.8 million fixed-price-incentive (firm-target), advance acquisition contract, covering early equipment buys for 35 LRIP Lot 8 planes: 19 USAF F-35As ($155.2M/ 46%), 6 USMC F-35Bs ($85.4M/ 26%), and 4 USN F-35Cs ($27.5M/ 8%); plus 4 F-35B STOVLs for Britain ($45M/ 14%), and 2 F-35As for Norway ($20.7M/ 6%). All contract funds are committed immediately.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, and is expected to be complete in February 2014. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1 (N00019-13-C-0008).

Feb 27/13: Unhappy relationship. F-35 PEO Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan criticizes some important decisions, such as concurrent testing and production, and he’s also unhappy with the vendors. There’s some back-and-forth in the news reports regarding production cost, which he pegs at about $120 million for a Lot 5 F-35A with engine, and whether cost reductions per lot have been adequate. His AuBC interview also includes this remark, which got less attention but is more important:

“The real big elephant is how much it costs over the life of this plane to maintain it, and sustain it…. I think today, looking at what we have, the cost to maintain and sustain this plane is too high…. What I’ve told Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney is “you have yet to earn the right to become the product support integrator for the life of this program.” So what I’ve done is, I’ve tried to take pieces of the life cycle, and I’ve tried to introduce some competition [from domestic and foreign companies]….”

The decision to use only 1 engine also comes into play, as he describes the 6 month negotiations to finalize the F135 engine LRIP Lot 5 contract (vid. Feb 6/13 entry), which began shortly after their F136 competitor had been eliminated:

“Now, you would think a company like Pratt & Whitney that was just given the greatest Christmas gift you could ever, ever get for a company would act a little differently…”

In truth, the full tone of Gen. Bogdan’s remarks isn’t fully captured in written reports. He’s adopting classic crisis management recommendations, acknowledging known problems rather than being dishonest, placing them in context when he can, then promising to fix what’s left and deliver a successful jet. The comments in Australia were made shortly after the DOT&E report (vid. Jan 13/13). They’re aired a month or so later in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Reach for the Sky” documentary on the program, just before Australia submits a formal request to buy another 24 Boeing Super Hornet family fighters. Center for Public Integrity | Fox News | TIME | AuBC’s Reach for the Sky.

Feb 22/13: Engine. A crack in an F135-PW-100 engine blade grounds the entire F-35 fleet. The fault was found in an F-35A, but this part of the engine is common to all 3 variants. No one wants to have a blade break off inside and destroy the engine or the plane on its way out the back, hence the grounding.

These kinds of problems aren’t unheard of during testing, but the incident raises 2 big questions. One is the Pentagon’s flawed policy of ordering operational planes during the testing phase, which multiplies the cost of fixes during a fiscal crunch. The other involves the DoD’s decision to have just 1 engine manufacturer for the F-35, unlike its existing fighter fleets. Imagine exactly this sort of fleet-wide grounding, when the F-35 is the main fighter of all 3 armed services. DoD | Reuters.

Engine problems ground the whole fleet

Feb 13/13: Australia. Australian MP Dennis Jensen [Lib-Tangney, near Perth] chronicles the key assertions, decisions, and official reassurances made in Australia concerning the F-35, most of which have turned out to be somewhere between inaccurate and untrue. It’s a sobering account of how far program timelines and costs have gone awry, and effectively eviscerates the credibility of official ADF and DoD analysis.

The former defense research scientist also has the brass to point out that while the military has been busy missing the mark, independent analysts like Air Power Australia laid down key cost and performance markers that are now being vindicated by official reports.

Jensen is a long-time critic of the F-35. His 2009 guest article for DID focused on the F-22 as a better solution for Australia, and one wonders if he still has that view in light of recent events. His skepticism concerning the F-35 has remained, as evidenced by his March 2012 release, “Joint Strike Fighter lemon“. That release goes a step beyond most political releases, whose authors aren’t likely to confront a senior air force officer with step by step analysis of hypothetical 8 vs. 8 air combat engagements. Australian parliamentary transcript | JSF Nieuws has added sub-headers for easier reading.

Feb 13/13: Lot 6 Engines. United Technologies’ Pratt and Whitney Military Engines in East Hartford, CT receives a $65 million cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to a previously awarded advance acquisition contract for ongoing sustainment, operations, and maintenance to LRIP Lot 6’s F135 engines. This contract combines purchases for the USMC ($43.8M / 69%); the USAF ($17.8M / 26%); and the US Navy ($3.3M / 5%). $55.3 million in FY 2012 and 2013 contract funds are committed immediately, and $11.8 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/13.

Efforts include labor and materials required to maintain and repair F135 propulsion systems; sustainment labor consisting of fleet and material management, sustaining engineering, and joint services technical data updates; and material required to support fielded propulsion systems and support equipment after unit and depot activations at production, training, and operational locations.

Work will be performed in East Hartford, CT (54%); Indianapolis, IN (31%); and Bristol, United Kingdom (15%), and is expected to be complete in December 2013 (N00019-12-C-0090).

Feb 12/13: F-35B flying. The Joint Strike Fighter Program Office clears the F-35B variant to resume flight operations. Within the fleet, all affected hoses have been inspected, and the ones that are out of tolerance will be replaced beginning in about a week. F-35Bs with properly crimped hoses can resume flying now. Yuma Sun.

F-35B cleared to fly

Feb 11/13: Dutch IOT&E. Minister of Defence Mrs. JA Hennis-Plasschaert sends a written brief to Parliament, covering recent developments with the F-35. It outlines the recent American DOT&E report, and also discusses developments in Canada, where the F-35 decision is under review. With respect to their own order, the first Dutch F-35 is ready, and the 2nd will arrive in summer 2013, but the project’s lateness has started to affect the RNLAF.

The original plan was to use their IOT&E jets with Block 3 software for testing and tactics development from April 2012 – August 2014, and pay EUR 27.1 million. Because the program is so far behind on Block 3 software delivery, per DOT&E, the Dutch will have to store their jets in the USA at their own expense until 2015, run their IOT&E from 2015-2018, and pay EUR 47 – 55 million. All on top of buying their jets several years earlier than they needed to, which raised their cost by many millions of euros.

Turkey was probably thinking of these kinds of issues when they postponed their planned IOT&E buy in January. JSF Nieuws has excerpts from the letter, which has not yet been published on the government’s web sites, and also showed us the full copy.

Dutch IOT&E

Feb 6/13: The Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office and Pratt & Whitney announce an agreement in principle regarding the final engine contract for LRIP Lot 5’s planes.

An unfinalized version of that contract was announced on Dec 28/11, and the new contract is reportedly about $20 million lower than the $1.122 billion quoted at that time. Even with that reduction, adding the engine contract to other fighter-related Lot 5 announcements would give an average Lot V flyaway cost across all types of around $170 million per plane. It’s important to note that the engine contract includes things besides fighter engines, but even with no engines at all, Lot V announcements sum to a cost per fighter of $137.5 million.

Final engine figures and divisions won’t be forthcoming until the official Pentagon announcement. Note that some media reports don’t match up with the 32 planes known to be in Lot V (vid. Dec 14/12 entry). American Machinist | Reuters.

Feb 5/13: Britain’s switch costs. The British House of Commons Defence Committee says that the government’s shift from the F-35B STOVL to the F-35C and back cost the country GBP 100 million (vid. section 2, #14 & 15). Most of that money was spent on budgets related to Britain’s new carriers, and the committee faults the government for rushed work on the October 2010 SDSR.

That is quite a lot of money to waste, and it’s true that after the Conservative/ Lib-Dem coalition took power, there was a strong push to get the SDSR out the door in a short period of time. These kinds of decisions are very complex, and the committee faults the Ministry for going along with this recommendation, without really understanding the changes involved.

The Ministry’s defense is that their CVF/ Queen Elizabeth Class carriers had been touted as “future proof”, able to include catapults if that became necessary during the ships’ lifetimes. That proposition was put to the test early with the F-35C switch. The Ministry’s retrospective conclusion is blunt, and discomfiting on its own terms: “It is not my belief that [the carriers] were genuinely designed for conversion, or that the contract allowed them to be designed for conversion.” One wonders, then, why they were touted that way. UK Commons Defence Committee Acquisitions Report | Flight International.

Britain’s type-
switching costs

Feb 2/13: A USAF presentation to Congress says that if sequestration takes effect, F-35 order will be reduced (duh). They add that the program may need to be restructured, too, along with the KC-46A aerial tanker and MQ-9 Reaper Block 5. That would make a few allies grumpy. Flight International.

Jan 31/13: Personnel. AviationWeek reports that Tom Burbage, the executive vice president and general manager of program integration for the F-35, will retire in March 2013, after 32 years at the firm. He had been appointed in that position in 2000.

Jan 30/13: DOT&E – Pilot views. Flight International interviews both experienced pilots and Lockheed Martin personnel, in the wake of the turning & acceleration performance downgrades announced by DOT&E’s 2012 report. One experienced pilot flatly says that those performance figures put the F-35 Lightning in the same class as the 1960s-era F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber, rather than modern high-performance fighters. The Lightning does retain some kinetic strengths, but the overall picture isn’t encouraging when examined closely.

Then a Lockheed test pilot with broad experience takes up the gauntlet, to say that the F-35 is actually kinetically better than other 4+ generation fighters. Some of his fellow test pilots question those claims. Read “The F-35’s Air-to-Air Capability Controversy” for in-depth coverage of this issue.

Jan 30/13: Japan problem. If Japan wants to make parts for all F-35s, they’re going to have to do something about one of their “3 principles” on arms exports. Those restrictions won’t allow exports to communist countries, countries subject to arms export embargoes under U.N. Security Council resolutions, or countries involved in or likely to be involved in international conflicts. Unfortunately, many potential F-35 customers, especially in the Middle East, fall into the 3rd category.

We’re sure Israel would be perfectly happy to simply have all of the affected parts made in Israel instead, but this is going to be a wider issue. The program could always go to a “second supplier” arrangement for all Japanese parts, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said maintaining consistency with the ban is “under discussion within the government.” Asashi Shimbun.

Jan 30/13: Industrial. Lockheed Martin says that there are 88 F-35s of all versions in various stages of completion on the program’s production lines. When it’s delivered, AF-41 (a USAF F-35A) will become delivery #100.

Jan 28/13: Fueldraulic fault found. Flight International reports that the failure of an F-35B’s Stratoflex fueldraulic line has been traced to a failure to properly crimp it. The F-35 Program Office says that Stratoflex, Rolls-Royce and Pratt &Whitney, have “instituted corrective actions to improve their quality control processes and ensure part integrity.”

The same problem was found on 6 other aircraft, and all 7 will need to be fixed. Until a Return to Flight plan is approved, however, all 25 F-35Bs will remain grounded.

Jan 18/13: F-35B grounded. The F-35B fleet is grounded, after a fueldraulic line (q.v. DOT&E report) fails and forces the pilot to abort a takeoff. There was no danger, and the pilot simply moved his airplane off of the flight line after it happened.

The F-35A and F-35C fleets are unaffected. Bloomberg | Defense News | Flight International.

F-35B Grounded

Jan 13/13: DOT&E Report. The Pentagon’s Department of Operational Test & Evaluation submits its 2012 report, which includes 18 pages covering the F-35. The fleet continues to work through significant technical challenges, which isn’t unusual. What is unusual is the steady stream of deliveries that will have to be fixed later, in order to address mechanical and structural problems found during testing. A summary of the key statistics & challenges can be found above, in the Testing section, but 2 issues deserve special mention.

One issue is software, which may be more important to the F-35 than it is to any other fighter aircraft. Unfortunately, the software development program is late, and is straining to fix and test issues across several developmental versions. Block 1.0 software capability is only 80% delivered, and the Block 2A software for training is under 50%. Block 2B, which adds rudimentary combat capabilities for serious training, was under 10% as of August 2012. Test resources and personnel are both limited, so this problem is likely to get worse.

The other issue is weight. The F-35 was designed with little margin for weight growth, but new capabilities and fixes for testing issues often add weight. One frequent consequence is higher costs, as very expensive but lightweight materials are used to save an extra pound here and there. Another consequence reduced performance, as seen in the F-35B’s drop to 7.0 maximum Gs after its aggressive weight reduction effort. A third consequence involves ruggedness and survivability. The F-35B faced a suspension of structural fatigue life stress testing in 2012, after cracking was discovered in several places. Even this pales in comparison, however, to the fleet-wide problem created by saving just 11 pounds in all variants. Without fuelstatic flow fuses and Polyalphaolefin (PAO) coolant shutoff valves, DOT&E estimates that these flammable substances make the F-35 25% less likely to survive enemy fire. DOT&E report [PDF] | Lockheed Martin re: 2012 testing | Reuters | TIME magazine. | Washington Post.

Jan 5/13: Turkey. The Turkish SSM procurement agency decides to postpone its initial buy of 2 training and test aircraft, which were supposed to be part of the Lot 7 order (q.v. Sept 27/12 entry). The SSM cites capabilities that are behind scheduled expectations and not ready for full training, and cost concerns, while reaffirming Turkey’s long-term commitment to 100 F-35As.

The Pentagon DOT&E report is quite specific about the plane’s delivered software being unsuitable for any combat-related training or test. Block 2B software would be required for that at least, but the program has yet to deliver parts of Block 1, and the Block 2A software on current planes is also just a partial implementation. In light of that information alone, Turkey’s decision to wait seems prudent. Why incur higher costs from an earlier production lot, if the plane isn’t going to be fully useful in its intended test and training role? Turkish SSM [in Turkish, PDF] | AFP | Washington’s The Hill magazine | Turkish Weekly.

Turkey postpones planned IOT&E buy

Dec 28/12: LRIP-6. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a not-to-exceed $3.678 billion unfinalized modification to the low rate initial production lot 6 advance acquisition contract. It covers 29 American planes: 18 F-35As, 6 F-35Bs, and 7 USN F-35Cs, plus “all associated ancillary mission equipment.” LRIP-6 contracts total $5,729.6 million, and include:

• March 20/13: $9.8 (support for Australia)
  
• March 5/13: $72.2 (support infrastructure for USA, Australia, Italy)
  
• Feb 14/13: $65.0 (engine maintenance)
  
• Dec 28/12: $3,677.9 (USA 29: 18 F-35A, 6 F-35B, 7 F-35C)
  
• Dec 28/12: $735.4 (support, unfinalized)
  
• Dec 6/12: $386.7 (long-lead)
  
• March 12/12: $38.6 (F-35A long-lead)
  
• Feb 9/12: $14.6 (F-35B long-lead)
  
• Jan 6/12: $194.1 (engines)
  
• Aug 8/11: $535.3 (38 long-lead: USA 19 F-35A, 6 F-35B, 7 F-35C; Italy 4 F-35A, Australia 2 F-35A)

Long-lead items contracts can include JSF partner and foreign buys, since the material buys are basically the same. Main contracts for customers outside America are often announced separately, which explains why some are missing from the Dec 28/12 announcement. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be complete in February 2015. $1.839 billion is committed immediately (N00019-11-C-0083).

LRIP Lot 6 main

Dec 28/12: LRIP-6 support. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a not-to-exceed $753.4 million unfinalized modification to the LRIP-6 advance acquisition contract, for one-time sustainment and logistics support. This modification also includes site stand-up and depot activation activities, Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) hardware and software, training systems, support equipment, and spares.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be complete in December 2015. $375.2 million is committed immediately (N00019-11-C-0083).

Dec 28/12: LRIP-6 & 7 support. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a not-to-exceed $374.5 million unfinalized modification to the LRIP-6 advance acquisition contract. It covers initial spares in support of 60 F-35s from LRIP Lot 6 and LRIP Lot 7: 37 F-35As, 12 F-35B STOVL, and 11 F-35Cs.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be complete in November 2015. Contract funds in the amount of $374,495,232 is committed immediately (N00019-11-C-0083).

Dec 28/12: Studies. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $48 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract to perform engineering, programmatic, and logistics tasks supporting investigations or studies covering various systems in the F-35 Lightning II.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, and is expected to be complete in December 2015. $7.2 million is committed at the time of award. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1 (N00019-13-D-0005).

Dec 28/12: LRIP-5 support. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a not-to-exceed $17.1 million unfinalized modification the LRIP Lot 5 contract. This modification buys initial air vehicle spares for LRIP-5 F-35As.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be complete in November 2015. All contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/13 (N00019-10-C-0002).

Dec 14/12: LRIP-5. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $127.7 million fixed-price-incentive-fee and cost-plus-incentive-fee modification, finalizing the F-35’s LRIP Lot 5 contract for 32 planes. This contract also includes funds for manufacturing support equipment; 2 program array assemblies; ancillary mission equipment, including pilot flight equipment; preparation for ferrying the aircraft; and redesign to change parts with diminishing manufacturing sources.

Some news reports place the contract’s figures at $3.8 billion, but a review of past contracts, and conversation with Lockheed Martin, show that the entire LRIP-5 is actually $6.459 billion so far. The distribution also differs from Reuters’ report: it’s 21 F-35As, 4 F-35Bs, and 7 F-35Cs. Past awards, in millions, include:

• Dec 14/12: $127.7 (finalize)
  
• Aug 6/12: $209.8 (spares)
  
• Apr 13/12: $258.8 (add 1 F-35B, 1 F-35C for USA)
  
• March 12/12: $56.4 (support of delivery schedule)
  
• Dec 28/11: $1,122.3 (30 engines – unfinalized)
  
• Dec 27/11: $485 (production requirements, incl. some tooling)
  
• Dec 9/11: $4,011.9 (initial 30: 21 F-35A, 3 F-35B, 6 F-35C)
  
• Sept 27/11: $187 (system engineering & sustainment support)

$598.2 million in long-lead time item contracts were omitted ($522.2 million on July 6/10, and $76 million on Dec 8/10); Lockheed Martin informs DID that they were superseded by the Dec 9/11 contract for a different number of planes. So $6.459 billion is the entire LRIP-5 set so far, including planes, spares/support and tooling/ manufacturing investments (PNR). The engines, support, and PNR pieces are still unfinalized and in negotiations. For the planes themselves, the announced figures add up to about $4.398 billion ($4,011.9 + 258.8 + 127.7). That’s an average of $137.45 million per plane without engines.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be completed in October 2014. All contract funds were committed on award, and $112.9 million will expire on Sept 30/12 (N00019-10-C-0002).

LRIP Lot 5 finalized

Dec 6/12: LRIP-6 lead-in. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a not-to-exceed $386.7 million contract modification for the LRIP Lot 6 Advance Acquisition Contract. This will ease some of Lockheed Martin’s cash flow concerns, and funds ground maintenance activities; depot activation activities; ALIS operations and maintenance; reliability, maintainability and health management implementation and support; supply chain management; action request resolution; activities to provide and support pilot and maintainer initial training; and procurement of replenishment spares and depot level repairs in support of flight operations.

Work will be performed in Eglin AFB in Orlando, FL (35%); and in Ft. Worth, TX (25%); El Segundo, CA (8%); Warton, United Kingdom (5%); and various locations throughout the United States (27%); and is expected to be complete in October 2013. $193.3 million is committed immediately, $58,378,517 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/12 (N00019-11-C-0083).

Nov 30/12: Reuters reports that the US government and Lockheed Martin have reached a preliminary $3.8 billion deal for 32 F-35s: 22 F-35As, 3 F-35Bs, and 7 F-35Cs. A deal would safeguard that contract from any sequestration cuts, but engines and some other items would still need to be bought separately.

Lockheed spokesman Michael Rein quoted a 14% reduction in labor costs from LRIP Lot 4 to Lot 5, and said that the overall cost would be lower in total. That second assurance is important, because materials costs are subject to inflation. He also said that Lot 5 aircraft would be over 50% less expensive than LRIP-1’s $220.8 million figure, which doesn’t square with the $118.8 million average cost of the reported Lot 6 deal. F-35B/C aircraft will push the price up, however, so Lot 1 vs. Lot 5 isn’t an apples to apples comparison.

Lockheed Martin has delivered 48 F-35s so far (19 development, 29 LRIP), and is pushing to meet its goal of 30 delivered in 2012. Near-term funding for Lot 6 remains a concern, however (q.v. Oct 25/12 entry).

Nov 20/12: 1st Front-Line Squadron. Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VFMA-121), formerly an F/A-18 Hornet squadron, is re-designated as the world’s first operational F-35 squadron, of any type. For now, the “squadron” is just 3 F-35Bs, but that will grow. They will be part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, AZ. MCAS Yuma.

1st F-35 Squadron

Nov 22/12: Canada. Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose tells Canada’s House of Commons that Canada’s “review of options will not be constrained by the previous statement of requirements.” That seems minor, but it isn’t. DND’s requirements had been crafted to make the F-35 the only available choice, per the department’s standard pattern. Breaking that lock opens up other options like the Eurofighter, Super Hornet, etc.

Subsequent reports that Canada has canceled the F-35 are premature. Much will depend on the people picked to conduct the review of options. See “Canada Preparing to Replace its CF-18 Hornets” for full coverage.

Nov 16/12: ALIS. Reuters reports that ALIS is at 94% of final capability, but a changing computing landscape has bitten it. A Navy “Red Team” hacked into the ALIS system. ALIS reportedly includes both classified and unclassified data streams, and the 2001 specifications didn’t require separating them to prevent intrusions. That kind of failure to plan for computer attacks doesn’t reflect especially well on all concerned, and it was reportedly all the Navy team needed.

Lockheed Martin was surprised by the result, but say that they’ve developed a “fairly straightforward fix” that did not require major adjustments to ALIS. The bad news? The political exercise of choosing F-35 suppliers in nearly every U.S. state, and beyond the USA, increases general exposure to cyber attacks.

The latest version of ALIS has been in use at Edwards AFB, CA for several months. It’s also scheduled to be used by the Marines at Yuma, CA this year, and by Nellis AFB, NV when Lockheed delivers 4 F-35s for testing within the next month or 2. Meanwhile, The Pentagon is looking to compete ALIS operation, and F-35 maintenance, beyond Lockheed Martin, in an attempt to drive down rising Operations & Maintenance cost projections. Reuters.

Nov 5/12: Affordability. USN Rear Adm. (ret.) Craig Steidle pens an op-ed in Aviation Week. Steidle was the 2nd director of the JSF Program Office, from August 1995 – August 1997. He writes:

“…as the program moved on, the focus on affordability atrophied. Both the government and contractor were at fault. What began as a core pillar didn’t evolve into a culture… In 2008-10, I had the privilege to chair several Independent Manufacturing Review Team (IMRT) assessments of the F-35 program… The kind of cost-avoidance program that should have encompassed lean and producibility initiatives and other affordability improvements did not exist, nor was it asked for. The statements of work that we reviewed did not incorporate cost reduction. Difficulties were to be expected, but resolving development issues had diverted attention from cost control.”

He does say that the current F-35 program leadership has made progress, adding that the F-35 will have “a system performance beyond our initial expectations.” Time will tell.

Oct 30/12: Dutch delay. Instead of trying to gather a majority among the second-tier parties, the Dutch VVD and its largest opponent, the PvdA Labour Party, elect to form a national unity coalition with 79/ 150 seats.

They don’t agree about the F-35, but they do agree that the recent Rekenkamer report requires a full reconsideration of Dutch defense policy and commitments by the end of 2013. Once that’s done, there’s reportedly some language about a “competitive” evaluation of alternatives in 2014, leading to a contract in 2015 as planned. The parties agreed that the 2014 evaluation will include operations and support (O&S) costs, while a 2nd agreement will create a forensic inquiry into why Parliament wasn’t informed of the 390% cost explosion between 2001 and 2012 for 30 years of F-35 O&S (q.v. Oct 24/12 entry).

Depending on the exact wording of the coalition agreement, and on how vigorously the PvdA asserts itself, those agreements may just be a stalling tactic toward lock-in, and a drastically reduced fighter fleet with much smaller responsibilities. There are a number of ways to blunt the accuracy and impact of an O&S assessment, and true competition in 2014 requires a specific procedure. The forensic inquiry will put the MvD in the spotlight, and the VVD party is also at risk, but the VVD would not have accepted a suicide pact. The best bet is an inquiry that mirrors the recent farce in Canada: bureaucratic stonewalling, and refusal of responsibility by all parties. In the meantime, more contracts let to Dutch firms could have the effect of raising termination costs if the country pulls out of the F-35 program. Atlantic Sentinel | defense-aerospace.com

Oct 26/12: EVM penalty. The Pentagon is withholding $46.5 million from Lockheed Martin over Earned Value Management system deficiencies, subtracting 5% of periodic billings against the LRIP-4 and LRIP-5 contracts, and Israel’s F-35i development contract.

Lockheed Martin’s EVM certification at Fort Worth, TX was yanked in October 2010. They have a corrective plan to return to full EVM compliance, but haven’t restored their certification yet. Bloomberg.

Oct 25/12: LMCO 10-Q. Lockheed Martin’s 10-Q filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission says that they are still working to restore the Defense Contracting Management Agency’s (DCMA) earned value management system (EVMS) at the Fort Worth, TX facility. Relations with the US government are actually quite tense overall, and the firm mentions the ongoing failure of contract restructuring negotiations to tie fees to milestones. Not to mention disagreements between contractor and government assessments for the milestones that already exist. Then there’s the issue of payment risk hanging over the program:

“The development portion of the F-35 program is expected to continue into 2017 and currently has approximately $530 million of incentive fees remaining… While our customer has delayed funding for LRIP Lot 6 until the LRIP Lot 5 contract is negotiated, we and our industry team have continued to work in an effort to meet our customer’s desired aircraft delivery dates for the LRIP Lot 6 aircraft. As a result, we have approximately $400 million in potential termination liability exposure as of September 30, 2012. If we are unable to obtain additional funding by year-end, the potential termination liability exposure is estimated to be $1.1 billion and our cash exposure would be approximately $250 million… In the quarter ended September 30, 2012, 12 LRIP Lot 3 aircraft were delivered to the U.S. Government. We have received orders for 95 production aircraft, of which 26 have been delivered through the quarter ended September 30, 2012.”

Lockheed Martin received a $489.5 million contract for Lot 6 long-lead parts on June 15/12. It isn’t clear if those funds have been released, or are being held up over negotiations. See: 10-Q SEC filing | Reuters.

Oct 24/12: Dutch Report. The Dutch Rekenkamer national auditing office releases their report covering the proposed F-35 buy. A decision to buy or reject the F-35A must be made by 2015, per earlier agreements with the US government and Lockheed Martin, but the F-35A IOT&E and arrival of operational Block 3 software will take until 2019, which means another round of testing after 2019. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) would wait until 2022, and it would be at least 2027 (a 6-year slip from 2021) before the Dutch could retire their F-16s.

The bottom line is that even in a study that confined itself to unaudited figures provided by the Dutch government and industry, it’s clear that the planned EUR 4.05 billion Dutch buy won’t be able to afford 68 F-35s, let alone the 85 planned. The MvD is now talking about just 56 planes, and extrapolation using the report’s own charts and Pentagon figures suggests a figure closer to 42-48 F-35As. As the Rekenkamer points out, it isn’t possible to execute the Luchtmacht’s current responsibilities with those numbers. Which means the Netherlands will need to rethink and reduce its long-term defense and alliance commitments. Operations & support (O&S) projections, exclusive of fuel, add even more weight to that conclusion. The 30-year figure has risen from the initial 2001 figure of EUR 2.9 billion for 85, to the 2012 figure of EUR 14.2 billion. It only drops to EUR 13.2 billion at 68 aircraft, and that non-linear drop makes it likely that O&M costs for a fleet of 42-48 F-35As, over 30 years, would be well over EUR 200 million per plane.

Option #2, which involves withdrawing from the testing phase, gets a negative recommendation. The Rekenkamer thinks it wouldn’t make operational or financial sense, since monies “saved” would just create new costs later in the F-16 fleet. They’re almost certainly correct.

Option #3 would involve withdrawing from the F-35 program before 2015, and buying another fighter off the shelf. This could expose the government to termination claims, with Dutch firms filing claims against major F-35 contractors under US Federal Acquisition Regulations, who will go to the US government for payment, who would go to the Dutch government under the JSF program’s 2010 MoU (pp. 28, 117). The Rekenkamer believes that taking this option would also require a reconsideration of the Luchtmacht’s medium-term responsibilities, since it would require operating the F-16 fleet for longer.

That last conclusion may not be correct. The most likely alternative that could offer more fighters, the JAS-39E/F Gripen, isn’t scheduled to enter Swedish service until 2023. Which would push full retirement of the Dutch F-16s beyond 2027. The Swiss are getting leased JAS-39C/Ds as a bridge to their 22 JAS-39Es, however, and Saab could conceivably make the Dutch a similar offer that let them retire the Luchtmacht F-16s in 2027 as planned. The Eurofighter or Rafale would offer similar or greater costs compared to the F-35A, but either aircraft could be delivered and operational several years earlier than the F-35A or the JAS-39E/F. DID’s estimate is that a 2015 contract signing could give the Dutch a Rafale/ Typhoon IOC of 2018, and full retirement of Dutch F-16s by 2022-23. “Uitstapkosten Joint Strike Fighter,” incl. links to full reports [all in Dutch] | JSF Nieuws [in Dutch] | DID thanks VNC Communication for their assistance.

Dutch F-35 report

Oct 19/12: Engines. United Technologies’ Pratt and Whitney Military Engines in East Hartford, CT wins an $81.9 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for services and materials for the preliminary design, detailed design, and engine performance testing in support of the F135 Fuel Burn Reduction Program. The objective of the program is to demonstrate a 5% mission weighted fuel burn reduction in a F135 experimental engine configuration.

Competition can produce the same kinds of benefits, of course, but the Pentagon has chosen not to do that.

Work will be performed in East Hartford, CT, and is expected to be complete in July 2016. This contract was competitively procured via Broad Agency Announcement, and 3 offers were received by the US Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, NJ (N68335-13-C-0005).

Oct 9/12: Italy. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX received a $28.6 million advance acquisition contract modification, buying long lead-time parts, material and components required to protect the delivery schedule of Italy’s 4 F-35As in LRIP Lot 7 (FY 2013).

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be completed in June 2013. Note that El Segundo is Northrop Grumman’s work, and Warton is BAE’s (N00019-12-C-0004).

Sept 27/12: LRIP-7 Engine lead-in. United Technologies’ Pratt & Whitney Military Engines in East Hartford, CT receives an estimated $89.2 million for long-lead components, parts and materials associated with the 37 engines in LRIP Lot 7. The rest of the contract will follow, but initial purchases involve:

• USAF: 19 F135-PW-100 base model ($38 million, 43%)
  
• Italy: 3 F135 CTOL ($6 million, 7%)
  
• Norway: 2 F135 CTOL ($4 million, 4.5%)
  
• Turkey: 2 F135 CTOL ($4 million, 4.5%)
  
• US Navy: 4 F135-PW-100 Carrier Variant ($35.2 million, 39% for US/ USMC)
  
• USMC: 6 F-135-PW-600 Short Take-off and Vertical Landing with Roll Royce’s LiftFan
  
• Britain: 1 F135 STOVL ($2 million, 2%)

Work will be performed in East Hartford, CT (67%); Bristol, United Kingdom (16.5%); and Indianapolis, IN (16.5%), and is expected to be complete in September 2013. This contract was not competitively procured (N00019-12-C-0060).

FY 2012

F-35A armed test
(click to view full)

Sept 26/12: LRIP-3 changes. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $25.9 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract modification to add authorized concurrency changes for USAF F-35As in LRIP Lot 3. Many concurrency changes are going to involve software, but they can also involve mechanical changes. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, and is expected to span multiple years (N00019-08-C-0028).

Sept 26/12: Simulators & RCS. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a not-to-exceed $79.9 million advance acquisition contract modification to buy 6 F-35 Lightening II Full Mission Simulators, and a radar upgrade at Hill AFB, UT to support of F-35 radar cross section testing.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be complete in April 2015. $716,700 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/12 (N00019-10-C-0002).

Sept 20/12: Sub-contractors. Northrop Grumman Corporation enters into a long-term agreement (LTA) with Denmark’s Terma A/S, worth more than $95 million through 2019. The LTA covers production of 34 unique F-35 Lightning II composite components, including doors, panels, skin assembly, and straps through 2019.

This is actually an extension of a partnership that began in 2006. Terma A/S has been producing F-35 components since the LRIP-1 order in 2007. NGC.

Sept 12/12: Dutch Elections. Elections leave the pro-JSF coalition slightly ahead in some respects, but the VVD (+10 seats) and CDA (-8 seats) end up needing 22 more votes to have a 76-vote majority in favor of the F-35. Support from Geert Wilders’ PVV, plus the Christian Democratic leaning CU and SGP, could get them to 77. Wikipedia.

Sept 6/12: Japan’s 4, for much more. More cost hikes for Japan, as Defense Ministry officials cite “lower production efficiency” as the reason its first 4 F-35As will soar again to YEN 15.4 billion (about $195 million) per plane. As a result, the ministry is looking to find the full YEN 30.8 billion, in order to cover the 2 fighters planned for the FY 2013 budget request. The Japan Times.

Aug 28/12: Israel. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Ft. Worth, TX receives a $206.8 million cost-reimbursement contract modification to pay for Phase I Increment 1, of Israel’s F-35i System Development and Demonstration. This modification includes the development of hardware and software, from the initial requirements development to the Preliminary Design Review (PDR). In addition, a hardware-only post PDR will continue through finalized requirements, layouts, and build to prints, including production planning data.

Note that Pentagon contract announcements are often for the 40-50% of the total expected costs, in order to get work underway. As such, previous figures of $450 million to add Israeli radio, datalink, and electronic warfare systems could still be true. Work will be performed at Fort Worth, TX (60%); Los Angeles, CA (20%); Nashua, NH (15%); and San Diego, CA (5%), and is expected to be complete in May 2016. US Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD will manage this effort, on behalf of its Israeli Foreign Military Sale client (N00019-12-C-0070).

F-35i SDD begins

Aug 7/12: LRIP-5. United Technologies subsidiary Pratt & Whitney Military Engines in East Hartford, CT receives a $9.6 million contract modification to LRIP Lot 5/ FY 2011 fixed-price incentive and cost-plus-incentive contract line items. It funds part of the cost of 2 F135 engines, plus associated engineering assistance to production, a mock-up engine, slave modules for engine depot test cells at Tinker Air Force Base, initial stand-up repair capabilities at Hill Air Force Base; and additional contractor logistics support. Support will take place at the Fort Worth, TX, and Palmdale, CA, production sites, and at Eglin AFB, Yuma AFB, Nellis AFB, and Edwards AFB.

Work will be performed in East Hartford, CT (67%); Bristol, United Kingdom (17%); and Indianapolis, IN (16%), and is expected to be complete in February 2014.Funding will be released as needed (N00019-10-C-0005).

Aug 6/12: LRIP-5. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a not-to-exceed $209.8 million contract modification for initial spares to support 32 F-35 LRIP Lot 5/ FY 2011 fighters.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%), and is expected to be complete in June 2015 (N00019-10-C-0002).

June 20/12: LRIP-7 Norway. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $20.1 million advance acquisition contract to provide long lead-time parts, material and components required for Norway’s 2 F-35As ordered in LRIP-7/ FY 2013.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%). Work is expected to be complete in June 2013. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1 (N00019-12-C-0004).

July 2-5/12: Netherlands. A parliamentary majority opposed to buying the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter has emerged in the Netherlands. Despite lobbying from the MvD, and 2 planes ordered already, the issue came to a vote, and the motion to withdraw from the program was upheld.

Because the government has technically dissolved, this vote doesn’t pull the Netherlands out yet. What it does say is that unless the VVD and SDA parties can form a majority in the next election, the Dutch F-35 buy is in serious danger. The cost of ending the country’s Tier 2 participation in the program could hit EUR 1 billion. Then again, if reported figures regarding Saab’s JAS-39E/F Gripen offer are true, Dutch government budgets could still come out ahead. Industry may be less happy.

June 29/12: Japan. Buy 4, for more. Officials from Japan’s defense ministry say that they have agreed to terms for their first 4 F-35As. Delayed American orders for 179 planes mean that Japan’s planes will reportedly cost 9.6 billion yen (about $120 million) each, up from the original plan of $110 million. That makes the Japanese contract a good bellwether for the real base cost of an F-35A in the near future.

Fortunately for the Japanese, the overall contract remained at the expected YEN 60 billion (about $752.4 million). The cost of the 2 simulators and other equipment dropped to YEN 19.1 billion ($240.83 million) from the expected YEN 20.5 billion. Read “Japan’s Next Fighters: F-35 Wins The F-X Competition” for full coverage.

Japan: 4 of 42

June 15/12: LRIP-6. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $489.5 million advance acquisition contract to provide long lead-time parts, material and components required for the delivery of 35 LRIP-6 fighters. The order involves 19 USAF F-35As, 3 F-35As for the government of Italy, 2 F-35As for the government of Turkey, 6 USMC F-35B STOVL(Short Take-Off Vertical Landing) fighters, 1 F-35B for Britain, and 4 F-35Cs for the US Navy.

This contract also funds long lead-time efforts required for the addition of a drag chute to Norway’s F-35As, which will be ordered as part of LRIP-7 in 2013. Drag chutes are especially useful when landing in cold climates, where runways and tires may fail to provide the same level of traction.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%); and is expected to be complete in June 2013. This contract was not competitively procured, pursuant to US FAR 6.302-1, by US Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD (N00019-12-C-0004).

June 15/12: Norway OK. Norway takes the next step, and formally authorizes the purchase of 2 F-35A fighters, which are intended for delivery in 2015. They will be based in the United States as part of a joint partner training center, which almost certainly means Eglin AFB, FL. The 2 aircraft authorized today are expected to be joined by a second pair in 2016. They are to be followed by up to 48 additional aircraft orders from 2017, which will be based at Orland AB and Evenes FOB in Norway.

This is not a contract yet, but one can be expected in FY 2013. Meanwhile, American support for internal F-35 integration of the JSM strike missile allows Norway to begin preparing it for deployment.

The overall cost of Norway’s F-35’s procurement phase is estimated at NOK 60 billion/ $FY12 10 billion in real terms. This is very good news for Lockheed Martin, which is working through a 2-month long extended strike by its machinists, and a harsh US GAO report concerning the F-35’s progress. Norwegian MoD | Business Insider | Fort Worth Star-Telegram | WFAA Dallas.

Norwegian go-ahead

June 14/12: Norway. Norway’s Storting (parliament) approves a significant increase in defense spending, with the F-35 purchase playing a central role. The country will also be making investments in modernizing and adding CV90 tracked armored vehicles, and purchasing UAVs.

Overall, Norway will see a budget increase of 7% by 2016. Monies spent of the Afghan deployment will be continued and redirected, while “significant” supplementary funds will be added for the F-35 purchase. Source.

June 14/12: US GAO Report. Congress’ Government Accountability Office delivers a report on the F-35 program. Key excerpts from GAO-12-437: “Joint Strike Fighter – DOD Actions Needed to Further Enhance Restructuring and Address Affordability Risks” :

“The new program baseline projects total acquisition costs of $395.7 billion, an increase of $117.2 billion (42%) from the prior 2007 baseline. Full rate production is now planned for 2019, a delay of 6 years from the 2007 baseline. Unit costs per aircraft have doubled since start of development in 2001… Since 2002, the total quantity through 2017 has been reduced by three-fourths, from 1,591 to 365. Affordability is a key challenge… Overall performance in 2011 was mixed as the program achieved 6 of 11 important objectives… Late software releases and concurrent work on multiple software blocks have delayed testing and training. Development of critical mission systems providing core combat capabilities remains behind schedule and risky… Most of the instability in the program has been and continues to be the result of highly concurrent development, testing, and production activities. Cost overruns on the first four annual procurement contracts total more than $1 billion and aircraft deliveries are on average more than 1 year late. Program officials said the government’s share of the cost growth is $672 million; this adds about $11 million to the price of each of the 63 aircraft under those contract.”

June 13/12: Infrastructure. R.L. Reed, Inc. in Las Vegas, NV wins an $11.1 million firm-fixed-price contract, to build an F-35A aerospace ground equipment facility at Nellis AFB, NV. Work is expected to finish by Dec 10/13. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 15 bids received by The US Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angles, CA (W912PL-12-C-0010).

June 4/12: Support. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives an $111.6 million cost reimbursement contract modification, which adds more funding for recurring support activities such as initial training, aircraft maintenance operations, stand-up of sustainment capability at specified locations, technical data management, and sustaining engineering for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.

Work will be performed at Eglin AFB, FL (60%); and in Fort Worth, TX (15%); El Segundo, CA (5%); Warton, United Kingdom (5%); Orlando, FL (5%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%). Work is expected to be complete in October 2012, but $45.2 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/12 (N00019-10-C-0002).

May 31/12: Norway JSM. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $19.8 million contract modification, funding a Joint Strike Missile (JSM) Risk Reduction Study for the Norway Ministry of Defence. Efforts include physical fit checks, wind tunnel tests, engineering analysis, and designing and building of an emulator and adapter to determine next steps in integrating the JSM into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

These monies will be applied to the fixed-price-incentive-fee, firm target F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter LRIP-4/ FY 2010 contract. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (70%); Arnold AFB in Tullahoma, TN (20%); and Kongsberg, Norway (10%); and is expected to be complete in May 2014 (N00019-09-C-0010).

May 7/12: LRIP-4 Concurrency. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $237,740,000 fixed-price-incentive-fee, firm target contract modification to the LRIP-4/ FY 2010 contract, in order to raise the limit for government-authorized changes to the plane’s configuration baseline hardware or software. This modification increases the concurrency cap for the USAF’s and Netherlands’ F-35As; USMC’s and Britain’s F-35Bs; and US Navy F-35Cs.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, and is expected to span multiple years, but $222.6 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/12. This contract modification combines purchases for the Navy ($153.2M/ 64.5%); USAF ($69.4M/ 29%); the United Kingdom ($8.2M/ 3.5%); and the Netherlands ($6.9M/ 3%), under contract N00019-09-C-0010.

May 10/12: Britain. Britain’s government confirms long-standing rumors that it would abandon the F-35C and its associated catapult modifications to 1 carrier, returning to the ski-jump deck and F-35B STOVL variant. That will mean reversions and changes to the carriers’ evolved design and lighting, some of which were described in the Jan 25/12 entry. Aircraft are less affected. The UK had already ordered and paid for an F-35B test plane, before the switch to the F-35C. Those flights will now continue, and F-35B flight trials are scheduled to begin from a British carrier in 2018.

A DSTL report has explained some of the capabilities Britain would lose by abandoning the F-35C, but the government justifies their decision by saying that the F-35C’s improved capabilities and compatibility with American and French carriers would come at too steep a cost. Staying with the F-35C, they say, would delay Britain’s return to carrier capability from 2020 – 2023 or later, cost nearly GBP 2 billion to modify 1 of their 2 carriers, and leave the Royal Navy with no carrier capability if their converted ship needs maintenance. In contrast, the F-35B will be compatible with the US Marines and with Italy, and gives Britain the option of taking its 2nd CVF carrier out of strategic reserve, and using it when the primary carrier is out of service for long refits or maintenance dockings. UK MoD.

Britain back to F-35B

May 3-9/12: Australia. Australia’s Defense Force will delay buying 12 new F-35As by 2 years (Project AIR 6000, Phase 2A/B, Stage 2), and delay the 4th Australian squadron (Phase 2C) by one more year, under the Labor Party government’s deficit-reduction plan.

They’ve committed to buy 2 initial F-35As for delivery in 2014-15, but those 2 will remain in the United States for testing and pilot training. The next 12 planes would have been based in Australia. Their Year of Decision will now be 2014-15 for the next 12, which may also cover the Phase 2B buy of 58. Delivery of those planes isn’t expected until 2017-2019 now, which means that RAAF F-35As won’t be flying in Australia until around 2020. The AIR 6000 Phase 2C decision to add another 24 F-35s, and raise Australia’s total buy to 96, won’t happen until 2018-19. Australian DMO Project page | Australian Aviation | Australian Aviation follow-up | The Australian | Bloomberg | Canada’s Globe & Mail.

Australia delays

May 1/12: Japan. May 1/12: The US DSCA formally announces Japan’s official request for an initial set of 4 Lockheed Martin F-35As, with an option to buy another 38 and bring the deal to 42 aircraft. “The Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s F-4 aircraft will be decommissioned as F-35’s [sic] are added to the inventory.”

The estimated cost is $10 billion, which works out to $238.1 million per plane. Until a set of contracts are signed, it’s hard to split that accurately between purchase and support costs, and long support deals can add a lot to costs. Japan is also interested in considerably more local assembly than most of F-35 buyers, which is likely to add a number of unique costs of its own. Read “Japan’s Next Fighters: F-35 Wins The F-X Competition” for full coverage.

Japan request

April 24/12: LRIP-2 Concurrency. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $68.3 million modification to the previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) LRIP-2/ FY 2008 contract, to raise the limit for government-authorized changes to the plane’s configuration baseline hardware or software. This contract combines purchases for the USAF ($37.7M/ 55.2%) and the US Navy ($30.6M/ 44.8%)

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, and is expected to span multiple years. (N00019-07-C-0097)

April 24/12: LRIP-3 Concurrency. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $45.9 million modification to the previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee LRIP-3 contract, to raise the limit for government-authorized changes to the plane’s configuration baseline hardware or software. This contract combines purchases for the US Navy ($37.5M/ 77.8%) and the United Kingdom ($10.2M/ 22.2%).

At this point, both navies were still committed to the F-35C. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX and is expected to span multiple years (N00019-08-C-0028)

April 13/12: LRIP-5. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $258.8 million not-to-exceed undefinitized modification to the LRIP-5/ FY 2011 contract adding 1 USAF F-35A and 1 USN F-35C. The modification includes undefinitized line items, which will be finalized as fixed-price-incentive-firm contract line items.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%); and is expected to be complete in February 2014. Funds will be released as needed (N00019-10-C-0002).

April 3/12: F-35 schedule & costs. Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman takes a deep look into the Pentagon’s latest Selected Acquisition Reports, which was released on March 30/12. Excerpts:

“Another three-year slip to initial operational test and evaluation, the culmination of system development and demonstration, which now is due to be complete in 2019 – the target date is February but the threshold date is October… it appears that the main culprit is software and hardware, mainly in terms of… sensor fusion and emission control – that take place in the fighter’s main processor banks… In what follows, I’m going to use average procurement unit cost (APUC)… recurring flyaway is the lowest cost, but neither the US nor anyone else can put an aircraft on the ramp for that money. And all numbers are base-2012… The APUC for the F-35A in 2013-14 is $184-$188 million, versus $177m (2009 dollars) for the last F-22s. And that is at a much higher production rate.”

Most ominously for the F-35’s future cost structure:

“Although the basis of the numbers has been changed, the SAR still compares the F-35A with the F-16, and shows that the estimated CPFH [DID: Cost Per Flight Hour] for the F-35A has gone from 1.22 F-16s in the 2010 SAR to 1.42 today – versus 0.8 F-16s, which was being claimed a few years ago. Where is that operations and support money going to come from?”

SAR: dates slip, O&M rises

April 2/12: The Future of Stealth? A Japan Today article goes straight to the main military point at stake: the future effectiveness of stealth technologies:

“As more nations develop stealth fighters, then the use of radar as the main target acquisition device will be taken over by infrared, wake tracking, electro-optics, and radio/electronic chatter detection – thereby side-stepping radar stealth features – in short order.”

It’s a bit more complex than that, especially given the fact that stealth tends to be optimized for certain frequencies, so radars will still play a role. Still, the falling cost of high-bandwidth networking, and the need for a counter to stealth technologies, does suggest a range of countermeasures over the coming decades.

March 30/12: Infrastructure. Small business qualifier Head, Inc. in Columbus, OH receives a $17 million firm-fixed-price contract to build 5 vertical landing pads and associated supporting taxiways at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, SC, which will base F-35Bs.

Work is expected to be complete by August 2013. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 12 proposals received by Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast in Jacksonville, FL (N69450-12-C-1758).

March 20/12: Infrastructure. Harper Construction Co., Inc., San Diego, CA wins a pair of firm-fixed-price task order under a multiple award construction contract, to build the 2-story aircraft maintenance hangars at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, AZ. The buildings will include a high bay space for F-35Bs, crew and equipment space, administrative space and Special Access Program Facility areas for the Automatic Logistics Information System (ALIS) fleet maintenance program.

Task order 003 for the south hangar is $33.2 million, and a planned modification could increase the contract to $35 million (N62473-10-D-5406, 0004).

Task order 004 for the north hangar is $36.7 million, and a planned modification could increase the contract to $38.6 million (N62473-10-D-5406, 0004).

Work is expected to be complete by May 2014, and 9 proposals were received for each task order by US Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest in San Diego, CA

March 12/12: LRIP-5. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $56.4 million cost reimbursement contract modification, adding funding for support efforts necessary to meet F-35 LRIP Lot 5’s requirements and delivery schedule.

Work will be performed in Eglin Air Force Base, FL (60%); Fort Worth, TX (15%); El Segundo, CA (5%); Warton, United Kingdom (5%); Orlando, FL (5%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%); and is expected to be complete in May 2012. $18.7 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/12 (N00019-10-C-0002).

March 12/12: LRIP-6. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $38.6 million modification to the previously awarded low rate initial production Lot 6 advance acquisition contract to provide additional funding for the procurement of long lead items for F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter low rate initial production conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) aircraft for the USAF, and for the governments of Italy and Australia.

Work, which will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, is necessary to protect the delivery schedules of CTOL aircraft planned for delivery through January 2015 (N00019-11-C-0083).

March 9/12: Reprogramming Lab. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $24.1 million cost-reimbursement contract modification to develop a data farm for the Joint Strike Fighter US Reprogramming Laboratory at Eglin AFB, FL. It will take feeds from the lab’s existing equipment, and store software and data from the F-35’s mission data testing.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (95%), and Orlando, FL (5%), and is expected to be complete in November 2014. Contract funds will be released as needed (N00019-02-C-3002).

Feb 23/12: Turkey. Turkish Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz says that they’re sticking to plans to buy 100 of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets for $16 billion, but could change those numbers or the timing of their orders, depending on how negotiations go.

Turkey’s development phase payments have reportedly hit $315 million so far. Reuters.

Feb 15/12: Italian cuts. Italian Defense Minister Giampaolo Di Paola tells a joint defense committee of both houses of parliament that Italy is cutting its planned F-35 purchases from 131 to 90, as part of a range of military austerity measures. A review had indicated 1/3 fewer planes would do, but given Italy’s needs all of those cuts are almost certain to be air force jets.

Di Paola said that Italy had spent EUR 2.5 billion/ $3.3 billion on the program so far. Bloomberg.

Italy cuts

Feb 9/12: LRIP-6. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $14.8 million contract modification, to buy long lead items for the USMC’s LRIP-6/ FY 2012 buy of F-35B fighters. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, and is necessary to protect the delivery schedules of STOVL aircraft planned for delivery through December 2014 (N00019-11-C-0083)

Jan 6/12: LRIP-6 engines. United Technologies subsidiary Pratt & Whitney Military Engines in East Hartford, CT receives a $194.1 million advance acquisition contract with fixed-price line items for long lead components, parts, and materials required for the delivery of 37 LRIP Lot 6 engines. They will equip the USMC (6 F-135-600s with LiftFan, $84.7M/ 43.6%); USAF (18 F135-100s, $54.9M/ 28.3%); USN (7 F135-100 naval, $37.1M/ 19.1%); Italian Air Force (4 F135-100s, $11.6M/ 6%); and Royal Australian Air Force (2 F135-100s, $5.8M/ 3%); and associated spares.

Work will be performed in East Hartford, CT (64%); Bristol, UK (25%); and Indianapolis, IN (11%), and is expected to be complete in September 2012. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 USC. 2304c1 (N00019-11-C-0082).

USN F-35C & F/A-18E,
jet blast testing
(click to view full)

Dec 28/11: LRIP-5 engines. Pratt & Whitney Military Engines in East Hartford, CT receives a $1.122 billion unfinalized, not-to-exceed contract modification for LRIP Lot V’s engines. The contract includes both fixed price incentive and cost plus incentive contract line items, and covers 21 F135 engines for the USAF’s F-35As ($520.7M / 46.3%), 3 F135 LiftFan engines for the USMC’s F-35Bs ($387.1M / 34.5% is the figure given), 6 F135s for the Navy’s F-35Cs ($166.7M/ 14.9%), plus the usual support and spares for the US and F-35 Co-operative Partners ($47.8M Co-operative Partner Participants/ 4.3%). A total of $358.6 million is committed immediately.

One wonders if the USN & USMC figures were transposed, but the finalized contract will offer more clarity. Work will be performed in East Hartford, CT (67%); Bristol, United Kingdom (16.5%); and Indianapolis, IN (16.5%), and is expected to be complete in February 2014 (N00019-10-C-0005).

Dec 27/11: LRIP-5. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $485 million not-to-exceed cost-plus-fixed-fee unfinalized contract modification, with $131.5 million obligated at time of award. The contract covers LRIP Lot 5 production requirements, including special tooling/special test equipment, and subcontractor technical assistance. This contract combines purchases for the USAF ($186.7M/ 38.5%); the US Navy ($186.7M/ 38.5%); and JSF Cooperative Partner participants ($111.5M/ 23%).

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (30%); El Segundo, CA (20%); Wharton, United Kingdom (20%); Turin, Italy (15%); Nashua, NH (8%); and Baltimore, MD (7%); and is expected to be complete in December 2013 (N00019-10-C-0002)

Dec 27/11: LRIP-4. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $253 million cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to finalize the previous LRIP-4/ FY 2010 support contract. This contract covers the US Navy ($140.3M/ 55.5%), the USAF (89.1M/ 35.2%), and the JSF “Cooperative Program participants” ($23.6M/ 9.3%).

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (35%); El Segundo, CA (25%); Warton, United Kingdom (20%); Orlando, FL (10%); Nashua, NH (5%); and Baltimore, MD (5%); and is expected to be complete in May 2014. $169.7 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/12 (N00019-09-C-0010).

Dec 20/11: Japan win. Japan’s Ministry of Defense announces that Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II has won the F-X competitive bid process for 42 planes. The initial contract will be for 4 F-35A jets in Japan Fiscal Year 2012, which begins April 1/12. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2016. Read “Japan’s Next Fighters: F-35 Wins The F-X Competition” for full coverage.

Japan win

Dec 9/11: LRIP-5. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $4.0119 billion fixed-price-incentive, firm target, FPIF contract modification for 30 LRIP Lot 5 fighters for the USAF (21 F-35As, $2.644 b/ 65.9%); the US Navy (6 F-35Cs, $937.3M/ 23.3%) and the US Marine Corps (3 F-35Bs, $426.2M/ 10.6%). In addition, this modification funds associated ancillary mission equipment and flight test instrumentation for those aircraft, and flight test instrumentation for the United Kingdom ($4.1M/ 0.1%). All efforts will be contracted for on a FPIF basis, with the exception of work scope for the incorporation of certain specified concurrency changes that will be contracted for on a cost-sharing/no-fee basis.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX (67%); El Segundo, CA (14%); Warton, United Kingdom (9%); Orlando, FL (4%); Nashua, NH (3%); and Baltimore, MD (3%), and is expected to be complete in January 2014 (N00019-10-C-0002).

LRIP Lot 5 main

Additional Readings & Sources Aircraft Background

• DID FOCUS Article – F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: 2009-2010. At present, there is no coverage for 2011.

• DID FOCUS Article – F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Events & Contracts 2007-08

• DID FOCUS Article – F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: SDD Contracts & Events FY 2006.

• F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program site. For other news that includes testing results and other areas not covered by contracts, see the news section.

• JSF Program Office – JSF Production, Sustainment and Follow-on Development MoU [PDF], update 4.

• Lockheed Martin – F-35 Lightning II. Includes sections covering topics such as Earned Value Management, testing, partnerships, manufacturing, etc.

• Air Force Technology – JSF (F35) Joint Strike Fighter, International

• Aerospaceweb – F-35 JSF Weapon Carriage Capacity. Good discussion of the 3 versions and their specific limiting factors.

• JSF UK Industry Team site.

• UK Parliamentary Defence Committee. An important source of information re: Tier 1 partner Britain’s future participation in the F-35 program.

• Pratt & Whitney – F135. The F-35’s current engine.

• DID – The F136 alternative engine was eventually terminated, over the objections of the government’s GAO auditors.

• Lockheed Martin Code One Magazine (May 15/08) – X to F: F-35 Lightning II And Its X-35 Predecessors.

Aircraft Ancillaries

• DID – You Can Track Your F-35s, At ALIS’ Maintenance Hub. Possibly the F-35’s most important ancillary system.

• Martin Baker – US16E – JSF. The plane’s ejection seat. See the “F-35 Program: Ancillary and Sub-contracts” section’s Nov 12/07 entry for further details that explain why this was such a challenging design.

• Lockheed Martin Code One magazine (Q2 2006) – The New Front Office: A Whole New View For Joint Strike Fighter Pilots. Describes the new cockpit and its related technologies.

• Vision Systems International – F-35 Gen II HMDS. Helmet Mounted Display System.

• Siemens – F-35 Case Study. Involves their FiberSim product, which helps with the design & coordination of composite parts.

• Fighter Country – Hundreds of F-35 aircraft suppliers coordinate with Teamcenter

Official Reports

• US GAO (March 11/13, #GAO-13-309) – Current Outlook Is Improved, but Long-Term Affordability Is a Major Concern.

• Pentagon OT&E (Feb 15/13) – F-35A Joint Strike Fighter: Readiness for Training Operational Utility Evaluation [PDF]

• Pentagon OT&E (Jan 17/13) – FY2012 Annual Report: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter [PDF].

• Dutch Rekenkamer Audit Agency (Oct 24/12) – Uitstapkosten Joint Strike Fighter,” incl. links to full reports [all in Dutch].

Other Perspectives

• War Is Boring (Jan 1/14) – Is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter the New F-4?

• Vanity Fair (Sept 16/13) Will It Fly? A long look at the F-35 program, and at issues with key components.

• ELP (July 19/13) – UPDATE – F-35 Gun Concerns. Links back to USAF Col. Charles Moore’s 2007 essay “The Need for a Permanent Gun System On the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter” [PDF], which includes analysis of front-line fighter gun use. An email from POGO’s Winslow Wheeler reiterates that the F-35A’s 25mm cannon has just 180 rounds, compared to the F-16’s 510 x 20mm or the A-10’s 1,174 x 30mm rounds, and references inherent gun pod accuracy issues from in Vietnam and Desert Storm.

• Offiziere.ch (March 6/13) – Jet Fighter Influence: How Lockheed’s Public Relations Efforts Keep the F-35 Sold. Offers a glimpse at Lockheed Martin’s lobbying beyond Washington, including mutually-referencing paid-for groups.

• US National Public Radio (Jan 3/13) – The F-35 Fighter Jet: The Cost And Controversy

• AOL Defense (Nov 27/12) – Will Stealth Survive As Sensors Improve? F-35, Jammers At Stake

• Aviation Week Ares (April 3/12) – JSF – SAR Discloses Another Three-Year Slip.

AN/TPS-75
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The US Air Force’s AN/TPS-75 radar has been in service since 1968. Threats have evolved, and they want to replace it as their main long-range, ground-based radar for detecting, identifying and tracking aircraft and missiles, then reporting them through the Ground Theater Air Control System. The US Marines are considering a similar move, to replace their own AN/TPS-59s. Hence the USA’s Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR, pron. “Three Dealer”).

3DELRR is intended to provide up to 35 radars for long-range surveillance, air traffic control, and theater ballistic missile detection. It will correct AN/TPS-75 shortfalls by being easier to maintain, thanks to AESA technology, and by detecting and reporting highly maneuverable and/or stealthy targets. Its improved resolution may even allow it to classify and determine the type of non-cooperative aircraft that cannot or do not identify themselves – a trait that allows faster engagement of hostile planes, and reduces the odds of friendly fire incidents. As long as the program itself can avoid friendly fire from the USA’s budget wars.

3DELRR: Mission & Program

The FBO.gov solicitation for 3DELRR defines its purpose as follows:

“The primary mission of the 3DELRR will be to provide long-range surveillance, control of aircraft, and theater ballistic missile detection. The 3DELRR will provide air controllers with a precise, real-time air picture of sufficient quality to conduct close control of individual aircraft under a wide range of environmental and operational conditions. In the case of theater missile defense operations, the new radar will have the capability to detect, track, and disseminate target information to respective command and control nodes such as the USAF Control and Reporting Center to disseminate for warning and engagement. Similarly, the joint targeting process will benefit from trajectory information provided by the 3DELRR, which will include launch and impact location. The 3DELRR will correct current radar system shortfalls by providing the capability to detect and report highly maneuverable, small radar cross section targets as well as discriminate the type of a non-cooperative aircraft. It will also mitigate most of the sustainability and maintainability concerns which plague the current system.”

Once the Technical Development Phase was complete, the USAF initially intended to award the System Design & Development (SDD) to the winning team around 2011, but a combination of budget cuts and new procurement philosophies forced a shift.

(click to view full)

By September 2011, that shift had become pronounced. By March 2012, the entire acquisition plan had changed, all the way through development of the operational system (EMD), and initial production & fielding (LRIP). The design and development award didn’t take place until 2014.

2012: A Change in Plans Old Plan, New Plan

Click here for the full-size graphic of plan changes.

Instead of awarding a Technology Development (TD) Phase 2 contract to either Sensis or Lockheed Martin, with built-in options to take the radar all the way into production, a contract around the end of FY 2012 threw the competition open again, awarding 3 fixed-price TD contracts worth $106 million in total.

That fixed-price type contract approach continued in the next 2 phases, then a single contractor was chosen in the project’s 3rd competition, and given a contract to take the project beyond Milestone B into production and fielding. That winning choice was based on “lowest price technically acceptable” criteria, rather than “best value.”

In sync with that shift, one of the TD Phase’s goals was to understand the cost/capability tradeoffs. Most cost is always tied up in design, which is to say in specifications. The Requirements Analysis in SOW Para 1.9.19 tried to reorder or change specifications, in order to eliminate requirements that drive high costs but don’t change the radar’s capabilities enough. The Army saw the cost drivers as “Mobility, Accuracy, False Alarms, Surveillance Volume, and Range,” but they were prepared to be surprised by industry offerings.

That decision pushed the competition toward existing designs and technologies, given the need for assured costs inherent in a fixed-price bid. Northrop Grumman certainly hoped so, as they believe that their existing USMC G/ATOR battlefield radar solution could be upgraded to handle 3DELRR as well. The Marines could then take advantage of the program, replacing existing AN/TPS-59 radars with the same technology used by their shorter-range G/ATOR companion.

Once this new “TD Review E” was done, a final specification allowed final Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) Phase bids to be solicited from any qualified source, not just the TD Phase 2 winners.

These decisions were significant, because they opened the door for Raytheon to win.

The Milestone B decision to begin EMD development of the final 3DELRR system didn’t take place until Q1 FY 2015, and was delayed by a GAO protest. The Critical Design Review is expected in after a winner has been picked, instead of at the end of a single-contractor TD Phase.

The single EMD winner is expected to continue development into the end of 2017 (Q1 FY 2018), and the fall Milestone C decision that authorizes Low-Rate Initial Production. A new twist was introduced in early 2013 as the program office went beyond the EMD-LRIP scope of its RFP, and added a full rate production option that could raise the program’s value to $1.3 billion in total sales over the next 10 years.

Initial Operational Capability with the USAF is now tagged at fall 2019 (Q1 FY 2020).

Contracts and Key Events

Unless otherwise noted, contracts for the 3DELRR program are awarded by the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA.

2014 – 2015

Raytheon Wins; GAO challenge.

May 13/15: Raytheon has further complicated the Air Force’s $1 billion 3DERLL radar program by appealing a federal judge’s decision last week to allow the Air Force to re-evaluate bids. The company previously filed a lawsuit when the Air Force tried to re-open the competition as a result of challenges by competitors Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

May 13/15: Raytheon suffered a setback this week, with a federal judge freeing the Air Force to re-evaluate bids for the 3D Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DERLL), with the company initially winning the lucrative contract in October last year. Raytheon filed a lawsuit against the Air Force when it tried to open up the competition through re-evaluating its original decision, with competitors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman protesting the initial contract award. The value of the program could reach $1 billion, with the Air Force planning to buy sixty of the new radar systems.

Jan 21/15: Air Force Reconsiders.
Reuters quoted a source indicating that the Air Force was to take some form of corrective action in a renewed consideration.

Oct 21-22/14: GAO Protests. The USAF confirms that Northrop Grumman has formally issued a protest against the USAF’s 3DELRR award to Raytheon. The next day, Lockheed Martin confirms that they are also filing a protest.

That halts the program until the challenge receives a ruling, which could take up to 100 days. In order to succeed, the challengers need to show that either Raytheon’s radar isn’t technically acceptable, that it wasn’t the lowest priced – or that something in the process went awry, ensuring that that competitors were treated differently or criteria weren’t applied fairly. Sources: See DID’s GAO Primer | Defense News, “Northrop Challenges 3DELRR Contract Award” | Reuters, “UPDATE 1-Lockheed Martin challenges contract to Raytheon”.

Oct 6/14: Raytheon wins. Raytheon is on quite the radar streak lately, adding the USAF’s 3DELRR to its naval AMDR win. Raytheon IDS in Sudbury, MA receives a $19.5 million fixed-price-incentive-firm contract for 3DELRR’s initial EMD (engineering, manufacturing and development) phase. This base contract includes the purchase of 3 radar systems, and $11 million in FY 2014 USAF RDT&E budgets are committed immediately. Options could bring the total initial EMD contract to $71.8 million for 6 radars, plus product support.

Production orders for the other 29 can follow after that, but it’s also worth noting that 3DELRR is one of the first programs under the DoD’s Better Buying Power initiative to be designed for exportability.

Raytheon’s 3DELRR solution is a C-band radar that builds on their investments in gallium nitride (GaN) electronics, which offer better performance than conventional GaAs circuits at similar power levels. While radars like UHF/VHF are emphasized for detection of stealthy targets within the atmosphere, Raytheon says that they picked the C-band for “increased flexibility because that portion of the spectrum is relatively uncongested.” It should work fine against ballistic missiles, and the ability to avoid spectrum frequency conflicts with potential export customers may also become a selling point.

Work will be performed at Sudbury, MA and Andover, MA and the current contract award is expected to be complete by Oct 31/18. Their sub-contractor Saab Defense (formerly Sensis) will also benefit, and will add about 100 jobs at its DeWitt, NY facility. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, with 3 offers received by the USAF Life Cycle Management Center’s Theater Battle Control Division at Hanscom AFB, MA (FA8730-15-C-0004). See also Raytheon, “Raytheon awarded contract to build new U.S. Air Force radar” | Syracuse.com, “Raytheon, Saab Defense of DeWitt win U.S. Air Force radar contract worth up to $1.3 billion”.

Raytheon wins EMD

FY 2012-2013

TD Phase 2. EMD-LRIP-FRP RFP; Demonstrations by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. ATREX Twilight zone…
(click to view full)

Aug 26/13: NGC. Northrop Grumman announces that they completed their 3DELRR demonstration back in July. They refer to it as “The U.S. Air Force system variant of the Department of Defense AN/TPS-80 radar…” but unlike the USMC’s current G/ATORs, this S-band radar uses Gallium Nitride transmit/receive modules. That technology is in the USMC’s plans, and the development work may pay off for the Marines, just as all the work on the USMC’s TPS-80 G/ATOR would offer dividends to the USAF.

As one might expect, given their design’s lineage, Northrop Grumman also touts “successful system ambient air cooling under extremely hot operating conditions,” as well as the radar’s well-developed system self-test and calibration capabilities. Sources: Northrop Grumman Aug 26/13 release.

July 29-30/13: Lockheed & Raytheon. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon announce that they’ve completed their 3DELRR radar demonstrations.

Lockheed Martin’s radar detected required targets of opportunity launched from the Syracuse airport and surrounding areas. They even hired additional test aircraft, in order to perform more advanced performance detection and tracking scenarios.

Raytheon’s C-band offering with GaN-based electronics was put through the same basic tests, and also demonstrated integration into the Air Force’s next-generation Command and Control system. Gallium Nitride electronics can get more performance from the same power inputs, which is an exceptionally helpful feature for radars. The flip side is that they cost more than conventional Gallium Arsenide electronics. Raytheon has made significant investments in GaN, and hopes to reap a competitive advantage by moving farther down the cost curve and higher up the performance curve than its rivals. Sources: Lockheed Martin July 29/13 release | Raytheon July 30/13 release.

March 29/13: Iterating through drafts. The program office is requesting participating contractors to review draft Revision F of their Technical Requirements Document (TRD), which supports Revision B of the draft RFP introduced in January. Sections L and M of this latest revision, reflecting instructions to offerors and evaluation factors for award, respectively, will be posted later. The TRD is available for parties under a Militarily Critical Technical Data Agreement. So far, this looks in line with the plan they announced 2 months ago. FBO.gov.

March 28/13: GAO Report. The US GAO tables its “Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs” for 2013. Which is actually a review for 2012, plus time to compile and publish.

For 3DELRR, the GAO estimates the total program cost at $FY13 2.1131 billion: $771.1 million RDT&E, plus $1.3421 billion for 35 systems and associated gear. The program still hopes to start system development by December 2013 (Q1 FY 2014), with Full Operational Capability still scheduled for late 2019 (Q1 FY 2020).

Cost & schedule estimates

March 27/13: NGC. Northrop Grumman touts a recent demonstration, in which a G/ATOR radar with some software modifications tracks 5 NASA ATREX suborbital rockets fired from Wallops Island, VA. The rockets release chemical tracer clouds into the high altitude jet stream, in order to exercise mind control through tinfoil hats help scientists study the jet stream’s flow 60-65 miles above the earth.

Northrop Grumman is touting G/ATOR’s ability to evolve into 3DELRR’s requirements (q.v. Readings), and this announcement is part of that campaign. The question that Northrop Grumman wouldn’t/ couldn’t answer for us involves whether the radar tracked the rockets as they were launched and boosting (easier technical problem, classic counterfire/ air defense, and Wallops is also a major radar test site), or picked up the rockets in mid-flight at high altitude (harder/ higher-power problem, classic BMD). NGC | NASA.

Jan 24/13: Draft RFP reshaped. In Industry Day briefing materials [PDF], program manager Lt. Col. Brian McDonalds explains that the scope of RFP R2278 (first released in June 2012) now includes Full Rate Production. With this new approach, the EMD+FRP RFP is expected to be finalized by July 2013, with an award in March 2014.

This resets the counter on draft revisions, with the most current material again dubbed Revision A. FRP would be contracted as Fixed Price Incentive Firm (FPIF) with 6 priced options. 3 radars would be delivered during EMD, 3 others during LRIP (FY18-FY20), and 29 at the full rate pace (FY19-FY24). Requirements are expressed in TRD Rev E, another iteration to Ref F is expected by the time the request is final.

The program office acknowledges that funding remains uncertain, and that there’s a lot of work ahead in order to finalize the new RFP terms without blowing the schedule.

August 20/12: TD Phase 2. All 3 firms receive firm-fixed-price contracts for continued 3DELRR technology development, and a Preliminary Design Review and Capability Demonstration for their radar prototypes. The contracts run until Nov 20/13.

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors in Liverpool, NY receives $36 million (FA8707-12-C-0018).

Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems Division in Linthicum Heights, MD receives $34.8 million (FA8707-12-C-0019). NGC release.

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Sudbury, MA receives $35.2 million (FA8707-12-C-0020).

Sensis is no longer part of the competition as a lead, but Raytheon had been producing their AESA, so they could be included in the Raytheon team.

TD Phase 2

June 20/12: EMD-LRIP RFP. Air Force Materiel Command posts solicitation R2278 for the next stage of the program.

March 6/12: New approach. At an Industry Day, the 3DELRR program lays out its new program approach. It’s driven by $80 million in budget cuts over the next 5 years and, they say, by the readiness of current technologies. The 3DELRR Program Office is planning for a Defense Acquisition Board in late April 2012, and an initial set of contracts to develop AESA radars with Gallium Nitride transistors is expected by the end of FY 2012.

The 3DELRR program has also been selected as a “designated system” to participate in the Defense Exportability Features Pilot Program. Focusing on exportability tends to keep costs down, and successful exports will produce both economic and military benefits. See details, above. FBO.gov, incl. Presentation [PDF] | USAF.

New plan

FY 2009-2011

Technology Development; Review is positive. Sensis prototype
(click to view full)

April 2011: Tech review. An independent review team reports that 3DELRR successfully demonstrated its 8 critical technologies in a relevant environment during its initial prototyping effort. That’s a good sign; many Pentagon weapons programs don’t get to this point until late in System Design & Development/ EMD. Source: GAO.

Jan 6/11: Sensis. Sensis Corp. announces that its 3DELRR full-scale prototype have successfully completed testing, achieving all TD phase milestones after a development period of 19 months.

Sensis founder and CEO Jud Gostin was the principal system architect for the Marines’ AN/TPS-59. Raytheon IDS is responsible for the development and production of the team’s Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA). Moog Inc.’s Space and Defense Group, a leader in precision motion control solutions, is producing, testing and integrating the team’s 3DELRR’s motion control subsystems.

Jan 21/11: The USAF offers a program update:

“The Air Force plans to buy 35 new radars to replace the existing TPS-75s. As the 3DELRR is intended to be a joint materiel solution, the Marine Corps is also contributing to its development and looking at the system for future production buys. In fact, the earliest origins of the 3DELRR program can be traced back to the Marine Corps-led Highly Expeditionary Long Range Air Surveillance Radar (HELRASR) that was discontinued in the Fiscal Year 2008 budget cycle.

In February, two 20-month contracts for the initial technology development phase of the 3DELRR, which were awarded to Lockheed Martin Corp. and Sensis Corp., will conclude…. “We anticipate release of the RFP to occur at or near the end of March 2011,” said Major McDonald. “It will be a full and open competition with a single contract award…. if the government elects to exercise all options, the value could approach $740 million.”

Sources: USAF, “Long-range radar program moving forward”.

Dec 16-17/10: LMCO. Lockheed Martin completes the 2nd and final demonstration under its May 2009 3DELRR contract, following an initial demonstration of critical technology elements in March 2010, and a Preliminary Design Review in October 2010.

During the demonstration, Lockheed Martin unveils a functioning system prototype to USAF and Marine Corps officials, to prove the radar’s maturity. The firm says that their radar “addresses 100 percent of 3DELRR requirements, including critical extended air surveillance reach for early warning from threats, such as aircraft and ballistic missiles.” Lockheed Martin.

Dec 21/09: Sensis. Sensis announces that it has completed the System Requirements Review (SRR) for the US Air Force’s 3DELRR program. During SRR, the U.S. Air Force, along with industry organizations, conducted a comprehensive review of the Sensis 3DELRR systems engineering, integration and test processes against overall systems requirements to ensure that the program meets U.S. Air Force requirements.

Oct 29/09: RFP. The Air Force launches the THREE-DIMENSIONAL EXPEDITIONARY LONG-RANGE RADAR Solicitation Number: R2278 formal solicitation for 3DELRR.

3DELRR: LMCO concept
(click to view full)

May 12/09: The US Air Force awards [PDF] a firm-fixed-price $24.9 contract to Lockheed Martin in Liverpool, NY to provide radar engineering and design support to the government during the technology development phase of 3DELRR program. The Lockheed Martin team includes BAE Systems, Computer Sciences Corp., and ManTech. At this time, $9.9 million has been obligated (FA8722-09-C-0003). See also Lockheed Martin release.

May 12/09: The US Air Force awards [PDF] a $21.9 million firm-fixed-price contract to Sensis Corp. in East Syracuse NY to provide radar engineering and design support to the government during the technology development phase of 3DELRR program. The Sensis team includes Raytheon and Moog. At this time, $9.9 million has been obligated (FA8722-09-C-0001). See also: Sensis news release.

TD contracts

Additional Readings

Readers with corrections, comments, or information to contribute are encouraged to contact DID’s Founding Editor, Joe Katzman. We understand the industry – you will only be publicly recognized if you tell us that it’s OK to do so.

• US FBO.gov (Oct 29/09, #R2278) – Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar. Very long-running solicitation, last update was March 2013. See esp. the March 2012 Industry Day slide presentation [PDF].

• USAF Electronic Systems Center – Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar [dead link].

• GlobalSecurity.org – Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar.

• Lockheed Martin – Three Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR).

• Northrop Grumman – Three-Dimensional Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) See also this 2012 snapshot re: G/ATOR for 3DELRR.

• Raytheon – Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR).

• Microwave Journal (July 2009) – Lockheed Martin to Develop Long-range Radar for US Air Force.

The US Navy has selected Northrop Grumman's voyage management system (VMS), version 9.3, for installation onboard SSN and SSGN nuclear powered submarines.

Mercury Systems has received a $7.1m indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery (IDIQ) contract from the US Naval Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC) to deliver advanced radio frequency (RF) tuners, digital receivers, and related equipment.

Airbus Defense and Space has been contracted to deliver additional TRS-4D naval radar for the US Navy's littoral combat ship (LCS) programme.

The Indian Navy has launched its latest anti submarine warfare (ASW) corvette, Kavaratti, following a naming ceremony held at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

On 18 May, the Ministers of Defence of Austria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Netherlands as well as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Head of Agency on behalf of the European External Action Service, EU Military Committee and European Defence Agency, signed a pledge to mitigate human-related risks in cyber space by launching the Cyber Hygiene initiative. The initiative is an important contribution to the implementation of the EU Cyber Defence Policy Framework, notably on awareness raising for CSDP structures, missions and operations.

By joining the pledge, the signatory Member States promise to adopt and implement internal guidelines for best behavioural principles for cyber hygiene by the end of 2016. This includes, for example, introducing a mandatory e-learning platform.

Initiated by the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the Estonian Ministry of Defence, the initiative calls to strengthen cyber security culture as low awareness and human-related risks are a common cause of cyber incidents. A large number of cyber incidents can be avoided, or their effects greatly mitigated, if certain behavioural cyber security procedures and implementation measures are applied. It is part of a wider project, which aims to educate the members of defence sector institutions on secure behaviour while using online resources. 

Beyond its commitment to implement internal guidelines, the Agency will contribute to expanding this initiative to other interested EU Member States.

EDA activities

The December 2013 European Council identified cyber defence as one of the priority areas to take forward in the European Union. Furthermore, in November 2014 the Council adopted the EU Cyber Defence Policy Framework. Cyber defence has also been identified as a priority area in the EDA’s Capability Development Plan. 

The armed forces are reliant on cyberspace both as a user and as a domain to achieve defence and security missions. The Agency is active in the fields of cyber defence capabilities and in the research & technology domain.

In the last three years, the Agency has completed ten cyber defence related projects with a financial volume of about two million euros. This equals to approximately 10% of EDA’s operational budget. Among these ten projects are a stocktaking study of cyber defence capabilities among all EDA Member States and EU institutions, the establishment of a cyber defence research agenda and cyber defence training courses for senior military decision makers as well as the assessment of the feasibility of a EU Cyber Defence Centre for CSDP. 


Copyright picture: European Union, 2015. 
From left to right: Ms. Jeanine HENNIS-PLASSCHAERT, Dutch Minister of Defence; Mr Gerald KLUG, Austrian Federal Minister for Defence and Sport; Mr Sven MIKSER, Estonian Minister of Defence; Ms. Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; Mr Raimonds VEJONIS, Latvian Minister for Defence; Mr Juozas OLEKAS, Lithuanian Minister for National Defence; Ms. Piritta ASUNMAA, PSC Ambassador of Finland

More information:

• EDA factsheet on cyber defence
• News item Latvian Ministry of Defence 

In the margins of the EDA Steering Board, Jorge Domecq, EDA Chief Executive, met with Carmelo Abela, Maltese Minister of Home Affairs and National Security to exchange views on Malta’s involvement in EDA projects.

Minister Abela welcomed the planned visit by the Chief Executive to Malta in the near future. He stated that though Malta’s defence capabilities were limited due to its size, it nonetheless followed and supported the EDA’s work and had in fact participated in some activities such as training on access to EU funds. He looked forward to seeing improvement with regard to Malta’s contribution to the EDA’s work and would welcome proposals for joint collaboration with the EDA, especially with regard to the maritime field. 

“The European Defence Agency is at the service of all its Member States. I welcome Malta’s wish to further engage with the Agency. Our discussion today highlighted two projects of potential interest: Single European Sky ATM Research as well as dual-use research technology, especially in the maritime domain”, said Jorge Domecq.

The discussion is part of a series of visits by Mr. Domecq to all EDA Member States following his appointment as EDA Chief Executive. It comes ahead of a visit to Malta which was confirmed by Minister Abela during the discussion.So far, Mr. Domecq visited Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Ireland, France, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Finland, Sweden and Italy. 

 

More information

• News "Jorge Domecq discusses defence cooperation in Finland" (13 May 2015)
• News "Sweden welcomes EDA Chief Executive" (12 May 2015)
• News "Jorge Domecq in Luxembourg to discuss cooperation" (5 May 2015)
• News "Defence cooperation talks in Cyprus" (23 April 2015)
• News "Chief Executive meets Hungarian Minister of Defence" (23 April 2015)
• News "EDA Chief Executive visits Athens" (22 April 2015)
• News "Jorge Domecq in Poland for defence discussions"(20 April 2015)
• News "Jorge Domecq meets Estonian Minister of Defence" (20 April 2015)
• News "Meeting with Croatian Defence Minister in Zagreb" (17 April 2015)
• News "Slovenia welcomes Jorge Domecq" (15 April 2015)
• News "EDA Chief Executive visits Czech Republic" (13 April 2015)
• News "Jorge Domecq in Bulgaria to discuss defence cooperation" (8 April 2015)
• News "EDA Chief Executive travels to Romania" (8 April 2015)
• News "EDA Chief Executive meets French Minister of Defence" (30 March 2015)
• News "Jorge Domecq exchanges views with Irish Minister of Defence Simon Coveney T.D." (25 March 2015)
• News "EDA Chief Executive visits The Netherlands" (23 March 2015)
• News "Discussions on European defence in Portugal" (19 March 2015)
• News "Jorge Domecq meets German Secretary of State" (19 March 2015)
• News "Belgium and EDA discuss future defence cooperation" (18 March 2015)
• News "Jorge Domecq in the UK for cooperation talks" (25 Feb 2015)
• News "Latvia and EDA discuss cooperation opportunities" (19 Feb 2015)
• News "EDA Chief Executive visits Lithuania" (17 Feb 2015) 

There are 17 F-15’s exhaust engine nozzles in this image.

The photo in this article was posted by the 48th Fighter Wing on their FB page. It shows at least 17 complete exhaust engine nozzles for the F100-PW-220 and F100-PW-220-229 engines of the F-15C, D and E jets based at RAF Lakenheath, UK.

You can clearly see the typical convergent-divergent profile of the axially symmetrical exhaust nozzles, the nozzle actuators and the titanium actuating rods.

Noteworthy, unlike many other supersonic aircraft’s jet engines, the PW-220 and -229 are “exposed” and lack the so-called “Turkey Feathers” cover plates. These covers were removed in the 1970s to make maintenance easier on U.S. Eagle jets; the Israeli F-15Is, that are equipped with the same engines, or the F-15K Slam Eagles (the Strike Eagle version for the Republic of Korea Air Force) still use them.

The one depicted in the image must be a part of the Engine Shop of the 48th CMS (Component Maintenance Squadron), one of the units of the 48th FW, responsible for on-equipment and off-equipment maintenance and accessory repair of F-15C, F-15D, F-15E and HH-60G aircraft.

According to the unit’s Factsheets, among all the other things, the 48th CMS also manages equipment calibrations and intermediate level maintenance on F-15C, F-15D, F-15E and C-130 avionics line replaceable units; F-15E, F-16, and A-10 LANTIRN navigation, targeting and reconnaissance pods as well as F100-PW-220 and F100-PW-220-229 engines.

Image credit: 48th FW

 

Related articles

• [Video] U.S. F-15C jet fighter scrambles from Lithuanian airbase
• UK base selected to host first U.S. F-35 jets in Europe
• Stunning Photo of U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle jets during Baltic Air Policing mission
• U.S. F-15s performing Estonia independence flyby diverted to intercept Russian spyplane
• New video suggests even U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle jets are now striking Iraq
• Super Cool Night Photos of the F-22 Raptor stealth jets refueling mid-air enroute to Syria
• More American fighter planes heading East: U.S. F-16s to be deployed to Romania

Americas

• Boeing Phantom Work’s President wants to put solid-state lasers on the company’s Phantom Eye developmental UAV. Darryl Davis stated that the UAV could operate at stratospheric heights with the lasers used for intelligence gathering and potentially missile defense. However, that would depend on significantly increased funding for the immature technology – something which doesn’t appear to be happening in the short term.

• On Monday, Raytheon was awarded a $7 million contract modification in support of the UAE’s Patriot systems, with this totaling 138 man-months of work. The GCC member state first procured the systems in 2008, with the country operating the PAC-3 variant.

• Raytheon announced on Monday the Small Diameter Bomb II has achieved Milestone C, with the SDB II now set for Low Rate Initial Production. The Milestone C achievement is the result of eleven flight tests, including two live-firings. The bomb’s System Verification Review slipped last year, a result of two failed tests, with the bomb initially scheduled to enter LRIP in January 2014 [p. 117].

Europe

• The Defense Ministers of three European states signed a Declaration of Intent on Monday for a two-year Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV definition study. Germany, Italy and France are funding the collaborative work between Dassault, Airbus and Finmeccanica, which will form the basis of a decision in two years time on whether to begin development of the system. Airbus, Dassault and Alenia Aermacchi are likely to compete for production contracts if this green light is given.

• The European Defence Agency and the European Space Agency also announced on Monday that the launch of the DeSIRE II project, which is intended to use satellite communications to integrate remotely-piloted aircraft into civilian airspace. The $3 million contract with Telespazio is using a Piaggio Aero P.1HH Hammerhead UAV as a flying testbed, with a consortium of European firms working on the project,including Telespazio, e-GEOS, Selex ES, Piaggio Aero, ViaSat, Skyguide and Aedel Aerospace.

• Following the selection in April of the Airbus H225M Caracal by the Polish Defense Ministry for its tri-service helicopter modernization requirement, the helicopter is now confirmed to be undergoing evaluation and verification against Poland’s requirement set. Photos have emerged from Powidz 33rd Transport Aviation Base showing the helicopter undergoing testing to evaluate 32 requirements set by the Defense Ministry’s Armament Inspectorate.

• With rumors having circulated for some time now regarding the French-Russian Mistral issue, the French Ambassador to Russia reportedly announced on Monday that the two sides are engaged in discussions on how best to resolve the situation. The French are unlikely to go ahead with the deal, which would see two of the LHDs delivered to the Russian Navy, instead most likely seeking to repay what the Russians have invested in the contract. This will most likely be a disputed, messy affair forecast to last at least several weeks.

• Poland has released a tender for one million non-ricocheting bullets. The 5.56 x 45mm rounds are destined for GROM Special Forces units, with the tender scheduled to conclude between July and November.

Asia

• South Korea’s Defense Ministry has stated that the country is THAAD system, while US Secretary of State John Kerry again hinted at a possible deployment of US THAAD systems to the country. The issue of ballistic missile defense in South Korea has become increasingly politicized in recent weeks, with China vehemently opposing the stationing of THAAD in the country, despite the North recently conducting missile launch tests.

• Indian firms are pushing for a greater slice of the M777 contract pie awarded last week. The prospect of a much larger order than the 145-gun contract – potentially reaching around a thousand guns if the Indian Army replaces all its current legacy systems – would be boost to the Indian defense industry, with manufacturer BAE System likely to increase the Indian work share of a larger future contract.

• An Australian pilot has flown a Royal Australian Air Force F-35A for the first time, with the country a Tier 3 partner in the program.

Africa

• Airbus is reportedly talking with the South African Air Force regarding the firm’s C-296, A400M and A330MRTT aircraft. The SAAF C-130BZ fleet is currently highly inefficient, with around a third of its fleet operational at any given time. The country previously cancelled an order for eight A400M transporters in 2009. A joint procurement of A330 MRTT tankers is expected by three European states (Poland, Norway and the Netherlands) soon, to complement the aircraft’s six international customers.

Today’s Video

• Small Diameter Bomb II, introduced by the Smithsonian…

M777: dragon’s breath
(click to view full)

The M777 ultra-lightweight towed 155mm howitzer has an integrated digital fire control system, and can fire all existing 155mm projectiles. Nothing new there. What is new is the fact that this 9,700 pound howitzer saves over 6,000 pounds of weight by making extensive use of titanium and advanced aluminum alloys, allowing it to be carried by Marine Corps MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft or medium helicopters, and/or airdropped by C-130 aircraft. The new gun is a joint program between the US Army and Marine Corps to replace existing 155mm M198s, and will perform fire support for U.S. Marine Air Ground Task Forces and U.S. Army Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.

Britain is the USA’s M777 LWH co-development partner, but Canada became the first country to field it in combat, thanks to an emergency buy before their 2006 “Operation Archer” deployment to Afghanistan. Customers now include the US Army & USMC, Australia, and Canada – but not Britain.

M777: Capabilities and Upgrades M777 parts
(click to view full)

The M777 offers significant advances in 2 areas. One is obviously weight.

Weight matters. The M777’s weight and profile allows 2 M777 howitzers to be fitted into a C-130 Hercules tactical transport, instead of just one equivalent-caliber M198. Previous howitzers could be lifted by heavy helicopters like the CH-47 Chinook or CH-53E Super Stallion, but the M777 expands those options to include carriage under a V-22 Osprey, or a medium class helicopter like the EH101.

Weight has increased slightly over the initial specification, but this is largely attributable to over 2,000 design changes from the original shoot-off specification to today’s gun. Run-flat tires added over 100 pounds, while a cradle assembly that went from 400 components to 5 main castings trades some added weight for significantly improved maintenance and reliability.

The gun remains stable when firing, despite its light weight, by being out of balance. The barrel is mounted low and forward, which keeps the gun from overturning. Even so, these are not the gun’s most significant features.

M777: bulls-eye
(click to view full)

There’s also a front-line payoff to the new howitzer. Rate of fire is 4-8 rounds per minute in bursts, or 2 rounds per minute sustained fire.

When using previous generations of artillery, units like the US Marines had to communicate with the fire direction center through radio, and use iron sights to aim at targets. The M777 is equipped with iron sights as a backup, but the military doesn’t expect those sights to see much use outside of training. Modern artillery has features like data distribution systems, self location via INS and/or GPS, automatic or assisted gun-laying, and other add-ons that automate the process of receiving fire orders and acting on them. Coordinates can be usually transmitted digitally from tactical air controllers, UAVs, or other platforms, and the M777’s own display can be used to send text messages to other cannoneers.

These advances improve efficiency, and survivability. Instead of being forced to cluster together near communications nodes, artillery pieces can be spread out over a larger area, with each gun executing “shoot and scoot” tactics using the M777’s fast 2-3 minute set-up and displacement times. This compares to its predecessor the M198, which has a 6.5 minute emplacement time and 10.5 minute displacement time.

The key to this capability is called Towed Artillery Digitization (TAD). General Dynamics ATP’s TAD includes sensors like the integrated muzzle velocimeter, vehicle motion sensor, and ammunition inventory capability; mission computer with on-board ballistic computation and Joint Variable Message messaging format capabilities; GPS receiver which works with the Inertial Navigation System and motion sensor to provide self-location within 10m and gun pointing within 1 mil RMS azimuth and 0.5 mil elevation.

The M777-A1 version used the TAD Block 1 set. Communications and other key features like self-location are present, but it uses manual target entry instead of direct digital transmission from tactical air controllers, UAVs, or other platforms.

The M777-A2 incorporates more advanced TAD capabilities, including a software update that enables the howitzer to program and fire the M982 Excalibur GPS-guided shell. That shell improves the gun’s maximum range from 30km/ 18 miles to 40km/ 24 miles, with official accuracy on target to within 10 meters, and unofficial reports of about half that figure. The M777-A2 is the version issued to all U.S. Army and USMC units, and previously-equipped M777-A1 howitzer units are receiving a software upgrade to bring their systems to A2 standard.

Canadian M777s are currently equipped to fire the Excalibur shell, but use their own LINAPS fire control system.

On the foreign export front, Australia has joined Canada as a buyer, and Denmark, India, Oman, Thailand, and Saudi Arabia have all reportedly shown interest.

M777: Program M777: Chinook pick-up
(click to view full)

The M777 was originally a trilateral program involving the USA, Britain, and Italy, with a Memorandum of Understanding signed in March 1999. Italy ended up backing out of the development program due to budget issues, leaving the USA and UK to fund development efforts.

Within the USA, the US Marines funded development of the weapon, while the US Army funded development of the Towed Artillery Digitization system. The M777 is currently managed by US Army Program Executive Office (PEO) Ammunition in Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, under “Project Manager Towed Artillery Systems”. Before January 2011, it had been managed by PEO Ground Combat Systems in Warren, MI, under “PM Lightweight 155″; the latest restructuring placed the US Army’s artillery tubes, ammunition, propellants, and associated aiming hardware & software under the same organization.

BAE Systems Global Combat Systems’ facility at Barrow-in-Furness is responsible for M777 prime contract management, including direct customer liaison, control of the trans-Atlantic supply chains, engineering design authority, and manufacturing and assembly of the complex titanium structures and associated recoil components. Final integration and test of the weapon system is undertaken at BAE’s Hattiesburg, MS plant.

Ironically, M777 development partner Britain has yet to buy any. Indeed, the first use of M777 howitzers in combat came from a country who hadn’t even been involved in the development partnership. Canadian forces in Afghanistan found the howitzer’s weight and range to be just what they needed, and an emergency buy led to fast fielding. While they aren’t a national program partner, the US and Canada took steps in the 1950s to create a North American defense industry, and so some Canadian firms were already involved in the program when Canada made its initial purchase.

M777 Industrial participants include:

• US Army Light Weight 155mm Joint Program office: program management (Picatinny Arsenal, NJ)
  
• BAE Systems: Prime Contractor, Elevating Mass & Cradle Assembly, (Barrow-in-Furness, England and final assembly Hattiesburg, MS)
  
• General Dynamics: Digital fire control (Burlington, VT)
  
• General Dynamics Canada: Mission computer software and displays (Ottawa, ON, Canada)
  
• Howmet Castings: Upper carriage (Whitehall, MI)
  
• Hydro-Mill Co.: Body assembly (Chatsworth, CA)
  
• Mitchell Canada: Aluminum castings (St. Laurent, PQ, Canada)
  
• Precision Castparts Corp.: Lower carriage (Portland, OR)
  
• RTI International Metals: Titanium (Niles, OH)
  
• Seiler Instrument: OFC (St. Louis, MO)
  
• Wegman USA: Elevating Gear (Lynchburg, VA)
  
• Watervliet Arsenal: Cannon assembly (Watervliet, NY)
  
• Selex Galileo: LINAPS gun management system, see PDF (Edinburgh, UK – Canadian orders)

Canada was the 1st country to field the M777 in combat, firing them in Afghanistan in February 2006.

The US Army’s 2nd Battalion 11th Field Artillery Regiment at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii was equipped with M777A1 howitzers in January 2007, but were converted to the A2 version later in 2007 and used the guns in Iraq. As of July 2007, initial units also included both the 11th Marine Regiment and the 10th Marine Regiment; they had received the M777A2 version. The 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Bragg, NC; and the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team fielded the M777A2 for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Deliveries and fielding continued from there.

As of October 2012, total orders stood at 1,090 guns for the US Army, US Marines, Australia, and Canada.

M777: Contracts and Key Events FY 2013-2015

Australia; India. ADF M777
(click to view full)

May 19/15: India. Indian firms are pushing for a greater slice of the M777 contract pie awarded last week. The prospect of a much larger order than the 145-gun contract – potentially reaching around a thousand guns if the Indian Army replaces all its current legacy systems – would be boost to the Indian defense industry, with manufacturer BAE System likely to increase the Indian work share of a larger future contract.

Feb 25/14: M777. With elections looming, India’s Ministry of Defence clears a whole series of defense projects, worth up to INR 130 billion. The M777 isn’t among them:

“The M-777 howitzer contract, which is a direct government-to-government deal under the US foreign military sales programme, has been hanging fire since January 2010. Due to the long delay, the American Defence Security Cooperation Agency has hiked the cost of the M-777 deal from the earlier $ 647 million to $885 million now. The Army wants these 155mm/39-calibre howitzers since they can be swiftly deployed in high-altitude areas in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh by helicopters and aircraft to counter China.”

China has been seizing Indian territory again in this high-altitude region, but apparently that isn’t urgent enough to prompt action. Thermal imagers and light machine guns are useful, but they aren’t going to change the situation anywhere. Sources: Times of India, “Decision on four key defence deals put off”.

Aug 7/13: India. The US DSCA publishes [PDF] an official follow-on export request from India for 145 M777 guns, under modified terms compared to the Jan 26/10 request, which is superseded by this one.

The Indian guns will use the same Laser Inertial Artillery Pointing Systems (LINAPS) equipment as Canada’s M777s, and the estimated cost for the guns plus warranty, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, training, and other US government and contractor support has risen from $647 – $885 million.

The other item that has changed is the acknowledgement of a 30% industrial offsets contract, in conformance to India’s official Defense Procurement Procedure (DPP). That has to be part of a negotiated contract, which can be signed within 30 days of this notice.

The principal contractors haven’t changed: BAE of Hattiesburg, MS; Watervliet Arsenal of Watervliet, NY; Seiler Instrument Company of St Louis, MO; Triumph Actuation Systems of Bloomfield, CT; Taylor Devices of North Tonawanda, NY; Hutchinson Industries of Trenton, NJ; and Selex in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Likewise, implementation of this proposed sale will still require annual trips to India involving up to 8 U.S. Government and contractor representatives for technical reviews/support, training, and in-country trials, over a period of approximately 2 years.

DSCA: India Request, Revised

Aug 3/13: India. Negotiations are still underway in India. So what’s new? According to the Business Standard, the expected price is now INR 40 billion due to the falling rupee, and the industrial offsets issue is almost resolved. If India can manage to finalize the sale, the Mountain Strike Corps that they announced in July 2013 would receive the 145 guns.

The key seems to be offsets. The initial DSCA announcement (q.v. Jan 26/10) didn’t include offsets, but BAE sees the potential to equip artillery regiments in up to 7 more Indian corps, given deployment patterns and India’s mountainous borders. As such, they’ve accepted a standard 30% offset liability of about $195 million. About $58.5 million can be discharged by transferring technology, as India badly needs to field bi-modular charge systems (BMCS) for artillery. If they hadn’t blacklisted Denel and Israel Military Industries, they’d have BMCS already. The rest will reportedly be discharged by manufacturing some components in India, including work for “future artillery gun” and “future naval gun” programs.

India’s challenge is to break with its general practice and place a timely order. BAE’s Mississippi plant is being kept active in anticipation of an Indian order, but if India dithers much, the price will rise sharply to pay production line restart costs. On the other hand, early execution could see India field the new gun by early 2014. India’s Business Standard.

Feb 6/13: India. India Strategic quotes Chief of the Army Staff Gen Bikram Singh as saying that “whatever the reasons earlier [for delaying the M777 purchase], there would be no delay now.” India has held its firing trials, asked for some changes, and verified that BAE has made them. The Maintainability Evaluation is done, and negotiations are now focused on the price of 145 of the 155mm/ 39 caliber guns, plus a support package.

India’s 2004 buy of counter-fire artillery radars in 2004 reportedly omitted support considerations, and they don’t want to have to go through that problem again. India Strategic writes:

“Senior officers of the Army are confident that the acquisition of M-777 will not go beyond 2013, and if there is a delay, it would not be beyond the coming fiscal year April 2013-March 2014. That is, a delay of not more than three months beyond 2013.”

Oct 16/12: Australia. The Australian government had approved another 2 artillery batteries of Lightweight Towed Howitzers, comprising 19 M777A2s, for A$ 70 million (about $72 million). In response to queries, BAE confirms that the actual contract still has to go through a Foreign military Sale case.

They will be a substitute for the self-propelled howitzers the Army had initially included under its LAND 17 Phase 1C program, and “Government will consider additional support and facilities costs associated with this acquisition later in the 2012-13 Financial Year.” Australia DoD | DID’s LAND 17 Spotlight.

FY 2011 – 2012

Saudi Arabia. USA. Alaska cold trial
(click to view full)

July 17/12: Sub-contractors. Finmeccanica’s DRS Tactical Systems in Melbourne, FL receives a $22 million firm-fixed-price contract for ongoing design, development and integration services in support of the M777A2 digital fire control system.

Work will be performed in Melbourne, FL with an estimated completion date of July 13/17. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 6 bids received by Army Contracting Command in Picatinny Arsenal, NJ (W15QKN-12-D-0088).

May 11/12: India. CNN-IBN reports that India’s MoD has cleared a Rs 3000 crore deal to buy 145 of BAE’s M777 ultra-light 155mm howitzers, as a government-to-government deal through US Foreign Military Sale channels. They’re careful to note that this isn’t a contract yet, which may explain the absence of any announcement from BAE. At current conversion rates, the deal would be worth around $557 million, but exchange rates may change when and if negotiations produce an actual contract. Read “Murky Competitions for Indian Howitzer Orders May End Soon… Or Not” for the whole sorry story.

Oct 4/11: +70. BAE announces that the US military has placed a $134 million order for 70 more M777 howitzers, “to begin equipping the U.S. Army’s Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCTs).”

This is almost certainly the M777A2 variant, and the order takes the production to a total of 1,071 guns. The manufacturing line has enough orders at present to run until October 2013, with additional orders expected from the USA, and potential orders from customers like India and Saudi Arabia waiting in the wings.

USA – 70

Sept 19/11: The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announces Saudi Arabia’s formal request for up to $886 million of equipment to augment the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s existing light artillery capabilities. The Royal Saudi Land Forces already have towed 155mm and 105mm howitzers and support vehicles and systems, but the 54 105mm M119A2 systems and 36 M777A2s would be an upgrade over the Royal Saudi Land Forces’ existing M102 105mm guns. The Saudis are also looking to buy C3 systems, artillery locating radars, and Humvees as part of this buy.

DSCA: Saudi request

May 18/11: In “India’s consolation prize to US,” The Times of India reports that India is close to an M777 buy, pursued as government-to-government Foreign Military Sale. The Times of India reports that:

“…the Army has dispatched a team to the US to carry out quality assurance assessments of maintenance and other technical specifications of M777… Once the team returns, “it wouldn’t take much time to conclude the deal”, sources said, adding that a June-end deadline was being looked at. He also hinted that this order too could go up, now that the government is expected to approve Army’s recommendation to raise a dedicated mountain strike corps for China border.”

Feb 22/11: +46. BAE Systems announces that an American order for 46 more M777 howitzers brings the total number of M777 guns ordered so far to 1001. The firm is still producing weapons for Canada and Australia, and is also “responding to a range of enquiries.”

USA – 46

Jan 20/11: Program shifted. US Army Acquisition Executive Malcolm O’Neill approves the immediate transfer of the Program Manager Lightweight 155 office from US Army Program Executive Office (PEO) Ground Combat Systems in Warren, MI, to US Army PEO Ammunition in Picatinny Arsenal, NJ. O’Neill also approves the immediate renaming of “PM Program Manager Lightweight 155″ to “Project Manager Towed Artillery Systems.”

The M777 was 1 of 6 programs shifted in the restructuring, which places the Army’s artillery propellant, fuses, primers, munitions and now guns at the same place. US Army.

FY 2009 – 2010

Australia, Canada, India, USA. M777 in Afghanistan
(click to view full)

July 19/10: +93. BAE systems announces 3 contracts related to its M777 howitzers. For starters, the US Army and U.S. Marine Corps are buying another 58 guns.

Australia is buying 35 guns as US Foreign Military Sales (FMS), under the ADF’s LAND 17 program. The order makes Australia the 3rd M777 customer, after the USA and Canada, and the program’s total budget is A$ 493 million (q.v. Oct 20/09).

The 3rd order is an USD $18 million support package with Canada, for their 37 ordered M777 guns (q.v. May 28/09). The contract covers the supply of spares and engineering support. The firm adds:

“The U.S. government is currently discussing the provision of 145 systems to India as well as several other countries. In parallel, BAE Systems is responding to requests for information from a large number of countries wishing to expand their indirect fire capability.”

USA, Australia, Canada – 93 TL.

Jan 26/10: The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announces [PDF] India’s formal request to buy 145 M777 155mm Light-Weight Towed Howitzers with Laser Inertial Artillery Pointing Systems (LINAPS), warranties, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, maintenance, personnel training and training equipment, and U.S. Government and contractor technical assistance and support.

The estimated cost is $647 million, but a DSCA announcement is not a contract. In this case, it may not even be an intended sale. Read “Murky Competition for $2B India Howitzer Order May End Soon… Or Not” for more.

DSCA: India request

Oct 20/09: Australia’s Defence Minister John Faulkner announces that BAE Systems’ M777 has won the towed portion of Australia’s LAND 17 competition, whose total value is placed at A$ 493 million.

Phase 1 will provide the Army with 35 M777A2 guns, equipping 4 batteries of towed 155mm howitzers. An earlier DSCA request specified up to 57 systems, which allows Australia to order more guns later if it decides that’s necessary.

July 21/09: +62. BAE announces that the U.S, Department of Defense has ordered 62 more M777 howitzers under its existing contract, in a delivery order worth GBP 71 million/ $117 million.

May 28/09: +38. BAE Systems announces 3 more M777 contracts, worth a total of $118 million.

The USA is buying 38 guns for the Marine Corps and Army. A $3 million contract will RESET 33 U.S. howitzers returning from operations in Afghanistan to like-new condition. And Canada is acquiring 25 more M777s, to add to the 12 it already has in service. According to BAE, these 63 additional howitzers bring their order total to date to exactly 800 guns.

USA – 100

April 16/09: #500. BAE systems delivers the 500th M777 howitzer to the US military. In the BAE Systems release, Artillery Programmes Director Ian McMillan says that:

“M777 follows two other Anglo-U.S. weapon success stories – the 105mm Light Gun and the 81mm mortar are both British BAE Systems designs which have been adopted by the U.S.”

A report in the British North West Evening Mail added that:

“The substantial and complex cradle and saddle is made in Barrow and shipped out at the rate of 14 a month… Mr McMillan said with the main US order running out in less than two years, BAE would be looking for M777 orders from more countries, and for other projects to keep the Barrow factory busy… However BAE revealed yesterday it is expecting at orders for at least 150 more M77s from the US, Canada and Australia combined. They will be built by the same plants in Barrow and the US and would stretch work to 2012.”

#500 delivered

FY 2007 – 2008

Australia, Canada. The business end at
Camp Taji, Iraq
(click to view full)

Aug 14/08: +43. BAE Systems has received additional orders from the U.S. Department of Defense for 43 more M777 lightweight towed howitzers.

The GBP 42.8 million ($85.6 million) contract brings the number of M777s ordered by the US military to 719, and brings the total value of M777 orders in 2008 to GBP 147 million ($294 million). BAE release | NW Evening Mail, UK | Hattiesburg American, MS.

USA – 43

July 17/08: Australian request. The US DSCA announces [PDF format] Australia’s official request for 57 of BAE Systems’ M777A2 howitzers, 57 of ITT’s AN/VRC-91F Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS), plus integration services, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, and other related elements of logistics support. The estimated cost is USD$ 248 million.

Note that a DSCA request is not a contract, merely a step that’s required for export approval.

DSCA: Australia request

June 19/08: Canadian follow-on. The US DSCA announces [PDF] Canada’s official request for 37 additional M777 howitzers, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, maintenance, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. Government and contractor technical assistance, engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements.

The estimated cost is $114 million (about C$ 116 million). The prime contractors will be BAE Land Systems in Hattiesburg, MS and Alcoa business Howmet Castings in Whitehall, Michigan. See also Jan 9/08 entry re: the Canadian MERX Letter of Intent, which sets out a timeline for the process: Statements of Interest and Qualification are to be received by the end of 2008, RFP issued in early 2009, and a contract awarded in autumn 2009.

DSCA: Canada request

April 1/08: +87. BAE Systems announces a new $176 million order from the U.S. Department of Defense for 87 additional M777A2 155mm towed howitzers. The order adds to the 589 M777A2 howitzers already on order for the U.S. armed forces, of which more than 300 have been delivered. The 155mm towed howitzers purchased under this contract will be delivered in 2010. BAE Systems release.

USA – 87

March 2008: M777 + Excalibur for Canada. The new M982 Excalibur precision-guided projectile is cleared for use by the Canadian Forces’ M777 guns in Afghanistan. Source.

Feb 25/08: Combat. Soldiers of Charlie Battery, 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, fires the USA’s first 155 mm global positioning system-guided Excalibur artillery round in Afghanistan. The round was fired from an M777A2 howitzer in Kunar Province, and reportedly hit its target. DVIDS story.

Jan 9/08: Canada. The Canadian government issued a request for Letters of Interest (LOIs) for 34 new 155mm Light Weight Towed Howitzers. The M777 is the current incumbent, and Canada must have exercised an option because the solicitation states that “The CF has 12 M777 LWTH howitzers currently in-service.”

Those guns have performed very well, making the M777 the favorite to win. The contract is expected in late 2009. MERX LOI notice, Ref# PW-$$RA-002-16420, Solicitation# W8476-08PM01/A.

Canada – 12 TL. now, LoI for more

Jan 2/08: Combat. The US military announces that The Soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division’s Battery B, “Banditos,” 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team became the first US Army unit to fire the 155 mm M777A2 Light Weight Howitzer in Iraq. DVIDS story.

Banditos M777A2
fires Excalibur
(click to view full)

December 2007: Combat. Commanders in the US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team’s Task Force Bayonet receive M777A2 lightweight 155 mm Howitzers. CH-47 Chinook helicopters flew in the new M777A2s to various forward operating bases the last 2 weeks of December.

Dec 23/07: USMC. The USMC reveals that the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in Okinawa, Japan received its first M777 Lightweight Howitzers recently on Camp Hansen as part of a Marine Corps-wide artillery upgrade. Field artillery cannoneers with L Battery, arriving from Twentynine Palms, CA inspected the M777s before accepting the new guns from the Camp Pendleton, CA- based E Battery, 2nd Bn., 11th Marines, 1st MarDiv.

June 2007: Combat. The USMC’s 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit says that Marines from Bravo Battery 1st Battalion, 11th Marines are making history as the first American unit to use the new M777A1 Howitzer in combat, though the Canadians beat the to the punch overall. The 13th MEU is deployed to Anbar province in western Iraq.

March 20/07: Australia. Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and BAE Systems Australia team for LAND 17. KMW will offer the PzH-2000 to the team, while BAE Systems Australia adds their M777 ultra-lightweight howitzers to the partnership, for a combination towed/ self propelled solution. LAND 17 is Australia’s program to replace its 105mm howitzers with modern equipment.

March 18/07: Excalibur 155mm. Excalibur 155mm GPS-guided shells complete final testing by the US military. An order is placed soon afterward. DID coverage.

FY 2005 – 2006

LRIP then FRP. Canada. Canadian M777s
(click to view full)

May 15/06: Canada. StrategyPage:

“When discussing relationships with local tribal leaders, Canadian commanders have sometimes had an M777 put a shell in a nearby field or hill side, on command, to demonstrate what the Canadians have at their disposal. Afghans understand that sort of thing. U.S. Marines and British troops have also used the M777 in Afghanistan.”

See also the Canadian Forces’ movie clip report about the M777 in Afghanistan, featuring CF Major Steve Gallagher.

March 9/06: Canada. SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems of Edinburgh, UK, working together with BAE Systems Land Systems, has secured a contract with the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) for 6 LINAPS (Laser INertial Automatic Pointing System) Gun Management Systems (GMS), plus spares, for their M777 Howitzers. The systems were deployed to Afghanistan until late fall 2006, however.

The DGMS is integrated with the Indirect Fire Control Computer System (IFCCS) and the Raytheon MicroLight digital radio to provide a digital link from the Command Post to the guns, self-positioning and boresighting, etc. Finmeccanica Inc News blog | Space Daily | See also follow-on Canadian DND release | DND Video.

Feb 20/06: Canada in combat. The Canadian Forces fire their M777s for the first time in combat near Gumbad, 60 kilometres northeast of the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Illumination rounds are used to turn the tables on a night attack with RPGs.

It’s the 1st combat firing of the M777. National Post.

1st combat use

M777 arrives
(click to view full)

Dec 2/05: Canada. The 1st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery conducts an inaugural firing of the first 155mm, M777 towed howitzers delivered to the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND). BAE release.

Nov 26/05: Canada takes delivery of its first M777 howitzers. DND:

“Major Paul Payne, Chief Instructor in Gunnery at the Field Artillery School in Gagetown says “With the equipment we’ve been using until now, it would sometimes take up to 8 minutes after receiving a fire-mission request to have effective rounds hitting the target. With a digitized Triple 7 effective fire can be achieved in under 2 minutes.”

November 2005: Canada. As part of its preparations for Operation Archer in Afghanistan, the Canadian Forces orders 6 BAE Systems M777 Lightweight towed howitzers with precision-guided Excalibur 155mm shells and digitized fire control systems (C$ 70 million). The howitzers are to arrive by February 2006, and Excalibur shells by May 2006. See “Canada Purchases $200M in Equipment for Operation ARCHER in Afghanistan“

Canada – 6

Oct 2005: USMC 3/11 Mike battery returns from their second deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom, mostly in infantry roles, to begin training on the M777. USMC release.

August 2005: 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, is firing the M777 Howitzer at USMC Camp Pendleton for the first time. USMC release.

May 2005: The cannoneers of Kilo and Lima Batteries, 11th Marine Regiment, are the US Marine Corps first 2 artillery batteries to field and fire the M777.

In December 2005, however, 3/11 Kilo Battery are scheduled to deploy to Okinawa, Japan, as part of the Unit Deployment Program. Okinawa does not have the M777, so Kilo Battery begins fielding their older M198s to refresh their skills. US Marine Corps.

M777
(click to view full)

March 24/05: +495. Following additional system development, BAE Systems announces an $834 million dollar contract for full-rate production of the M777A1 155mm howitzer. Under the production contract, issued by the Joint Program Office in Picatinny, NJ, BAE Systems will manufacture 495 howitzers between 2005-2009. The howitzer is assembled at BAE Systems’ integration facility in Hattiesburg, MS, and incorporates components manufactured in 10 states and the U.K.

Full-rate
production – 495

Dec 2/02: +94. The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded a $135 million contract to BAE SYSTEMS for low rate initial production (LRIP) of the M777 lightweight 155mm howitzer. Under the initial phase of the LRIP contract, BAE SYSTEMS will manufacture 94 howitzers for the Marine Corps over the next 2 years. Initial deliveries will begin in February 2004 from the company’s Hattiesburg, MS facility. Approximately 70% of the M777 is manufactured in the USA, as BAE SYSTEMS has assembled an industrial team that includes 9 suppliers located in 9 states. Business Wire..

Initial
production – 94

Additional Readings & Sources

• Military.com Soldier Tech – Massive Attack: The M777 Ultralightweight Field Howitzer

• Army Technology – M777 Ultralightweight Field Howitzer, BAE Systems:
• GlobalSecurity - M777 Lightweight 155mm howitzer (LW155). Formerly known as the Advanced Towed Cannon System (ATCAS).

• CASR – Background – Artillery – BAE M777 155mm Towed Howitzer

• USMC – M777 Lightweight 155mm Howitzer NETT. See presentations from this page. Note 2004 date, however.

• BAE Systems – M777 – 155mm Lightweight Field Howitzer

• Azom – M777 Howitzer Cannon – A Titanium Design Study

• Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (November 2004) – The near-net-shape manufacturing of affordable titanium components for the M777 lightweight howitzer

• DID – TLDHS & StrikeLink Urgent as Excalibur Approaches. These ancillary items ensure that the M777 can be used with GPS-guided Excalibur shells.

• Armed Forces Journal (October 2007) – The Case for Cannons. “In May, soldiers from the Army’s 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, fired two XM982 Excalibur precision-guided, extended-range 155mm artillery rounds that consecutively penetrated the roof of a single house known to be a terrorist haven in the northern region of Baghdad…”

• BAE Systems (July 25/07) – M777 Lightweight Howitzer Update Gives More Range And Accuracy. Describes the minor modifications that make up the M777A2, which will be the fielded version.

• Canadian Parliament (June 2007) – CANADIAN FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN: Report of the Standing Committee on National Defence [PDF, 174 pages]. Mentions the M777, and confirms negotiations for 6 more guns (to make 12), with an option for another 15.

• DID (March 12/07) – Lots Riding on V-22 Osprey. Describes the Marines’ artillery programs, most of governed by the V-22 Osprey’s capabilities, and explains where the M777 fits into the USMC’s overall plan.

• M777 starts fielding in the 11th Marines.

• BAE Systems (March 24/05) – BAE Systems Awarded $834 Million Contract For Lightweight Howitzer.

Patriot system

The USA’s MIM-104 Phased Array Tracking Radar Intercept On Target (PATRIOT) anti-air missile system offers an advanced backbone for medium-range air defense, and short-range ballistic missile defense, to America and its allies. This article covers domestic and foreign purchase requests and contracts for Patriot systems. It also compiles information about the engineering service contracts that upgrade these systems, ensure that they continue to work, and integrate them with wider command and defense systems.

The Patriot missile franchise’s future appears assured. At present, 12 nations have chosen it as a key component of their air and missile defense systems: the USA, Germany, Greece, Japan, Israel, Kuwait, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and the UAE. Poland, Qatar, and Turkey have all indicated varying levels of interest, and some existing customers are looking to upgrade their systems.

The Patriot Missile Family PATRIOT Ground Systems BBC: 2013 report
click for video

A Patriot firing battery includes several components: an antenna mast group, radar, electric power station, launchers, ECC command center, and maintenance center. They are carried on a mix of heavy and medium trucks.

The OE-349 antenna mast group is usually carried on a M927 5-Ton truck.

The radar set is either an AN/MPQ-53 radar for PAC-2 systems, or an AN/MPQ-65 for PAC-3 systems, and is carried by a 10-ton M983 HEMTT truck pulling a M860 semitrailer. That equipment needs a lot of power, hence the truck mounted electric power plant, with 2 150kW generators on a modified HEMTT.

An AN/MSQ-104 engagement control station acts as the command center, pulled by a 5-ton FMTV or similar truck, and a semi-trailer maintenance center rounds out the battery. A battalion is usually made up of 4-6 batteries, with a command center and maintenance center of its own. It can include up to 600 soldiers including command, maintenance, and other roles.

With the other ground elements deployed, the battery’s 8 x M901 launching stations can be effective, deploying over a wide area on fully self-contained M983 HEMTT trucks pulling M860 semitrailers. In a PAC-2 battery, each launching station has 4 missiles, for a total of 32. In a PAC-3 battery, each launching station has 16 missiles, for a total of 128.

Raytheon is the prime contractor for the Patriot system as a whole. The most current standard for the Patriot’s ground systems is known as “Configuration 3″, and is compatible with both PAC-2 and PAC-3 launchers.

Raytheon recently completed a major upgrade to the ECS’ interface and computing, is currently testing Gallium Nitride radar semiconductor components that would improve performance at all power levels, and has proposed a rotating radar with 360-degree field-of-view, instead of the current 120 degree regard and 90 degree fire control cone.

PATRIOT Missile Variants PAC-3 test launch
(click to view full)

PAC-2 GEM. In 2002, Raytheon completed a separate upgrade of their PAC-2 missiles, which became known as Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile Plus (GEM+). GEM missiles, including next-step upgrades like GEM-C/T, are essentially PAC-2 systems that still use the larger PAC-2 fragmentation missiles, but have a range of improvements to their guidance systems, fuzes, etc. GEM-T is optimized against tactical ballistic missiles, while GEM-C is optimized against cruise missiles. They’re fielded by the USA and by foreign militaries, such as Israel and South Korea. In 2003, the U.S. military launched approximately 20 PAC-2 missiles during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the majority of which were GEM interceptors.

PAC-3.The current US standard for new-build Patriot Missiles is the Patriot Advanced Capability 3. While Lockheed Martin’s missile is as long as previous Raytheon versions, it’s thinner and weighs only 30% as much (688 vs. 2,000 pounds). PAC-3 uses a “hit-to-kill” approach, instead of the PAC-2’s large fragmentation warhead, which allows it to packs more missiles per launcher (16 instead of 4). Its enhanced capabilities also allow it to be used for point defense against ballistic missiles, and its Config-3 ground systems also feature a range of improvements to the battery’s radar, communications, electronics, and software.

Lockheed Martin produces the PAC-3 missile, including the hit-to-kill interceptor, the missile canister 4-packs, a fire solution computer, and an Enhanced Launcher Electronics System (ELES). It has been exported to Germany, Japan, Kuwait, Netherlands, Taiwan, and the UAE. The latest PAC-3 variant is the PAC-3 CRI (Cost Reduction Initiative).

Beyond the USA, America is working with Japan on missile defense. Japan’s system will use the long-range naval SM-3 missiles as the outer layer, and Patriot PAC-3s as the point defense component. Japan has been licensed to produce its own Patriot PAC-3s.

A subsequent variant called the PAC-3 MSE was originally part of a canceled system called MEADS, but has been incorporated into the USA’s future plans. It’s covered as part of the USA’s ongoing PATRIOT programs.

The USA’s Patriot Programs Pure Fleet, etc. Patriot operation
(click to view full)

Budgets for PATRIOT systems as a whole are difficult to quantify, as recent years have seen them fully conflated with the separate MEADS program. Beyond MEADS, however, the U.S. Army has 2 important Patriot programs underway: “Pure Fleet” and “Grow the Army.”

Pure Fleet involves upgrading all its ground systems to Configuration-3. It will not necessarily replace all missiles in these batteries, which are often a mixed PAC-3/PAC-2 fleet, and are expected to remain so. What it will do, is make all batteries capable of firing the latest missiles, and ensure that the system’s technologies are kept up to date. This involves upgrades of multiple ground systems, and will be coupled with PAC-2 GEM-T missile upgrades under “continuous technology refreshment” programs.

Grow the Army was set to add 2 PAC-3 battalions to the Patriot force structure.

Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 Patriot-based air-launched hit-to-kill (ALHTK) concept was a much more radical concept. It would be launched from fighter jets, and used to target ballistic missiles during their vulnerable but hard-to-reach launch phase. Initial studies were conducted, but neither this variant, nor Raytheon’s internally-mountable NCADE, managed to gain much traction.

Beyond Patriot, the USA has also been involved in the tri-national American/ German/ Italian MEADS project. Pentagon documents started to lump the Patriot and its successor MEADS together after 2006, making it difficult to track each system. The 2 air defense systems use very different technologies, but the Pentagon’s treatment of MEADS in its documents may have been prescient. MEADS became an R&D-only effort in 2011, and looks set to feed in some of its technologies as future PATRIOT upgrades. Patriot system production appears to be secure for the near future.

Even so, American production has tailed off, and the production line has been weighted in favor of foreign orders:

After 2013’s orders are delivered, foreign orders will be the only thing sustaining PAC-3 missile production. The reason for that is a new missile. The multinational MEADS R&D program looks set to end, but it produced a PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) design that will become part of existing PATRIOT batteries.

Over the Horizon: PAC-3 MSE PAC-3 MSE drawing
(click to view full)

One element that will survive from MEADS is the improved PAC-3 MSE missile, which is becoming its own program. PAC-3 MSE is designed to be a longer range missile that is more agile, and able to counter both tactical ballistic missiles and more conventional threats. Improvements begin with a higher performance, dual-pulse, 11″ diameter Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) design, a thermally hardened front end for longer fly out, enlarged fixed fins, more responsive control surfaces, upgraded guidance software, an improved Hit-To-Kill system, and upgraded batteries. They’re also pushing toward Insensitive Munitions (IM) compliance in order to lower safety risks, and a more compliant SRM propellant is being developed. The missile’s “single canister” design concept is similar to the Navy’s approach with its “all-up-rounds” for delivery, transport storage, and firing.

The MSE takes the PAC-3 Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) missile design as its base, and the Army hopes this will lower its overall cost per missile. By 2015, the Army expects the more capable PAC-3 MSE to cost less per missile (around $7.5 million) than the current PAC-3 (about $7.6 million), with costs continuing to drop toward an average of about $5.5 million over the life of the program. The USA plans to order 1,680 of them in the coming years.

Patriot Engineering Services Contracts ECS command vehicle
(click to view full)

PATRIOT Engineering support is a sole source contract initiated on Aug 26/03 by the Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-04-C-0020). A follow-on contract was issued in FY 2009 (W31P4Q-09-C-0057).

Raytheon releases note that “engineering support” includes system and software engineering, hardware engineering, system testing, quality assurance, configuration management, logistic support and program management. The contract also funds specific tasks, including the implementation of the architecture for the first phase of the Combined Aggregate Program (CAP), CAP phase 2 studies, system of system architecture studies, Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) missile integration and missile segment enhancement, and conducting annual service practice missile firings. The CAP program aligns the Patriot system to incorporate and field Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) Major End Items (MEIs) as they become available.

Excel
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The overall program is an international cooperative effort, in which foreign partners both fund and benefit from common support. The FY 2004 – 2009 umbrella contract called for engineering services tasks to be performed specifically for Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Taiwan. Beginning in 2009, South Korea and the UAE added themselves to that list.

What follows are all of the publicly-announced disbursements since the FY 2004 base award:

Work on PATRIOT Engineering Services is generally performed at Raytheon IDS HQ in Tewksbury, MA; its Integrated Air Defense Center in next-door Andover, MA; its Missile Defense Center in Woburn, MA; its Integrated Force Protection and Security Center in Huntsville, AL; its Mission Capability Verification Center at White Sands Missile Range, NM; and additional Raytheon facilities that include Burlington, MA and El Paso, TX. The vast majority of work is done in Tewksbury and Andover, MA. These facilities also process Patriot Advanced Configuration-2 (PAC-2) and Guidance Enhanced Missile-T (GEM-T) missiles for stockpile reliability testing, recertification and repair in support of the Patriot Field Surveillance program.

Other PATRIOT-Related Contracts & Events

Unless otherwise specified, contracts are awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL.

FY 2015

Purchases: Kuwait, Taiwan, Qatar, UAE; Requests: Saudi Arabia. PAC-3 MSE
(click to view full)

May 19/15: Raytheon was awarded a $7 million contract modification in support of the UAE’s Patriot systems, with this totaling 138 man-months of work. The GCC member state first procured the systems in 2008, with the country operating the PAC-3 variant.

April 24/15: The undisclosed customer in Raytheon’s $2 billion contract announced earlier this week for Patriot air defense systems is now thought to be Saudi Arabia. The company secured a multi-billion dollar contract with Poland this week, with the Patriot system also a contender for Germany’s air defense modernization requirement.

April 20/15: On Friday, Raytheon announced the award of a $2 billion contract to an undisclosed international customer for the supply of new-production Patriot systems, training and support. The precise variant of the system was not revealed, however the new systems will include the “latest technology for improved threat detection, identification and engagement,” which sounds like the PAC-3 variant.

Nov 5/14: Korea. The US DSCA announces South Korea’s official export request for PAC-3 missiles to upgrade its Korea Air Missile Defense (KAMD) system from its existing PAC-2 GEM-Ts. This will create better interoperability with American forces in theater, while enhancing the country’s ballistic missile defenses (q.v. March 12/14). The estimated cost is up to $1.405 billion, and includes:

• 136 PAC-3 Missiles with containers
  
• 2 Patriot-As-A-Target (PAAT) Flight Test Targets with 2 PAC-3 Telemetry Kits
  
• 10 Fire Solution Computers
  
• 18 Launcher Station Modification Kits
  
• 8 Guided Missile Transporters
  
• 8 Missile Round Trainers
  
• 8 PAC-3 Slings
  
• 13 Installation Kits for TPX-58 Identification Friend or Foe with KIV-77 crypto
  
• PAC-3 Ground Support Equipment (GSE)
  
• 10 Shorting Plugs
  
• 77 Defense Advanced Global Positioning Receivers (DAGR GPS) and Installation Kits
  
• Patriot Fiber Optic Modem
  
• 4 AN/VRC-90E Radios with Installation Kits
  
• 10 Patriot Automated Logistics System Kits
  
• Plus the usual spare and repair parts, support equipment, communication equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, and US Government and contractor support.

The principal contractors will be Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MA (config-3 ground systems); and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Dallas, TX (PAC-3 missiles). Implementation of this proposed sale won’t require the assignment of any additional US Government or contractor personnel to Korea, beyond temporary in-country visits to meet program technical and management oversight and support requirements. Sources: US DSCA #14-52, “Republic of Korea – Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) Missiles”.

DSCA request: South Korea (136 PAC-3 & Config-3 upgrades)

Oct 14/14: PATRIOT. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $595.5 million foreign military sales contract modification, covering FY 2014 production for Kuwait, Taiwan, Qatar, and the UAE. They’re selling 152 PAC-3 cost reduction initiative missiles, 15 PAC-3 launcher modification kits, and the associated ground equipment, tooling, and initial spares. $543 million is committed immediately.

The PAC-3 CRI missile was used as the base for the PAC-3 MSE missile, but the MSE also adds a number of new technologies, and changes the missile’s structure. In contrast, PAC-3 CRI missiles offer PAC-3 performance at a slightly lower cost.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Lufkin, and El Paso, TX; Camden, AR; Chelmsford, MA; Ocala, FL; Huntsville, AL; and Anaheim, CA; and will continue until May 31/16. Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-14-C-0034, PO 0008).

PAC-3 missiles: Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, UAE

Oct 1/14: Saudi Arabia. The US DSCA announces a Saudi Arabian export request for more PATRIOT PAC-3 missiles, with Lockheed Martin in Dallas, TX and Raytheon in Tewksbury, MA as the designated contractors to negotiate with. the contract could be worth up to $1.75 billion, on top of previous request and sales involving a $1.7 billion upgrade of PATRIOT systems to Config-3 status for PAC-3 missile use (q.v. Nov 30/11), high-end maintenance and re-certification contracts (q.v. Dec 23/11, Nov 28/12), and a national C4I system (q.v. Nov 26/12).

This time, they want to buy up to 202 PATRIOT PAC-3 Missiles with containers, and 1 Patriot as a Target (PAC-2 Guidance Enhanced Missile GEM Flight Test Target). They also want up to 36 Launcher Station Modification Kits, 6 Fire Solution Computers, 6 Patriot Automated Logistics Systems Kits, 2 PAC-3 Telemetry Kits, 2 Missile Round Trainers, 2 PAC-3 Slings, 6 Shorting Plugs, spare and repair parts, lot validation and range support, ground support equipment, repair and return, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, a Quality Assurance Team, and other US Government and contractor support.

“The proposed sale will help replenish Saudi’s current [PAC-2] Patriot missiles which are becoming obsolete and difficult to sustain due to age and the limited availability of repair parts. The purchase of PAC-3 missiles will support current and future defense missions…. Although [industrial] offsets are requested, they are unknown at this time and will be determined during negotiations between the KSA and contractor.”

Implementation of this proposed program will require 1 additional US contractor to travel to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a period of 3 years for equipment fielding and system checkout. Sources: US DSCA #14-43, “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) – Patriot Air Defense System with PAC-3 Enhancement”.

DSCA request: Saudis (202 PAC-3s)

FY 2014

Purchases: USA, Kuwait, Qatar; Requests: Saudi Arabia, South Korea; 2 batteries deployed to Turkey; DOT&E highlight reliability issues with radar, Raytheon crafts significant system upgrades for Polish competition, becomes a finalist; South Korea buys PAC-2 GEM-Ts, will upgrade to PAC-3/Config-3. Greek PAC-2
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July 16/14: Upgrades. Raytheon announces a $235.5 million full rate production contract for Radar Digital Processor (RDP) kits, to upgrade PATRIOT systems for the USA and 2 partner nations. The changes will also allow support for the new PAC-3 MSE missile. As DID discussed when covering industrial process and component increases (q.v. May 10/14):

“The introduction of the new Radar Digital Processor in the Configuration-3 radar eliminates older components, provides a 12x improvement in mean time between failure, and increases radar processing efficiency. Innovations include radar system chips that have shrunk by 87.5%, and would almost fit into the grooves on a dime’s side. Meanwhile, Radar Digital Processor has dropped from 435 circuit cards to 5 in one of its assemblies, 16 power supplies have been combined into 1, and wiring that used to require 31 cables now takes 10. The space this opened up could house some refrigerator models, and is available for future upgrades.”

Raytheon also expects 40% improvement in Mea Time Between Failure, and notes that reducing the number of battery replaceable units from 759 to 56 should provide some maintenance savings. US Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract. Sources: Raytheon, “US Army awards Raytheon $235.5 million contract for Patriot”.

July 15/14: R&D. Raytheon touts successful prototyping of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) technologies into the PATRIOT system’s radar. It’s part of a wider, privately-developed upgrade that will also include 360 degree coverage (q.v. June 12/14), and goes beyond extensive manufacturing and design improvements within the existing technology framework (q.v. May 10/13):

“…these technologies will significantly increase the defended area and decrease the time to detect, discriminate and engage threats. The introduction of GaN-based AESA technologies will also further improve reliability and lower the life cycle costs for the Patriot radar, beyond what has already been achieved with other recent Patriot radar improvements.”

Raytheon has made significant investments in GaN as a better base for semiconductors, and is also working with materials like synthetic diamond’s improved heat dissipation for denser circuits. GaN is more expensive than standard Gallium Arsenide, so for the moment it’s restricted to high-value applications like radars that appreciate its performance boost. Sources: Raytheon, “Raytheon demonstrates successful prototyping of AESA/GaN technologies into Patriot radar”.

July 14/14: Qatar. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosts Qatar’s Minister of State for Defense Affairs Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah at the Pentagon, where they sign letters of offer and acceptance worth around $11 billion for AH-64E Apache helicopters, Patriot PAC-3 air and missile defense systems (q.v. March 27/14, July 8/14), and FGM-148 Javelin Block 1 anti-tank missiles.

Details remain scarce, but their Nov 7/12 DSCA request covered up to 11 fire units, using Config-3 ground equipment and a combination of PAC-2 GEM-T (246) and PAC-3 (768) interceptor missiles. Lockheed Martin’s Oct 15/14 release only says that the initial contract “…is for missile and command launch system production.” Sources: Pentagon, “U.S., Qatar Sign Letters on $11 Billion in Helicopters, Defense Systems” | Lockheed Martin, “Qatar Becomes 8th International Customer for Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 Missile”.

Qatar PATRIOT systems

July 14/14: Kuwait. Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $28.5 million modification for PATRIOT PAC-3 Launcher Modification Kit Phase II Redesigns, on behalf of Kuwait. All funds are committed immediately.

Work will be performed at Grand Prairie, TX; Clearwater, FL; Minneapolis, MN; and Aguadilla, PR; and is expected to be complete by Sept 30/17. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-12-G-0001, PO 0007).

July 8/14: Sub-contractors. Japan’s new relaxation of its self-imposed arms export ban may be about to benefit Qatar, via a sub-component of Qatar’s PAC-2 GEM-T missiles. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries already manufactures the PAC-2 GEM missile and related ground equipment for Japan, under a license agreement with Raytheon. They also assemble PAC-3 missiles under an agreement with Lockheed Martin.

The report said that MHI would produce a “key component of the infrared seeker set into the tip of the missile to identify and track incoming targets,” but Raytheon has confirmed that the PAC-2 GEM-T has no such infrared component. They’ve also confirmed that this is still just a discussion about incorporating components manufactured by MHI, rather than a hard agreement. Sources: Raytheon | Channel NewsAsia, “Japan reportedly set for first arms export under new rules”.

June 30/14: Poland. Poland’s MON announces the Wisla air and missile defense program’s finalists: Raytheon (q.v. June 12/14), and EuroSAM. Poland won’t become part of the MEADS program, nor will it buy Israel’s David’s Sling. The 2-stage technical dialogue led Poland to conclude that they required an operational system that “znajdowac sie na uzbrojeniu panstw NATO.” Once those requirements were set, MEADS and David’s Sling failed to qualify. Sources: Poland MON, “Kolejny etap realizacji programu Wisla zakonczony”.

June 12/14: Poland, Upgrades. Raytheon Company and Bumar Elektronika announce a partnership to design and develop a modernized Patriot Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) antenna that can upgrade previous ground systems. Meanwhile, Raytheon has begun laying out its broader vision for WISLA.

The IFF system will be used as part of an “advanced Patriot 360 degree radar.” Raytheon says that it would be based on the current AN/APG-65 with the new Radar Digital Processor, but it would carry an all-new antenna, and rotate for full hemispheric coverage. The result would also be an attractive upgrade for customers whose emplaced PATRIOTs are currently limited to a 120 degree field of regard. It would also bring Raytheon closer to parity with Lockheed’s MEADS, which substitutes three 360-degree radars (2 X-band MFCR, 1 UHF-band VSR) in place of the PATRIOT system’s single G-band MPQ-53 (PAC-2) or MPQ-65 (PAC-3).

A new open-architecture, NATO-compatible Common Command and Control (CC2) system would be a joint Raytheon-Polish development, incorporating PATRIOT fire control software, but allowing the integration of options like NASAMS and other systems. CC2’s design, development, and testing would be done in partnership with Polish industry, with the final product produced in Poland.

Missile choice would be up to Poland. Raytheon makes PAC-2 GEM missiles, while Lockheed Martin makes PAC-3 and PAC-3 MSE missiles. To flank their rival at the high end, Raytheon is offering a “new advanced Low Cost Interceptor (LCI)” option. This refers to Raytheon’s PAAC-4 offering, which can add RAFAEL’s Stunner missiles from the competing David’s Sling air defense/ ABM system. If previous reports are true (q.v. May 14/14), Raytheon has effectively recruited their Israeli competitor into their team. The final LCI missile solution would be based on Polish requirements, and it’s worth noting that Raytheon is also RAFAEL’s partner for the famous Iron Dome counter-rocket system. Sources: Direct discussions | Raytheon, “Poland’s Bumar Elektronika and Raytheon Partner to Develop New Patriot IFF Antenna”.

May 19/14: Support. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $212.3 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity foreign military sales contract, for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Support Center’s services to PAC-3 customers.

Funding and work location will be determined with each order, from customers including Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Netherlands, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Estimated completion date is Dec 31/17. This contract is for 3.5 years instead of 1, but it’s a full order of magnitude larger than similar contracts since 2006. The US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL acts as their agent (W31P4Q-13-D-0030, PO 0006). See also Lockheed Martin, “Lockheed Martin Receives $212 Million Contract for PAC-3 Missile Support”.

April 28/14: South Korea. South Korea’s defense establishment formally confirms their intent to upgrade existing PATRIOT systems to PAC-3/Config-3 status (q.v. March 12/14). The budget is WON 1.3 – 1.4 trillion (about $1.25 billion), and they aim to deploy the system between 2016 – 2020. Sources: The Korea Herald, “Seoul to upgrade missile defense”.

March 31/14: Support. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives an $8.3 million contract modification for the repair and return of PATRIOT Missile parts pertaining to Israel, Kuwait, Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Holland and the United Arab Emirates.

All funds are committed, using FY 2013 – 2014 budgets. Estimated completion date is June 30/15. Work will be performed in Andover, MA. US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract on behalf of its FMS clients (W31P4Q-13-C-0111, PO 0008).

March 28/14: PAC-3 MSE Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $610.9 million “modification to a foreign military sales contract” for the PATRIOT system advanced capability production to include 92 one pack Missiles, 50 launcher modification kits and associated ground equipment, tooling, and initial spares.

Only the PAC-3 MSE is a “one pack” missile, and an April 29/14 release from Lockheed describes this as “…the first production order of the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) following the Army’s successful Milestone C decision earlier this year.” It would appear that the Pentagon’s wording to imply exports was misleading – the contract number, which is associated with Kuwait, may be as well.

The effect of the contract is to commit a total of $873.8 million in FY 2013 – 2014 budgets. The estimated completion date is May 31/16. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Lufkin, and El Paso, TX; Camden, AR; Chelmsford, MA; Ocala, FL; Huntsville, AL; and Anaheim, CA. US Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract as an agent of their FMS customer (W31P4Q-14-C-0034, PO 0003). See also Lockheed Martin, “Lockheed Martin Receives $611 Million Contract for Production of First PAC-3 MSE Missiles”.

1st PAC-3 MSE order

March 27/14: Qatar. At DIMDEX 2014 in Doha, the Emirate announces $23 billion worth of military contracts, including a PATRIOT missile system contract related to its Nov 7/12 DSCA request. Sources: Al Defaiya, “Qatar Announces Big Defense Deals at DIMDEX 2014″ | Arabian Aerospace, “Qatar in $23bn arms order including Apache and NH90 helicopters” | Reuters, “Qatar buys helicopters, missiles in $23 billion arms deals”.

March 12/14: Korea. DAPA spokesman Baek Youn-hyeong announces that South Korea has decided to shift its missile defense into higher gear. They’ll push for a full upgrade of their ex-German PATRIOT PAC-2/ Config-2 batteries to Config-3 ground systems, then buy PAC-3 missiles to switch in for existing PAC-2s. An anonymous official said that their goal is to sign a contract by December 2014, and begin to take deliveries in 2016.

Costs haven’t been negotiated yet, and another export request will be necessary, but the ministry reportedly set aside around KRW 1.5 trillion ($1.34 billion) in an earlier arms procurement plan. It isn’t clear whether DAPA would still seek to add another 112 PAC-2 GEM-T missiles (q.v. Dec 23/13), but PAC-3/ Config-3 naturally positions itself as a replacement rather than a supplement.

The ROK will also be pursuing related offensive and defensive systems, in the wake of recent North Korean rocket launches. DAPA intends to develop its MLRS rockets for ranges beyond 70-80km, in order to match the North’s 300mm systems, and one can expect precision guidance for lethal counterfire capabilities. On the defensive front, DAPA intends to spend KRW 200 billion ($186 million) in the next 5 years to field a tracked short-range gun/missile system based on the Bi-Ho, with twin-30mm guns and the SA-18 derived Chiron/ Shin-Gung missile. That won’t kill rockets, but it will add air defense resources. Alongside the ROKAF’s modern qualitative edge in the air, their SAM system seems to be evolving toward Biho Hybrid LLAD, plus short range Chun Ma/ Crotale NG missiles, plus remaining MIM-23 Hawk batteries which will be replaced by the K-SAM/ Cheongung cooperative effort with Russia. That’s an effective layered system, reducing reliance on PATRIOT batteries for conventional air defense. Sources: IMINT & Analysis, “The South Korean SAM Network ” | Arirang, “South Korea seeking Patriot missile upgrade by end of year” | Chosun Ilbo, “S.Korea to Upgrade Patriot Missile Defense” | Korea Herald, “Korea to buy PAC-3 missiles next year” | Reuters, “South Korea says seeks Patriot missiles upgrade deal by December”.

March 4-11/14: Budgets. The US military slowly files its budget documents, detailing planned spending from FY 2014 – 2019. For the PAC-3 MSE missile, there have been several notable changes.

The first is a sharply increased initial FY14 buy of 86 missiles, instead of 56. After that, the amounts are slightly below previously projections. The 2nd change is that the projected cost per missile drops sharply from $8 million in FY15 to around $5.5 million in FY16, and every year thereafter. $5.5M had been the program’s goal, but FY14 documents didn’t expect to get there until after FY18. The 3rd noticeable change may be related, and involves R&D spending dropping off a cliff beginning in FY15.

Feb 28/14: Kuwait. Raytheon in Andover, MA was awarded a $655.4 million firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract from Kuwait for 2 new-build Patriot fire units and associated initial spares. The new systems include recent upgrades to the PATRIOT’s ground systems, including increased computing power and radar processing efficiency, and a better interface for the operators. These new systems are part of Kuwait’s PAC-3 missile orders, and seem especially linked to their July 25/12 DSCA request, but note that the PAC-3 missiles themselves are a separate Lockheed Martin product (q.v. Dec 31/13).

All funds are committed immediately, and the contract runs until April 30/18. Work will be performed in Andover, MA, Chatsworth, CA, and in Greece. One bid was solicited with 1 received by US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, A. They’re acting as Kuwait’s FMS agent (W31P4Q-14-C-0052). Sources: Pentagon DefenseLINK | Raytheon, “Raytheon Awarded $655 Million Contract for Patriot”.

Kuwait: PATRIOT Fire Units

Jan 29/14: R&D. Raytheon in Andover, MA receives a $107.9 million in FY 2014 RDT&E funds for work on the Patriot missile system.

All funds are committed immediately. Work will be performed at Andover, Billerica, Burlington, and Tewksbury, MA; El Segundo CA; El Paso TX; Huntsville AL; Norfolk VA; Pelham NH; and White Sands, NM until July 31/14 (W31P4Q-09-C-0057, PO 0108).

Jan 28/14: DOT&E Testing Report. The Pentagon releases the FY 2013 Annual Report from its Office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), which features the PAC-3 & MSE. It was a good year for PATRIOT testing, with 5 PAC-3 & MSE tests that killed 4 ballistic missiles and 3 cruise missiles. The Army also addressed 14/21 recommendations from last year’s report, but there are still a few areas of concern.

The latest overall system version is Post Deployment Build-7 (PDB-7), which offered improvements against some threats compared to PDB-6.5 (q.v. Jan 17/12), and a step back against others. Those details are classified, but Army engagement procedures are said to be part of the problem. At the same time, DOT&E publicly spotlights reliability issues with the PATRIOT’s radar, which doesn’t collect key reliability data from the field, and training that isn’t adequate for complex engagements.

On the other hand, PATRIOT testing against radar-killing ARM missiles is only models and simulations. Those are the most common air defense killers, so a real test or 2 seems like a good idea. DOT&E also wants the Army to conduct PATRIOT testing during joint and coalition exercises that include large numbers of different aircraft types, sensors, battle management elements, and weapons systems, while conducting cyber-penetration testing of the system. Having PATRIOT act as a live interceptor backup while testing other systems like THAAD could be helpful, especially in cases like the FTI-01’s SM-3 test failure.

Nov 14/13: R&D. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $16.8 million firm-fixed-price contract for “the design, development, production, and fielding of a mobile capability outside the continental United States for reconstitution of 4-pack PAC-3 launcher assemblies.”

$4.2 million in FY 2014 funds is committed immediately. Estimated completion date is Nov 30/15. Work location is Grand Prairie, TX. One bid was solicited and one received (W31P4Q-14-C-0022).

Dec 31/13: Kuwait. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $263.4 million firm-fixed-price contract from the Emirate of Kuwait for 14 Patriot missile 4-packs and 7 launcher modification kits. Kuwait operates PATRIOT PAC-2 batteries, and is in the process of converting some of them to the PAC-3/Config-3 standard (q.v. July 25/12, July 2/13), while enhancing others with PAC-2 GEM-T missiles.

$23.8 million is committed immediately. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Lufkin, TX; Camden, AR; Chelmsford, MA; Ocala, FL; El Paso, TX; Huntsville, AL; and Anaheim, CA; and will run until June 30/16. One bid was solicited with one received by US Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL, who acts as Kuwait’s agent (W31P4Q-14-C-0034).

Oct 25/13: South Korea. The US DSCA announces South Korea’s official request to buy 112 Patriot Anti-Tactical Missiles (basically PAC-2), which will be upgraded to the GEM-T configuration via a follow-on Direct Commercial Sale. They’ll also buy test equipment, spare and repair parts, personnel training, publications and technical data, and other forms of Government and contractor support. The estimated cost is up to $404 million.

Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA will be the prime contractor, and would also be the contractor for any DCS GEM-T upgrade. No additional US Government or contractor representatives will be deployed long-term, though teams will travel to the country on a temporary basis for logistics support. Sources: US DSCA #13-55 | NTI, “S. Korea Seeks More Patriot Missiles as N. Korea Eyes Rocket Launches”.

DSCA: South Korea PAC-2/GEM-Ts

Oct 17/13: Support. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $17.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, multi-year foreign military sales contract modification for PATRIOT repair and return services. This FMS contract is in support of Israel, Kuwait, Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates. US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL will act as their FMS agent (W31P4Q-13-C-0111, PO 0004).

FY 2013

Annual order; Kuwait begins PAC-3 orders; Raytheon discusses major upgrades to ground systems; New PAC-3 MSE aces twin-kill; South Korea pushed to PAC-3 by PAC-2’s BMD performance; Deployment to Turkey; Corruption investigation in Greece; Good PAC-3 performance in varied FIT-01 BMD test. New MMS Interface
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Sept 23/13: MMS upgrades. Raytheon in Andover, MA received a $44.9 million firm-fixed-price contract to buy PATRIOT MMS (modern manstation) upgrade kits for the USA and Kuwait.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA as a non-competitive acquisition, with 1 bid received by US Army Contracting Command (Missile) at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-13-C-0017).

Sept 9/13: Support. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA, was awarded a $9.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee multi-year contract modification of contract for foreign military sales for repair and return of Patriot missile parts. This contract was a foreign military sale to: Israel, Kuwait, Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Republic of the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA as a non-competitive contract, with the US Army Contracting Command – Missile at Redstone Arsenal, AL acting as the program agent for these countries (W31P4Q-13-C-0111, PO 0003).

Aug 31/13: PAAC-4? Raytheon’s partnership with Israel’s RAFAEL is about to result in a challenge to Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3/MSE missiles. Raytheon is RAFAEL’s US marketing partner for the well-known Iron Dome, and RAFAEL’s development partner for a different, longer-range system called David’s Sling. It will replace Israeli MIM-23 Hawk and PATRIOT PAC-2 batteries, and the US military has expressed cautious interest. The firms’ American proposal would integrate the 2-stage, EO and radar-guided, hit-to-kill Stunner/ Magic Wand missile into PATRIOT Config-3 ground systems.

What’s the attraction of a “Patriot Advanced Affordable Configuration 4″? Cost. The new PAC-3 MSE missile is just starting production, and budget figures show a production cost of about $6.3 million each in 2018. That’s expected to drop, but even a standard PAC-3 missile at full-rate production costs around $3.3 million. Raytheon and RAFAEL are touting Stunner cost figures that amount to less than $500,000 per missile, assuming 60% production in the USA, and the savings would be noticeable even if they doubled that cost. For $20 million, they’re prepared to prove their claims and build a prototype.

There are 2 catches here. The first is operational. David’s Sling won’t be fielded in Israel until 2014, and its initial block won’t have key capabilities like cruise missile/ UAV interception, or the ability to hit maneuvering ballistic targets. The 2nd catch is that the PAC-3 is well tested by the Army, and the MSE variant that begins production in FY 2014 is a derivative successor with full-spectrum capabilities. Unless further cuts really bite the Army hard, they’re going to be reluctant to embrace a less proven missile with fewer capabilities, even if the cost savings are significant. Sources: Defense News, “Raytheon-Rafael Pitch 4th-Gen Patriot System” | RAFAEL: Stunner (David’s Sling).

Aug 30/13: R&D. Lockheed Martin in Grand Praire, TX receives a $44.1 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract modification to redesign the PAC-3’s tactical telemetry.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie and Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA; Ocala, FL, and Camden, AR, with funding from FY 2013 other authorization funds. One bid was received (W31P4Q-12-G-0001, PO 006).

Aug 26/13: Support. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a maximum $7.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for PAC-3 and MSE engineering services, support for launchers’ ELES and fire solution computer software, and hardware post deployment.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX using FY 2012 “other procurement” funding. This contract was a competitive acquisition via the web with one bid received – though realistically, it’s unlikely that any other firm could have won. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Missile at Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract (W31P4Q-12-G-0001).

Aug 23/13: Support. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a maximum $20.5 million cost-plus-incentive fee contract to redesign the PAC-3 and MSE’s Simplified Inertial Measurement Units (SIMU) and remove obsolete/ out-of-production parts. Inertial measurement uses very accurate accelerometers to help the missile know where it is in space, relative to its launch point.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Clearwater, FL, Minneapolis, MN, and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, using FY 2013 Other Procurement funds. This contract was a non-competitive acquisition, with 1 bid solicited and 1 received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command ? Redstone Arsenal (Missile), Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-12-G-0001, Order 0004).

Aug 15/13: Testing. Another PAC-3 test against a ballistic missile target. Two missiles ripple-fired at White Sands, NM, and the target is destroyed by the 1st missile. Sources: Lockheed Martin Aug 15/13 release.

July 2/13: FY 2013. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $308.3 million firm-fixed-price contract modification from the USA and Kuwait. The Gulf Emirate becomes the PAC-3 missile’s 6th export customer, alongside Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Taiwan, and the UAE. Discussions with Lockheed Martin confirm that the total for the Jan 3/13 order and this one amount to 244 PAC-3 tactical missiles and 72 PAC-2 to PAC-3 launcher modification kits. The cumulative total face value of this contract is now $1.063 billion.

PAC-3 launchers mount 16 missiles instead of just 4 PAC-2s per launcher, and use some different systems. The modification kits include 4 PAC-3 Missile quad-pack canisters, a fire solution computer, an ELES (Enhanced Launcher Electronics System), and launcher support hardware.

The implication is that Kuwait is ordering 48 modification kits, but the missile buys don’t add. US Army budget FY 2014 justification documents show just 84 PAC-3 missiles, as the USA’s final order for the type. FY 2013 documents show 40 missiles for Taiwan, completing their multi-year order for 386, and FY 2014 documents show 60 missiles for Kuwait, beginning in that fiscal year. Lockheed Martin’s Jan 10/13 release left 44 missiles unaccounted for (168 – 40 = 128), and this release raises that number to 60, even if we presume that Kuwait has moved its entire FY 2014 buy into FY 2013 (244 – 84 – 40 – 60 = 60). DID is seeking to clarify.

$151.1 million is committed immediately, and the US Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL both manages American buys, and acts as Kuwait’s agent for those sales. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Lufkin and El Paso, TX; Camden, AR; Chelmsford, MA; Ocala, FL; Huntsville, AL; and Anaheim, CA (W31P4Q-13-C-0068, PO 0002). Deliveries will begin in 2014. See also: Lockheed Martin Aug 12/13 release.

FY 2013 PAC-3, Part 2: USA & Kuwait

Aug 1/13: Testing. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $25.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification for the new PAC-3 MSE missile’s follow on test program. $6.1 million is committed immediately, and the cumulative total face value of this contract is now $51 million (W31P4Q-07-G-0001, #001213).

Aug 1/13: Support. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $9.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification for unscheduled maintenance at the PAC-3 Missile Support Center. This brings the contract’s total value so far to $29.5 million (W31P4Q-13-D-0030, #0005).

July 25/13: Support. Raytheon in Huntsville, AL receives a modification to their $16.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, option-filled, multi-year contract, paying for PATRIOT depot-level diagnostics and repair. The cumulative total face value of this contract is now $31.1 million. Work will be performed in Fort Sill, OK; El Paso, TX; Fort Bragg, NC; and Fort Hood, TX (W91P4Q-12-C-0238, PO 0004).

June 27/13: Training. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a maximum $19.6 million firm-fixed-price contract for PATRIOT Mobile Flight Simulators. $9.6 million in FY 2013 RDT&E funds are committed immediately.

Work will be performed in White Sands Missile Range, NM, and Andover, MA. One bid was solicited, with one bid received by US Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-13-C-0018).

June 18/13: Upgrades. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $10.4 million firm-fixed-price contract modification, for PATRIOT Radar Digital Processor Upgrade Kits (q.v. May 10/13 entry), bringing the contract’s cumulative total value to $21.2 million. FY 2013 Procurement funds are being committed (W31P4Q-13-C-0016).

June 16/13: Kuwait, Germany. Raytheon’s VP of Integrated Air and Missile Defense, Sanjay Kapoor, tells Bloomberg that negotiations to sell Kuwait its next set of PATRIOT equipment and missiles (q.v. July 25/12 entry) are almost done.

Germany is discussing an upgrade of its own PATRIOT systems, and wants to incorporate elements of MEADS after spending all that R&D money. Bloomberg.

June 7/13: MSE Splash 2. The improved PAC-3 MSE aces its 1st major test at White Sands Missile Range, NM, killing both a tactical ballistic missile (TBM) target and a cruise missile.

The TBM got 2 ripple-fired missiles, but the 1st hit so #2 self-destructed. Missile #3 took out the BQM-74 jet-powered target drone. Preliminary data indicates that all test objectives were achieved. Lockheed Martin | Raytheon.

June 3/13: Support. Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives a maximum $12 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for PAC-3 field support services.

Fiscal 2013 Procurement funds this award, and work will be performed in Dallas, TX; Kuwait; El Paso, TX; Killeen, TX; Lawton, OK; Fayetteville, NC; Bahrain; Germany; Japan; Korea; Qatar; Turkey; and the United Arab Emirates. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-13-C-0100).

May 10/13: Support. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $32.1 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract modification, extending recertification and repair services in support of the PAC-3 Missile Support Center program. The cumulative total face value of this contract is now $91 million. FY 2013 Operation and Maintenance funds are being used to find this award (W31P4Q-12-C-0100, PO 0014).

Upgrades
click for video

May 10/13: Raytheon’s Upgrades. Raytheon discusses major design and manufacturing changes to the PATRIOT Config 3 ground systems, and PAC-2 GEM missiles, over the last few years. The firm says that designers have invested more than $400 million over the last 4 years to change manufacturing, improve performance, and make the system more reliable. That’s a big deal, after a DOT&E report (q.v. Jan 17/12 entry) that slammed the system’s “poor radar reliability and system availability”.

First, the components themselves have changed. The introduction of the new Radar Digital Processor in the Configuration-3 radar eliminates older components, provides a 12x improvement in mean time between failure, and increases radar processing efficiency. Innovations include radar system chips that have shrunk by 87.5%, and would almost fit into the grooves on a dime’s side. Meanwhile, Radar Digital Processor has dropped from 435 circuit cards to 5 in one of its assemblies, 16 power supplies have been combined into 1, and wiring that used to require 31 cables now takes 10. The space this opened up could house some refrigerator models, and is available for future upgrades. Similar changes have taken place within the PAC-2 GEM-T missile, even as the Config-3 control room got a big makeover with color touch screens, faster computers, etc.

In tandem with that, the manufacturing processes have changed, as work crews ripped out whole sections of the factory to installed brand-new machinery. New ceramics are used in the missile’s radome. Computer-controlled tools that can compensate for room temperature and other factors cut beams to support the radar’s antenna. “Chip shooter” machines install 30,000 components an hour, making cleaner connections.

The first new GEM-T missile was fired at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in August 2011, followed by a test firing of the first complete, new-production Patriot system in 2012 (q.v. March 29/12 entry). Raytheon: Release | Feature | Infographic [PDF, view at 200+%]

Raytheon’s Config-3 & PAC-2 upgrades

April 12/13: PAC-3 Testing. Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 Missile successfully detects, tracks and intercepts a tactical ballistic missile (TBM) in a Lower Tier Project Office flight test at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The 1st missile kills it, and so the 2nd one self-destructs.

It’s one of the steps along the path to the PAC-3 MSE’s big test at White Sands, later this year. Lockheed Martin.

April 10/13: FY 2014 Budget. The President releases a proposed budget at last, the latest in modern memory. The Senate and House were already working on budgets in his absence, but the Pentagon’s submission is actually important to proceedings going forward. See ongoing DID coverage. FY 2014 is a big transition for PATRIOT, as PAC-3 missiles are no longer being ordered, and PAC-3 MSE missile production begins in earnest. Relevant figures can be found in the article’s charts.

April 1/13: PAC-2 GEM-T Recert. Raytheon announces that its PAC-2/ GEM-T missiles have received US Army approval for a 2nd recertification, extending the world-wide fleet’s operational life from 30 – 45 years. Recertification and upgrades can be done at a fraction of replacement cost, and since replacements are likely to be Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3s, that’s a very good selling point for Raytheon.

The decision comes on the heels of a recent $46.7 million U.S. Army contract awarded to Raytheon to recertify and upgrade Patriot missiles to the latest GEM-T configuration, as part of the continuous Patriot modernization effort. Raytheon.

Feb 11/13: Sweden. Sweden’s deputy prime minister and Liberal Party leader Jan Bjorklund thinks Sweden’s military capabilities have hit a dangerous level, and believe the country needs to place national defense priorities before international missions as Russia begins to re-arm.

What’s unusual is that he openly suggested buying PATRIOT missiles from the USA during an interview with Svenska Dagbladet, and proposed to base them on the Baltic island of Gotland as forward air defense. MBDA probably feels slighted that their longer-range Aster-30 SAMP/T wasn’t mentioned.

The comments come about a month after Swedish Armed Forces commander-in-chief Sverker Göransson said that the country could only defend itself for about a week under sustained attack. It probably didn’t make things any more comfortable when Danish NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the same annual security conference that Sweden couldn’t count on NATO coming to their defense, despite Swedish membership in NATO’s Partnership for Peace. The Local.

Jan 7/13: Testing. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $12.5 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to establish a PAC-3 MSE Missile Field Test Program.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX, with an estimated completion date of March 31/14. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-13-C-0094).

Jan 3/13: PAC-3. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $755.1 million firm-fixed-price contract for PAC-3 missiles and related services, which includes support for Foreign Military Sales to Taiwan.

The contract covers 168 hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missiles, 27 launcher modification kits and associated tooling, and program management and services. This is the US government’s 14th production buy of the PAC-3 Missile. US Army budget documents place Taiwan’s FY 2013 order at 40 missiles, completing their multi-year order for 386.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie & Lufkin, TX; Camden, AR; Chelmsford, MA; and Ocala, FL; with an estimated completion date of July 31/15. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract (W31P4Q-13-C-0068). See also Lockheed Martin 2013-01-10 release.

FY 2013 PAC-3

Jan 3/13: Taiwan. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $72.6 million firm-fixed-price contract modification for PATRIOT Config-3 spares in support of Foreign Military Sales. Raytheon confirms to DID that these are spares for Taiwan.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, and El Paso, TX, with an estimated completion date of Nov 30/15. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-09-G-0002).

Jan 3/13: Taiwan. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $22.7 million firm-fixed-price contract modification for PATRIOT Technical Refresh Spares. Raytheon confirms to DID that these are for Taiwan.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA with an estimated completion date of Dec 31/14. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-09-G-0002).

Jan 3/13: Kuwait. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $22.2 million firm-fixed-price contract modification buying PATRIOT Spare Parts. Raytheon confirms to DID that these are are for Kuwait.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA with an estimated completion date of Sept 30/14. One bid was solicited, with one bid received (W31P4Q-09-G-0002).

Dec 20/12: CTR. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $46.7 million firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modernization of the PATRIOT Advanced Capability missiles through the continuous technology refreshment program.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA with an estimated completion date of Dec 17/16. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received. US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract (W31P4Q-13-C-0088).

Nov 28/12: Saudi Arabia. The US DSCA announces [PDF] Saudi Arabia’s official request to buy technical services and re-certify up to 300 PATRIOT PAC-2 GEMs (MIM-104D Guidance Enhanced Missiles). They also want to perform some modernization of existing equipment, and receive spare and repair parts, support equipment, and other forms of US Government and contractor support. The estimated cost is up to $130 million.

The DSCA says that proposed re-certification program will allow the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces to extend the shelf life of the PAC-2 missiles for another 12 years. Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MA will be the prime contractor, but the US Army’s Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, PA will perform the re-certification. Implementation of this proposed sale will require 1 Raytheon representative to travel to the Missile Assembly Disassembly Facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on an extended basis for missile assembly/disassembly support, system checkout, training and technical and logistics support.

DSCA: Saudis request PATRIOT PAC-2 re-cert

Dec 14/12: To Turkey. The USA will send 2 batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey, as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack. Germany and the Netherlands had already agreed to provide 2 PATRIOT batteries each, along with 400 German and 360 Dutch troops, bringing the total number of Patriot batteries slated for Turkey to 6. Yahoo! News.

Nov 7/12: Qatar. The US DSCA announces that Qatar is looking to buy up to 11 PATRIOT Configuration 3 fire units, at a cost of up to $9.9 billion. The PAC-2 GEM-T and PAC-3 missiles would serve as the country’s lower BMD tier, beneath the requested (q.v. Nov 5/12) THAAD exo-atmospheric interceptors. The request includes up to:

• 11 AN/MSQ-132 Engagement Control Systems
  
• 11 AN/MPQ-65 Radar Sets
  
• 11 Electrical Power Plants (EPPII)
  
• 30 Antenna Mast Groups
  
• 44 M902 Launching Stations
  
• 246 PATRIOT MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missile-TBM (GEM-T) with canisters
  
• 2 PATRIOT MIM-104E GEM-T Test Missiles
  
• 768 PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) Missiles with canisters
  
• 10 PAC-3 Test Missiles with canisters
  
• 8 Multifunctional Information Distribution Systems/Low Volume Terminals (MIDS/LVTs)
  
• Plus communications equipment, tools and test equipment, support equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, spare and repair parts, facility design, and other Government and contractor support.

The prime contractors will be Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MD (Config-3 ground systems and GEM-T missiles), and Lockheed-Martin in Dallas, TX (PAC-3 missiles). If a sale is concluded, the Qataris will need about 30 U.S. Government and 40 contractor representatives in Qatar for an extended period for equipment de-processing/ fielding, system checkout, training ,and technical and logistics support. Sources: US DSCA #12-58.

DSCA: Qatar request

Oct 29/12: Greece. Up to 8 Greek arms deals signed since the late 1990s are the subjects of investigations into illegal bribes and kickbacks, and Greece’s purchase of US-made Patriot missiles has advanced to the docket of an investigating magistrate. Investigators are probing bank accounts and offshore companies, and some cases involve more than 1 defense minister.

There is a precedent in former PASOK (socialist) Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who sits in Korydallos Prison awaiting charges for money laundering during his 1996 – 2001 term. ekathimerini.

Oct 28/12: South Korea. A joint study by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses and the US Missile Defense Agency concludes that the PATRIOT PAC-2 system has an interception success rate of below 40% against ballistic missiles. South Korea’s government looked at that, then concluded that they need to buy PAC-3 batteries, in order to push their odds above 70% for covered areas.

The PAC-3 systems appear to be a priority, with deliveries to begin in 2014. To achieve that, a DSCA export request will need to be issued in the very near future. As PAC-3 systems arrive, South Korea reportedly plans to divert their billion-dollar buy of German PAC-2 batteries to defend against aircraft and cruise missiles. ROK’s Yonhap News Agency | Chosun Ilbo.

Oct 25/12: FIT-01 Test. Pacific Chimera (aka. Flight Test Integrated-01) features a combination of land and sea missile defense systems, who go 4/5 against a combination of ballistic missile and cruise missile targets. The USA’s Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) system acted as FIT-01’s command and control backbone.

The Medium Range Ballistic Missile E-LRALT (Extended Long Range Air Launch Target) was launched out of a C-17, tracked by a US Army AN/TPY-2 radar on Meck Island, and destroyed by its companion THAAD missile.

A pair of Short Range Ballistic Missile targets were launched from a platform in the ocean. One was destroyed by a US Army PATRIOT PAC-3 system, but the USS Fitzgerald’s [DDG 62] attempt to intercept the 2nd SRBM target with a long-range SM-3 Block 1A missile failed. They’re still trying to figure out why, because there were no obvious malfunctions.

The USS Fitzgerald had better luck with an SM-2 missile against a low flying cruise missile target, and the Army’s PATRIOT PAC-3 battery racked up a cruise missile kill of its own. Final tally: 80%. US MDA | Lockheed Martin | Raytheon.

Oct 5/12: Infrastructure. Raytheon in Andover, MA receives a $7.9 million firm-fixed-price contract to upgrade PATRIOT depot maintenance plant equipment.

Work will be performed in Tewksbury, MA, and White Sands, NM, with an estimated completion date of Sept 30/16. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-12-C-0287).

FY 2012

Annual order; Big Taiwan order for PATRIOT/PAC-3 systems; Export request from Kuwait; Successful test using JLENS aerostat for cueing; BMD test for new PAC-3 CRI missile variant; New PAC-3 MSE missile kills “over the shoulder”; Testing milestones for new-build Config-3 ground systems; PATRIOT shipment to Korea gets much more exciting than intended; Pentagon testers highlight poor system reliability. Patriot Radar
(click to view full)

July 25/12: Kuwait. The US DSCA announces [PDF] Kuwait’s official request to add to its PATRIOT assets. The request begins by asking for 60 more PAC-3 missiles, a request that has been made before (q.v. Dec 4/07 – 80 PAC-3 missiles). Kuwait has also added a stock of PAC-2 GEM-T missiles (vid. Dec 11/10 and Jan 24/11 entries).

Beyond the missiles themselves, this request requests ground equipment for 2 more fully modern (Config-3) batteries, plus additional equipment to extend existing infrastructure: 4 PATRIOT radars, 4 PATRIOT Engagement Control Stations, 20 PATRIOT Launching Stations, 2 Information Coordination Centrals, 10 Electric Power Plants, communication and power equipment. The Dec 4/07 request has already ordered Config-3 upgrades to 6 radars and associated equipment. Personnel training and training equipment, spare and repair parts, facility design and construction, and other forms of U.S. Government and contractor support round out the possible order. The estimated cost is up to $4.2 billion

The principal contractors will be Raytheon Corporation in Tewksbury, MA and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Dallas, TX. Implementation of this proposed sale will require the assignment of 3 contractor representatives to Kuwait on a temporary basis for program, technical support, and management oversight.

DSCA: Kuwait PAC-3/Config-3 request

Sept 13/12: Testing. A pair of PAC-3 missiles are successfully ripple-fired at a tactical ballistic missile (TBM) target at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The first interceptor destroyed the target and the second PAC-3 Missile self destructed as planned. Lockheed Martin.

July 16/12: CTR. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA received a $7.5 million firm-fixed-price export contract for new modern adjunct processor upgrade kits. The recipients were not discussed.

Work will be performed in Phoenix, AZ; El Segundo, CA; Anaheim, CA; Fremont, CA; Charlottesville, VA; and Andover, MA; and will run until Nov 30/13. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-10-C-0301).

July 13/12: Getting MSE ready. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $69 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to support of PAC-3 MSE Initial Production Facilities. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie and Camden, AR; Lufkin, TX; and Ocala, FL; with an estimated completion date of July 2/14. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-12-C-0001).

The contract is pretty explicit about getting the new PAC-3 MSE missile ready for production, which is set to begin in FY 2014 with orders for 56. The US Army plans to order a total 1m680 PAC-3 MSE missiles over the lifetime of that program, which will be worth $9.114 billion. By 2015, the Army expects the more capable PAC-3 MSE to cost less per missile (around $7.5 million) than the current PAC-3 (about $7.6 million), with costs continuing to drop for the MSE after that. Time will tell if beginning MSE’s design from the PAC-3 Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) blueprint will deliver on its promise, or not. See also Lockheed Martin release.

May 6/12: Support. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX wins a $34.7 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract, to fund the PAC-3 Missile Support Center. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX until Dec 31/13. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 1 bid received by the US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-12-C-0100).

April 30/12: JLENS/ PATRIOT test. The promised firing test takes place during an exercise at the Utah Training and Test Range. The JELNS high-altitude aerostat picked up the target on radar, and provided tracking data to the PATRIOT system. Raytheon says that:

“In addition to destroying the target drone, initial indications are that the JLENS-Patriot systems integration met test objectives.”

That will help make the case for JLENS as a very low operating cost option for cruise missile defense, but is it too late? The Pentagon has decided to remove the program’s production phase, leaving just the 2 testing “orbits”. Raytheon | Lockheed Martin.

April 13/12: Support. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $7.6 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract, to support the PAC-3 Missile Support Center. Work will be performed in Dallas, TX, with an estimated completion date of March 30/13. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 1 bid received by the US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-12-C-0100).

April 9/12: Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $45.4 million firm-fixed-price contract modification for PAC launcher modification kits. Lockheed makes the PAC-3 missile, which demands a different launcher system than Raytheon’s larger PAC-2.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Camden, AR; Lufkin, TX; and Ocala, FL, with an estimated completion date of July 31/14. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received by U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-11-C-0001).

April 2/12: UAE. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $67.5 million firm-fixed-price contract for UAE Patriot spares. Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Sept 30/13. One bid was solicited, with one bid received by U.S. Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-09-G-0002).

March 30/12: GAO Report. The US GAO tables its “Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs” for 2012. It places the current total PAC-3 sub-program cost at $11.581 billion in FY 2012 dollars. That number has risen just 14.1% over the past 5 years, though the change from the initial program estimate is a bit more radical: 122.2%.

March 30/12: SAR. The Pentagon’s Selected Acquisitions Report ending Dec 31/11. The overall program cost for the PAC-3 sub-program stands at $10.205 billion in base-year dollars.

March 29/12: New-production tests. Raytheon announces a series of testing milestones involving new-production PATRIOT Config. 3 systems, as opposed to upgraded systems. One is the successful firing of 2 PAC-3 missiles to engage a tactical ballistic missile (TBM) at White Sands Missile Range, NM. Surprisingly, this is the 1st firing of PAC-3s from a new-build system.

This test comes on the heels of a successful March 21/12 system-level guided flight test of the new-production Patriot system, and the successful test of the first ground-up production PAC-2 GEM-T missile in October 2011. Raytheon.

Feb 15/12: New BMD target. The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Forces Strategic Command successfully complete a test flight of the new Economical Target-1 at Eglin AFB, FL. ET-1 is a threat representative tactical ballistic missile that could be used to test PATRIOT missiles going forward. It’s a combination of excess body and motor assemblies from the government, and a nose and tail assembly made at Holloman AFB, NM.

The ET-1 was launched using SMDC’s new 25K Transportable Target Launcher, a mission-configurable rail launcher with 25,000 pounds-capacity that complies with applicable treaties, and lets the Army simulate a number of incoming missile flight geometries. It can be carried inside C-17 and C-5 aerial transports for fast shipping, and expands the number of available launch sites for Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense testing. US Army.

Feb 13/12: The USA’s FY 2013 budget documents include $646.6 million to buy 84 PAC-3 missiles and 38 Enhanced Launcher Electronic Systems (ELES). It adds $12.85 million to finish preparations for PAC-3 MSE missile manufacturing; production orders will begin in FY 2014.

Feb 13/12: Support. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Andover, MA receives a $15.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, to support of the Patriot Missile Support Center.

Work will be performed in Chambersburg, PA; Andover, MA; Burlington, MA; and Germany; and the contract runs until Jan 31/14. One bid was solicited, with one bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0156).

Jan 17/12: Testing report. The Pentagon releases the FY 2011 Annual Report from its Office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E). All PATRIOT missile variants are included, even the MEADS’ PAC-3 MSE, which gets a good review:

“The first MSE intercepted the [ballistic missile] target and the second intercepted debris from the first intercept… performance was consistent with preflight predictions and body-to-body impact was achieved… The system met the mission objectives.”

The report also notes a series of GEM-T tests, which have generally been successful, though firings of 2 missiles generally have just 1 successful intercept by the 1st missile. Proximity fuzes can be like that, if the 1st hit doesn’t leave much of a proximity target to trigger. Unfortunately, this next excerpt is much more disturbing, given PATRIOT’s status as the main modern air defense weapon for the USA and several of its key allies:

“Based on the PDB-6.5 LUT conducted during FY10, DOT&E assesses the current Patriot system as effective against some threats and partially suitable due to poor radar reliability and system availability. There has been substantial variance in Patriot’s reliability and resulting availability as observed during testing. The causes of this variance are unknown.”

The Army has updated the PATRIOT’s Test and Evaluation Master Plan, which DOT&E approved on Sept 1/11.

Jan 17/12: An $11.3 million firm-fixed-price contract “for the procurement of Patriot missiles and spares.” DID is given to understand that this Pentagon description of the items bought is in fact a mistake, but official clarification has yet to arrive.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Sept 30/13. One bid was solicited, with one bid received (W31P4Q-12-D-0009).

Jan 5/12: CTR. Raytheon in Andover, MA receives a $51.3 million firm-fixed-price contract, to modernize Patriot PAC-2 missiles to the GEM-T configuration. Raytheon says that this is a follow on to AMCOM’s PATRIOT missile continuous technology refreshment program, initiated in 2000.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Feb 28/15. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-12-C-0079).

Dec 30/11: US FY 2012 & Taiwan. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $606 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for FY 2012 PATRIOT requirements – which includes missiles, launchers, and ground support for Taiwan. Within the PATRIOT system, Lockheed Martin produces the PAC-3 missile, the missile canister 4-packs, a fire solution computer, and the Enhanced Launcher Electronics System (ELES).

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Camden, AR; Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA and Ocala, FL, with an estimated completion date of July 30/15. One bid was solicited, with one bid received by US Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract for the USA, and as Taiwan’s FMS agent (W31P4Q-12-C-0002).

FY 2012 PAC-3

Dec 30/11: Taiwan. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Andover, MA receives a $34.3 million firm-fixed-price contract, providing initial funding for 3 Taiwanese Patriot fire units and training equipment. DID is investigating possible connections to the Dec 16/11 announcement.

Work will be performed in several locations within Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, Italy, Greece, and Canada, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2016. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract, incl. services as Taiwan’s agent (W31P4Q-12-C-0069.

Dec 23/11: Saudi request. The US DSCA announces [PDF] Saudi Arabia’s official request to buy continuing services for the PATRIOT Systems Engineering Services Program (ESP). Also included: modification kits, engineering changes, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, and other forms of US Government and contractor support. The estimated cost is up to $120 million, but no duration is specified.

Saudi Arabia has had a Shared Engineering Services Program (SESP) with the USA for the past 20 years; this just extends it. The prime contractor will be Raytheon Integrated Defense in Andover, MA, and implementation won’t require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Saudi Arabia, beyond those already there.

DSCA: Saudi support request

Dec 23/11: Support. Raytheon in Andover, MA receives a $13.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for PATRIOT training services. Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Dec 15/13. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-12-C-0102).

Dec 21/11: Thor & bothered. Finnish Detective Superintendent Timo Virtanen says that they have detained 2 crew members of the M/S Thor Liberty, an Isle of Man-flagged vessel that left Emden, Germany en route to China but had 69 Patriot surface-to-air missiles and 160 tons of explosives on board. Virtanen said that “the missiles did not have the appropriate transit papers.”

Which sounds alarming, but a spokesman for Germany’s Defense Ministry said the missiles were an official shipment to South Korea that was fully declared, and had all necessary clearings from German authorities. The ship is eventually allowed to sail, and the German story proved to be true, but some members of the crew were kept for questioning. BBC | Sacramento Bee | Voice of Russia | Washington Post World.

Dec 16/11: Taiwan order. Raytheon announces a $685.7 million Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract from Taiwan for additional PATRIOT fire units, featuring current electronics, an improved man-machine interface, and claims of lower life-cycle costs. The firm adds that this award is in addition to the 2009 contract for new systems, and the 2008 contracts to upgrade Taiwan’s existing systems. Work under this contract will be performed at Raytheon’s Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA; El Paso, TX; and Huntsville, AL.

When queried, the firm clarified that this order will be built from the ground up as PATRIOT PAC-3, and that “fire unit” means the complete system, including radars, generators, antenna, ECS command module, and missile launchers. Taiwan is already beginning to build experience with the equipment, as Raytheon recently delivered the first upgraded Configuration-3 radar system, 10 months ahead of the original requested program plan.

Dec 7/11: Taiwan order. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Sudbury, MA receives a $42.9 million cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price contract for the Surveillance Radar Program. Specifically, this system includes a UHF phased array radar integrated with Taiwan-furnished Identification Friend-or-Foe beacons; 2 Missile Warning Centers; and communications and interface architecture and protocols to specific nodes within Taiwan’s military communications infrastructure, consistent with US restrictions

The SRP is a Foreign Military Sales Program managed by the USAF Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, MA, to provide Taiwan with the elements of a missile and air defense capability. Work will be performed in Sudbury, MA, and is expected to be complete by Nov 9/12 (FA8722-05-C-0001, PO 0062).

Taiwan – adjunct radar & PAC-3 units

Dec 7/11: Support. Raytheon in Andover, MA received a $12.7 million firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-reimbursable contract. The award will modify an existing contract for technical services in support of Taiwan’s PATRIOT air defense missile system.

Work will be performed in El Paso, TX, and Taipei, Taiwan, with an estimated completion date of Dec 31/15. by the U.S. Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL, who is acting as Taiwan’s agent (W31P4Q-11-C-0317).

Nov 30/11: Saudi Arabia OK. Raytheon announces U.S. Congressional and State Department approvals for Saudi Arabia’s $1.7 billion Direct Commercial Sales contract to upgrade to PATRIOT Config. 3 (vid. June 21/11 entry).

Nov 21/11: Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $25.5 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification to support the “PAC-3 production requirement for 11 launcher mod kits.”

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Camden, AR; Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA; and Ocala, FL, with an estimated completion date of Dec 31/13. One bid was solicited, with one bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0001).

Nov 17/11: MEADS test. The 1st full MEADS firing test successfully engages a simulated “over the shoulder” target (approaching from behind) at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The test used the PAC-3 MSE missile, lightweight launcher and BMC4I battle manager, and the nature of the test required a unique sideways maneuver from the missile.

This matters to the larger Patriot program, because it’s very probable that PAC-3 MSE missiles will be incorporated into existing Patriot systems. That makes the “unique sideways maneuver” an item of interest. Lockheed Martin.

Nov 1/11: BMD test. Lockheed Martin announces a successful intercept against an aerodynamic tactical ballistic missile target at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The test included a ripple fire engagement, using a PAC-3 Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) Missile as the 1st interceptor and a standard PAC-3 as the 2nd interceptor.

The CRI Missile includes block upgrades to the PAC-3 for performance improvement, as well as reduced costs.

Oct 24/11: Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $33.3 million firm-fixed-priced and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification, for 12 PAC-3 launcher modification kits.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Camden, AR; Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA; and Ocala, FL, with an estimated completion date of Nov 30/13. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0001).

Oct 11/11: Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $37.8 million firm-fixed-priced and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification, for 11 PAC-3 launcher modification kits.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Camden, AR; Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA; and Ocala, FL, with an estimated completion date of July 31/13. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0001).

Oct 5/11: CTR. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $7.1 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for PATRIOT Modern Adjunct Processor Upgrade Kits. Work will be performed in Andover, MA and El Segundo, CA, with an estimated completion date of May 3/13. One bid was solicited, with one bid received (W31P4Q-10-C-0301).

Oct 5/11: Taiwan. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $20.4 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, to provide PATRIOT technical assistance services to Taiwan. Work will be performed in El Paso, TX; Taipei, Taiwan, and Andover, MA; with an estimated completion date of Dec 31/15. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0317).

Oct 5/11: Support. Raytheon IDS in Andover, MA receives a $6.6 million firm-fixed-price contract for “various PATRIOT Secondary Items.” Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of July 31/13. One bid was solicited, with one bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0349).

FY 2011

Annual buy; Big Saudi upgrade to ground systems; Kuwait orders GEM-T missiles; Shining as light on UAE industrial offsets; Korean experience shows importance of spares; PAC-3 motor redesign. PAC-2, Japan
(click to view full)

Sept 19/11: ROKy start. South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reports that 3 of the key tracking radars that equip its 8 Patriot missile batteries have broken down, rendering their corresponding missile batteries useless for “a few months.” The information comes from Grand National Party lawmaker Kim Jang-soo.

One radar was reportedly failed by a power supply breakdown in March; a 2nd by an IFF system breakdown in March, followed by a frequency generator breakdown in June; and a 3rd by a broken compressor in April. Part of the problem is that the “SAM-X” project is still in early deployment stages, with just under 10% of the required 32,149 Patriot system parts in stock from Germany, and no proper maintenance float program in place yet. South Korea hopes to import replacement parts for the broken down systems by the end of 2011, allowing them to put the Patriot PAC-2 system into operation by early 2012 as planned.

Why spares matter

Sept 19/11: Support. Raytheon in Andover, MA receives an $8.4 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to fix and replace Patriot missile systems assemblies and sub-assemblies.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Oct 14/12. One bid was solicited, with one bid received by the Directorate of Contracting at Letterkenny Army Depot, Chambersburg, PA (W911N2-09-D-0001).

Aug 30/11: Patriot spares umbrella. Raytheon in Andover, MA receives an initial $37.6 million delivery order for 15 additional NSNs (National Stock Numbers, individual items identified by a a 13-digit numeric code), that are being added to the basic firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract to support the Patriot Missile System.

Raytheon confirms that this is the new Patriot spares contract. The overall contract will run to May 1/14, and is managed by the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation at Redstone Arsenal, AL (SPRRA2-11-D-0012, PO 0001).

New Raytheon spares umbrella deal

Aug 3/11: Japan support. Raytheon in Andover, MA receives an $8.4 million firm-fixed-price cost-plus-fixed-fee contract from Japan for M818E3A fuzes, and upgrades of their existing Patriot missile M818E2 fuzes to M818E3A configuration. Though Japan does deploy PAC-3 systems among its air defenses, these fuzes are used in the larger PAC-2 missile.

Work will be performed in Lowell, MA, with an estimated completion date of Jan 31/14. One bid was solicited, with one bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0224).

June 21/11: Saudi order. Raytheon announces a $1.7 billion contract to upgrade Saudi Arabia’s MIM-104 PAC-2 Patriot batteries to Config 3 status. The Direct Commercial Sale (DCS) includes ground-system hardware, a full training package and support equipment upgrades. As noted above, PAC-3 hit-to-kill missiles are made by Lockheed Martin, and improved Raytheon PAC-2 GEM-T missiles can also be part of a Config 3 system. Reports thus far have been silent on the Saudis’ chosen missile path.

Because the Saudis chose a DCS contract, instead of a Foreign Military Sale contract process, they will manage it themselves. Subject to customary U.S. DCS regulatory approvals, work under this contract will be performed by Raytheon at the Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA and in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s air defense network relies on MIM-23 I-Hawk and MIM-104 Patriot PAC-2 batteries, concentrated around key sites within the kingdom. Since their initial 1990, Patriot order, they are believed to have received 21 Patriot batteries, and to field 11 operational batteries at 15 prepared, hardened sites. They are joined by 10 operational I-Hawk batteries; advanced MIM-23K/J Hawk variants have some ballistic missile defense capability, but all Hawk missiles have shorter ranges than Patriot, and the exact variant fielded by Saudi Arabia is not certain. Raytheon | Saudi Arabia’s Arab News | US-Saudi Arabian Business Council | IMINT on the Saudi SAM Network.

Major Saudi upgrade

June 20/11: Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives an $18 million firm-fixed-price contract, with some cost-plus-fixed-fee contract line item numbers. It covers FY 2011 U.S. Patriot capability production: 5 launcher mod kits, ground support equipment, and a parts library.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Lufkin, TX; and Ocala, FL, with an estimated completion date of July 30/14 (W31P4Q-11-C-0001).

June 7/11: Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Andover, MA receives a $6.8 million contract, for 10,500 antenna elements used in the Patriot missile system. Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of May 25/14. One bid was solicited, with one bid received by the U.S. Army Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, PA (W911N2-11-C-0021).

June 3/11: UAE support. Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $17.6 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the integration support of Post Deployment Build-7 software in the UAE’s PAC-3 Ground System Engagement Control System.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX, and White Sands Missile Range, NM, with an estimated completion date of May 31/14. One bid was solicited, with one bid received by the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-07-G-0001).

May 27/11: Sub-contractors. Boeing announces a $274 million firm fixed price sub-contract from Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, to produce more than 300 seekers for PAC-3 missiles.

This is Boeing’s 9th consecutive PAC-3 seeker production award, and the largest PAC-3 contract received by Boeing to date.

May 4/11: PAC-3 MSE test. Raytheon’s Patriot system successfully test fires Lockheed Martin’s enhanced PAC-3 MSE missile at White Sands Missile Range, NM. This is another step forward for the MEADS development program. It also shows that the missile can be incorporated into existing Patriot systems, as an upgrade that stops short of full MEADS capabilities. Raytheon.

May 2/11: Support. Raytheon announces a $15.7 million contract to provide material and technical services in support of the Patriot Missile Field Surveillance Program. This is a follow-on to the 3-year contract awarded in January 2008, and this one runs through 2013. Raytheon IDS VP for Patriot programs, Sanjay Kapoor:

“This work supports all Patriot customers, U.S. and our 11 international partners, who have selected the combat-proven Patriot… The Field Surveillance Program is a key part of Raytheon’s commitment to ensuring system performance…”

Work will be performed at Raytheon’s Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA; at Raytheon IDS Headquarters in Tewksbury, MA; at Raytheon Technical Services Company in Burlington, MA, and at Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, PA.

April 26/11: CTR. Raytheon announces a $58.3 million contract to upgrade 131 PAC-2 missiles to the PAC-2 GEM-T configuration.

This is a follow-on contract as part of AMCOM’s Patriot missile continuous technology refreshment program, which was initiated in 2000.

April 21/11: FY 2011 order. Lockheed Martin announces a set of contracts totaling $1.06 billion from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command. It covers the USA’s FY 2011 PAC-3 missile production, as well as follow-on sales to international partners. The contracts include PAC-3 missile production, launcher modification kits, spares and other equipment, as well as program management and engineering services. Production of all equipment will take place at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities in Dallas and Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA; Ocala, FL; and the PAC-3 All-Up Round facility in Camden, AR.

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on the PAC-3 Missile Segment upgrade, which consists of the PAC-3 Missile, a highly agile hit-to-kill interceptor, the launcher’s 4 PAC-3 Missile canisters (which each hold four PAC-3 Missiles, instead of 1 PAC-2), a fire solution computer and an enhanced launcher electronics system.

FY 2011 PAC-3

March 3/11: Motor redesign. Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $7 million incremental-funding, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to eliminate obsolete materials in the PAC-3 and PAC-3 MSE solid rocket motor, in support of the United States and Taiwan.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX, with an estimated completion date of June 30/14. One bid was solicited with one bid received (W31P4Q-07-G-0001).

March 2/11: Support. Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, for Patriot PAC-3 Missile Support Center work that includes technical and consumable material support, planning, management, failure analysis, quality reliability assessment, maintenance of the Certified Round Data Management system, and maintenance support.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX; Camden, AZ; and Lufkin, AR, with an estimated completion date of Jan 31/12. One bid was solicited with one bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0180).

Feb 21/11: UAE Industrial. UAE’s The National reports on Raytheon’s industrial offset commitments, which are attached to the UAE’s 2008 Patriot missile buy (vid. Dec 17/08 entry). The firm is waiting for the UAE’s Offset Program Bureau to approve 2 new facilities:

• A joint venture with Abu Dhabi Ship Building to build an intermediate level maintenance facility for missiles used by the UAE Navy, incl. Raytheon’s RIM-116 RAM and RIM-162 ESSM ship defense missiles

• A 3 way joint-partnership with Lockheed Martin and Emirates Advanced Investment’s Global Aerospace Logistics, to build a consolidated maintenance facility for Patriot missiles. Since The UAE ordered both PAC-2 GEM and PAC-3 missiles, both Lockheed and Raytheon need to participate.

The latter facility could quickly become a regional asset, speeding maintenance turnaround for Patriot missiles bought by nearby Arab states.

Feb 1/11: UAE. Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives an $18.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for PAC-3 software modernization development on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX, with an estimated completion date of Aug 31/13 (W31P4Q-07-G-0001).

Jan 24/11: Kuwait order. Raytheon announces a $145 million production contract from Kuwait, for Patriot GEM-T missiles. The new missiles will work with Kuwait’s upgraded Configuration-3 radar systems, and that upgrade work is already underway at Raytheon. See also Aug 11/10 entry.

Kuwait – GEM-T missiles

Dec 28/10: Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $209.1 million firm-fixed-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for 58 tactical Patriot (PAC-3) missiles; 5 launcher mod kits; ground support equipment; and contractor field support.

Work will be completed in Grand Prairie, TX; Camden, AR; Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA; and Ocala, FL, with an estimated completion date of July 30/14. One bid was solicited with one bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0001).

PAC-3s

Dec 28/10: CTR. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA received a $58.3 million firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, to upgrade 131 PAC-2 missile forebodies to GEM+ status.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of March 31/14. One bid was solicited with one bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0072).

Dec 20/10: Support. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA receives a $20.1 million firm-fixed-price/cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for support of Foreign Military Sales. Raytheon will provide advice and assistance in all areas of the Patriot air defense system, associated equipment, and logistics support.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, and will run until Dec 31/15. One bid was solicited with one bid received (W31P4Q-11-C-0112).

Dec 10/10: Japan. Kyodo News reports that Japan’s 5-year National Defense Program Guideline (NDPG) may involve deploying PAC-3 interceptor missiles at air bases nationwide.

Kyodo cited government and defense officials as saying the missiles will be deployed on ships as well as air bases, but that’s almost certainly a mistake. At sea, Japan is an active participant in the Standard Missile 3 program, and has already conducted successful SM-3 test firings from its Kongo class AEGIS destroyers. Reuters.

Oct 22/10: Support. A $7.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to repair and recapitalize Patriot missile system assemblies and sub-assemblies. Work is to be performed at Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Oct 14/12. One bid was solicited and one received by the Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, PA (W911N2-09-D-0001).

Oct 19/10: Sub-contractors. Raytheon announces an agreement with Aselsan of Ankara, Turkey to co-develop of the antenna mast group for the UAE’s PATRIOT Configuration-3 systems. Raytheon.

FY 2010

Major order from Taiwan; Annual buy; Export requests from Kuwait, Taiwan; Control station improvements unveiled; JLENS aerostat integration; PAC-2 GEM missile #1,000 produced; MEADS cancellation likely to extend PATRIOT. Launcher w. PAC-3s
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Sept 21/10: ECS MAP. Raytheon in Andover, MA receives a $16.3 million firm-fixed-price contract for Patriot MAP upgrade kits, with an estimated completion date of Dec 31/13. In response to questions, Raytheon said that the Modern Adjunct Processor used in the engagement control stations of new-build Patriot systems offers improved memory and speed, and will be required in order to host future revisions to the Patriot tactical software. Hence the importance of a command station upgrade track as well.

Work is to be performed at El Segundo, CA, and Andover, MA. One bid was solicited, with one received (W31P4Q-10-C-0301, Serial #1932).

Sept 20/10: GEM-T #1,000. Raytheon celebrates its 1,000th Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical (GEM-T) upgrade for the U.S. Army, a modernized PAC-2 missile with better capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles, and refreshed electronics. GEM-T missile upgrades are still ongoing, and are performed at Raytheon’s Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA.

The firm also celebrates its progress as a result of 6 Sigma and Lean manufacturing principles, including cutting manufacturing cycle time in half, resulting in 77 consecutive months of on or ahead-of-schedule deliveries.

PAC-2 GEM-T #1,000

Sept 15/10: JLENS. Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $7.1 million firm-fixed-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for “PAC-3 Integrated Fire Control.” Lockheed Martin representative confirmed that this contract is “for integration of the PAC-3 Missile Segment with the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS), which is scheduled to run a live-fire test involving a PATRIOT missile in 2012.

Work is to be performed at Grand Prairie, TX; White Sands Missile Range, NM; and Chelmsford, MA, with an estimated completion date of Aug 30/12. One bid was solicited with one received (W31P4Q-10-C-0304; Serial #1936). See also FBO solicitation.

Sept 13/10: US & Taiwan. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Dallas & Grand Prairie, TX received a $7.8 million firm-fixed-fee and cost-plus-fixed fee contract for PAC-3 FY 2010 subset efforts to include the following: United States enhanced launcher electronics system kit cables; Taiwan control interface circuit card assembly redesign; Taiwan power and control circuit card assembly redesign; Taiwan missile test set; Taiwan portable four-pack test set; Taiwan seeker digital processor parts; United Arab Emirates (UAE) portable 4-pack test set; UAE guidance processor unit redesign – tooling and test equipment.

The estimated completion date is Oct 31/12, with work to be performed at Dallas, TX (95.74%), Camden, AZ (0.25%), and Ocala, FL (4.01%). One bid was solicited and one bid received (W31P4Q-10-C-0002).

Aug 11/10: Kuwait request. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announces [PDF] Kuwait’s formal request to buy 209 MIM-104E PATRIOT GEM-T Missiles, for an estimated cost of up to $900 million.

The GEM-T missiles use the PAC-2 missile body and configuration, but have warhead and guidance upgrades that make them more effective against ballistic missiles. The prime contractor will be Raytheon Corporation in Tewksbury, MA. See also Arabian Aerospace.

DSCA: Kuwait GEM-T missile request

July 20/10: New MMS. At the 2010 Farnborough International Airshow, Raytheon shows visitors its new state-of-the-art Patriot modern man station (MMS) control station, with its touch-screen display, color graphical user interface, and improved ergonomics. Raytheon.

June 1/10: Kuwait & Taiwan. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA receives a $21.3 million firm-fixed-price contract, covering spares for Taiwan’s PAC-3 configuration upgrade, and for Kuwait’s Patriot radar upgrade.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of June 30/13. One bid was solicited with one bid received (W31P4Q-09-G-0002).

April 30/10: Taiwan. BAE Systems in Sealy, TX received a $5.6 million firm-fixed-price contract for 8 of its M1086A1P2 and 9 of its M1A096A1P2 Patriot vehicles with Patriot kits installed for the country of Taiwan, as well as 7 M1088A1P2 FMTV tractor-trucks, for a total of 24 vehicles purchased with this modification. Work is to be performed in Sealy, TX, with an estimated completion date of Dec 31/10. One bid was solicited with one bid received by the TACOM Contracting Center in Warren, MI (W56HZV-08-C-0460).

Taiwan appears to have chosen FMTV medium trucks, as opposed to the Oshkosh HEMTT heavy trucks used by the US Army. While Oshkosh will own the next FMTV medium truck contract as well, BAE Systems retains the rights to key variants, and are the only production source for FMTV vehicles at this point.

Taiwan – trucks

April 30/10: Support. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA received a $13.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Patriot on-site depot level diagnostic, fault isolation, clean and repair capability beyond the capabilities of battalion and intermediate support units. This includes depot level clean-up, repair, and maintenance of PATRIOT major items, including services required to return and maintain PATRIOT major items deployed in Southwest Asia, Germany, Korea, and locations inside the contiguous United States to maximize operational readiness.

Work is to be performed in Korea (39.1%); Qatar (5.7%); Germany (14.0%); El Paso, TX (18.6%); Killeen, TX (2.5%); Fayetteville, NC (1.8%); Lawton, OK (1.8%); Andover, MA (7.0%); Japan (4.5%); and Kuwait (4.9%), with an estimated completion date of June 16/11. One bid was solicited with one bid received (W31P4Q-06-C-0352).

April 9/10: Kuwait. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA received a $16.7 million firm-fixed-price contract for Kuwait Patriot Radar upgrade spares, including fabrication, production, testing, and delivery. Work is to be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Aug 31/12. One bid was solicited with one bid received by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-09-G-0002).

March 9/10: MEADS endangered. The Washington Post reports that the US Army wants to cancel MEADS, the intended follow-on system to Patriot that uses a modified PAC-3 missile:

“After several failed attempts, the Army is trying again to cancel a $19 billion missile defense system that the United States is developing in partnership with Italy and Germany… the Army says MEADS has become too expensive, is taking too long to produce and is difficult to manage because any changes in the program require German and Italian approval. “The system will not meet U.S. requirements or address the current and emerging threat without extensive and costly modifications,” an internal Army staff memo concluded last month in recommending the cancellation of MEADS… Officials said a primary reason for sticking with the project is that it would be too expensive to stop. If the Defense Department were to cancel the system now, it would be required to pay $550 million to $1 billion in penalties… [and could] undercut the Pentagon’s relations with Germany and Italy, which need to replace their own aging missile defense systems… The Army is scheduled to decide this week whether it will continue to oversee the development of MEADS or hand over responsibility to the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency.”

Defense News reports that the meeting, involving senior Army officers and the US Missile Defense Agency, produced no resolution concerning the potential transfer of MEADS to the US MDA. Instead, senior officials from both organizations reportedly agreed that follow-up questions needed to be answered, and additional analysis was needed first.

March 17/10: Support. Raytheon Company announces an $11.9 million award to provide material and technical services in support of the Patriot Missile Field Surveillance program. It modifies a 3-year award, under which Raytheon offers routine services to support the manufacture, assembly and testing of Patriot missiles through 2010. See also Apr 13/07 entry. Raytheon release.

Feb 24/10: To Poland. In the wake of a December 2009 agreement between the USA and Poland, the PAP news agency reports that an American Patriot battery will be headed into Poland:

“The Defense Ministry expects the first stage of the stationing of a Patriot air-defense battery and a 100-man service team to get under way in the [northern] town of Morag at the turn of April [2010].”

Jan 29/10: Taiwan request. The US DSCA announces [PDF] Taiwan’s official request to complete its Patriot upgrade plans, adding PAC-3 missiles and additional command equipment.

• 114 PATRIOT Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles
  
• 26 M902 Launching Stations
  
• 3 AN/MPQ-65 Radar Sets
  
• 1 AN/MSQ-133 Information and Coordination Center
  
• 1 Tactical Command Station
  
• 3 AN/MSQ-132 Engagement Control Stations
  
• 3 Communication Relay Groups
  
• 5 Antenna Mast Groups
  
• 1 Electronic Power Plant III (EPP)
  
• Plus battery and battalion maintenance equipment, prime movers, generators, electrical power units, trailers, communication equipment
  
• Also personnel training and equipment, tool and test sets, spare and repair parts, publications and technical documentation, Quality Assurance Team support services, and U.S. Government and contractor support.

The estimated cost is $2.81 billion, and the principal contractors will be Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MA, and Lockheed-Martin in Dallas, TX. “The recipient, which already has PAC-3 missiles in its inventory, will have no difficulty absorbing these missiles… Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government and contractor representatives.” See also Dec 23/09, Oct 16/09, Jan 26/09, and Oct 3/08 entries.

DSCA: Taiwan PAC-3 request

Jan 26/10: UAE order. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX a $44.9 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for 16 PAC-3 launcher modification kits, and 16 PAC-3 motor control units, from the UAE.

Work is to be performed in Dallas, TX (82.8%), Camden, AR (0.2%), Lufkin, TX (10.9%), Ocala, FL (6.1%). One bid was solicited with one bid received by U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-09-C-0002).

UAE PAC-3

Jan 6/10: PAC-3. Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX receives a $968.7 million firm-fixed-price contract for the FY 2010 PAC-3 missile buy. It includes 253 tactical missiles, 5 test missiles, 20 launcher modification kits, 15 motor control units, 13 fire solution computers, 13 programmable array logic systems, 13 shorting plugs, 6 telemetry kits, and 1 lot each of the following: United States storage and aging, replenishment spares, obsolescence; United States/United Arab Emirates/Taiwan basic missile tooling upgrades, command and launch control tooling; United Arab Emirates unique cost; Taiwan unique cost; Taiwan spares, ground support equipment; German concurrent spares; and United States contractor field support and data items.

Work is to be performed in Dallas, TX (88.7%); Camden, AR (4.0%); Lufkin, TX (2.4%); Chelmsford, MA (3.5%); and Ocala, FL (1.4%), with an estimated completion date of Oct 31/12. One bid was solicited with one bid received by U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-10-C-0002).

FY 2010 PAC-3

Dec 29/09: CTR. Raytheon in Andover, MA received a $58.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract to upgrade 124 PAC-2 missile forebodies to the PAC-2 GEM-T/GEM+ standard. Work is to be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of March 31/12. One bid was solicited with one bid received by U.S. Army Contracting Command’s Aviation and Missile Command Contracting Center in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-10-C-0132). Raytheon release.

Dec 23/09: Taiwan order. Raytheon announces Foreign Military Sales contract awards totaling $1.1 billion to fund new production of Patriot Air and Missile Defense System for Taiwan. The awards include ground-system hardware through an initial contract valued at $965.6 million, and an initial spares contract valued at $134.4 million.

See the Oct 3/08 DSCA release; this is the contract for the radars, ground stations, and other ancillary equipment besides the missiles themselves. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL manages this contract for new-production Patriot fire units, which will include new advances in technology, improved man-machine interfaces, and (hopefully) reduced life-cycle costs over earlier generations.

Major Taiwan order

Nov 16/09: Kuwait support. The USA’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency announces [PDF] Kuwait’s official request to purchase 4 years of Patriot sustainment, including repair/return programs, associated spare parts, modification kits, equipment, Liaison Office Support Services, and US government and contractor support worth approximately $410 million.

The principal contractor will be Raytheon Corporation in Tewksbury, MA. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

DSCA: Kuwait support request

Oct 16/09: Raytheon in Andover, MA receives a $77.9 million firm-fixed-price contract for Taiwan’s Patriot hardware upgrade program. Work is to be performed in Andover, MA (8%), and Burlington, MA (15%), with an estimated completion date of June 30/15. One bid was solicited with one bid received (W31P4Q-09-G-0001).

See also the Jan 26/09 and April 23/08 entries, below, and the Feb 22/08 engineering services contact, above.

Taiwan

Oct 6/09: Support. Raytheon announces a $64 million performance-based contract to establish and maintain inventory levels for select Patriot parts. Work under this contract will be performed by Raytheon IDS at the Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA, with support from Raytheon Technical Services Company locations in El Paso, TX and Norfolk, VA.

This sole-source, firm-fixed-price contract from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) at Redstone Arsenal, AL is a follow-on. Under the previous contract, Raytheon says that it increased parts availability by up to 40%, decreased response time for soldier requests, and reduced the overall inventory of parts required. Raytheon intends to drive further improvements in all 3 categories.

FY 2009

Annual order makes UAE a new customer; Kuwait begins ground system upgrades; Export requests from Taiwan, Turkey, UAE; South Korea starts receiving German PAC-2s. PAC-2 launch
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Sept 9/09: Turkey request. The US DSCA announces [PDF] Turkey’s official request for up to $7.8 billion worth of Patriot-related equipment. Note that this comes in the midst of its international competitions for medium (T-MALADMIS) and long-range (T-LORAMIDS) air defense systems (see April 29/09 entry); as such, this request is about assuring access to all elements of the offer, rather than indicating Turkey’s choice.

If Patriot does win, the principal contractors would be Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MA, and Lockheed-Martin in Dallas, TX. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale. The order could include up to:

• 13 Patriot Fire Units
  
• 72 Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles
  
• 4 PAC-3 Lot Validation Missiles
  
• 197 MIM-104E Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missiles-T (PAC-2 GEM-T)
  
• 4 MIM-104E GEM-T Lot Validation Missiles
  
• 5 Patriot Digital Missiles
  
• 5 Anti-Tactical Missiles
  
• 13 AN/MPQ-65 Radar Sets
  
• 13 Battery Command Posts
  
• 13 Engagement Control Stations
  
• 4 Tactical Command Systems
  
• 6 Communication Relay Groups
  
• 8 AN/USQ-140V2c (RT-1785) or AN/USQ-140V11c MIDS/LVT-2 Link-16 terminals for a shared battlespace picture
  
• 48 M902 Launching Stations
  
• 52 Antenna Mast Groups
  
• 13 Electronic Power Plant III (EPP)
  
• 100 THALES 9310C Very High Frequency (VHF) Voice Radios
  
• 150 THALES 9310C VHF Data Radios
  
• Plus containers, battery and battalion maintenance equipment, prime movers, generators, electrical power units, personnel training and training equipment, trailers, communication equipment, tool and test sets, spare and repair parts, publications and technical documentation, and U.S. Government and contractor support services.

The DSCA notes that Turkey has not previously purchased PAC-3 missiles, but believes it will be able to absorb and effectively utilize these missiles. Support would include 26 contractor representatives in Turkey for training for a period of 24 months, major item repair for approximately 12 months, and several U.S. Government representatives who will participate in program management and technical reviews in Turkey for 2-week intervals twice annually.

DSCA: Turkey PAC-3 request

June 29/09: Kuwait order. Raytheon announces a $36.1 million Foreign Military Sales award to provide Kuwait with PAC-3 radar upgrade depot test equipment, training, and related technical services.

This depot test equipment contract complements a June 27/08 order placed with Raytheon to upgrade Kuwait’s Patriot system to Configuration-3. The June 2008 order covers the upgrades, while this order adds the equipment and services needed to maintain the upgraded equipment. Work under this contract will be done at 3 Raytheon centers in Massachusetts – Raytheon IDS headquarters in Tewksbury, the Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, and the Surveillance and Sensors Center in Sudbury; as well as at the Seapower Capability Center in Portsmouth, RI.

Kuwait – Config-3 support

May 20/09: Support. An $8.8 million firm-fixed-price contract for 3 Patriot missile depot test equipment upgrades, and new depot test equipment, including installation and training.

Raytheon is performing the work at the following MA facilities: Andover (50%), Tewksbury (20%), Sudbury (20%), and Burlington (10%), with an estimated completion date of June 08/15. Only one bid was solicited and received by U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-09-C-0321).

May 6/09: Pure Fleet. Raytheon announces a $115 million contract to upgrade 4 additional U.S. Army Patriot batteries to Configuration-3 status, via enhancements to its ground components and radar. The contract option supports the USA’s “Grow the Army” initiative, and will equip an additional Patriot battalion with the PAC-3 system.

May 1/09: Support. Raytheon announces an additional $9 million modification, under a 3-year contract previously awarded to Raytheon in January 2008. This brings the total value of the contract to $45 million, with the potential for additional funding through 2010. Work involves technical services like missile testing, data analysis, and spares. Work will be performed by Raytheon’s Integrated Air Defense Center, Andover, MA; at Raytheon Technical Services Company in Burlington, MA; and at various overseas locations.

The contract also provides funding for Raytheon to move Patriot maintenance operations and test equipment from Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, TX to Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, PA. That move was prompted by the 2005 BRAC(Base Relignment and Closure) process and plans.

April 29/09: UAE & Turkey. Raytheon names Roket Sanayii ve Ticaret A.S (Roketsan) of Ankara, Turkey as the sub-contractor who will integrate and test the control actuation system for the UAE’s Patriot GEM-T missiles. Roketsan will work with subcontractors throughout Turkey and the United States, coordinating and perform the major assembly work at its Ankara facility. The Raytheon release adds that:

“Roketsan is Raytheon’s first major trans-Atlantic supplier strategically located to support the 11 countries in Europe and Asia, including several in the Middle East, that have chosen Patriot as a key component of their air and missile defense programs.”

What it doesn’t add is that Turkey is preparing several competitions for surface to air missiles, which will include a number of Patriot competitors. A March 21/09 RFI from the Turkish SSM will by 3 medium-altitude air defense missile systems (T-MALADMIS) for the Land Forces, with responses due by June 29/09. Meanwhile, announced competitors for the SSM’s long-range air and missile defense systems (T-LORAMIDS) RFI for missile capable of ballistic missile defense include Boeing/IAI (Arrow), Lockheed Martin/ Raytheon (PAC-3), China’s CPMIEC (HQ-9, derivative of S-300), and local companies including Aselsan, FNSS and Roketsan.

April 27/09: Support. Raytheon in Andover, MA received a $14.8 million cost plus fixed-fee and cost reimbursable contract for an on-site depot level diagnostic, fault isolation, clean up, repair, and maintenance of Patriot-related items that are beyond the capability of the battery, battalion, and intermediate support units. It includes services required to return, and maintain, these items on deployment in Southwest Asia (SWA), Germany, Korea, and the USA, to maximum operations readiness.

Work is to be performed in Korea; Qatar; Germany; Japan; Kuwait; El Paso, TX; Killeen, TX; Fayetteville, NC; Lawton, OK; and Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of June 16/10. One bid was solicited and one bid received by the U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W32P4Q-06-C-0352).

April 7/09: PATRIOT AAM? Flight International reports that Lockheed is proposing a $137 million program to adapt its Patriot PAC-3 surface-to-air missiles for use on the USAF’s F-15C Eagle air superiority fighters. The missiles would reportedly be used to help the fighters kill ballistic missiles during the boost phase or mid-course phase, instead of hoping for a Patriot’s usual final phase intercept.

March 5/09: Support. Raytheon announces an $11 million option under a 3-year January 2008 contract to support Patriot missile facilities. A total of $35.5 million have now been awarded under this contract, with the potential for additional options through 2010.

Discussions with Raytheon reveal that the contract number is (W31P4Q-08-C-0025), which corresponds to the Feb 1/08 entry below.

March 2/09: Kuwait order. A $71.6 firm-fixed-price Letter Contract Modification contract to buy, install, and test 6 Radar Enhancement Phase 3 and Classification, Discrimination, and Identification Phase 3 modification kits for Kuwait’s Patriot radars.

Work is to be performed at Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Oct 30/12. One bid was solicited and one bid received by the Aviation and Missile Command Contracting Center at Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-07-C-0151). This is part of Kuwait’s effort to upgrade its own systems to PAC-3 capability; see Dec 4/07 entry.

Kuwait – Radar upgrades

Feb 24/09: Pure Fleet. A $9.2 million firm-fixed-price contract for Patriot Pure Fleet Lot XII Add on Items. “Pure fleet” is the American program to bring all of its batteries up to PAC-3/ Config-3 capability.

Work is to be performed at Andover, MA with an estimated completion date of Feb 28/10. One bid was solicited and one bid received by the U.S. Army Contracting Command’s Aviation & Missile Command Contracting Center in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-07-C-0151).

Feb 9/09: UAE request. Raytheon announces a $246 million Foreign Military Sales contract from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for Patriot system spares. The firm fixed price contract that is initially funded at $123 million, which represents the first delivery order awarded under a 5-year agreement for Patriot system spares. See Dec 17/08 for the main contract.

Work will be performed by Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems at its headquarters in Tewksbury, MA; its Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA; the Surveillance and Sensors Center in Sudbury, MA; and the Seapower Capability Center in Portsmouth, RI. The contract will be managed by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, AL.

UAE – PAC-3 Spares

Jan 26/09: Taiwan order. Raytheon announces a $154 million Foreign Military Sales contract to upgrade Taiwan’s Patriot Air and Missile Defense Systems from Configuration-2 to Config-3 standard, enhancing its ability to deal with targets like China’s growing array of ballistic missiles pointed at the island. See also the April 23/08 entry, below, and the Feb 22/08 engineering services contact, above.

Work under this contract will be performed by Raytheon IDS at the Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA; the Warfighter Protection Center in Huntsville, AL; the Mission Capability and Verification Center at White Sands, NM, and by Raytheon Technical Services Company in El Paso, TX.

Taiwan – Config-3 Upgrades

PAC-3 in flight
(click to view full)

Dec 24/08: FY 2009 order. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX received a $774.8 million firm-fixed-price (FFP) and cost plus fixed fee (CPFF) contract for the FY 2009 production buy of PAC-3 missiles. These orders include missile production for the U.S. Army as well as the first sale of the PAC-3 Missile Segment to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who joins the Netherlands, Germany and Japan as PAC-3 version customers. Lockheed Martin expects in excess of $1.8 billion in PAC-3 Missile-related business over the life of the initial UAE program.

The DefenseLINK announcement says that the order is for 188 Missiles, plus associated work like tooling, maintenance of the parts library, storage and aging services, interim contractor depot support, and spares. Lockheed Martin’s release states 172 hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missiles, 42 launcher modification kits, plus other services as mentioned.

FY 2009 PAC-3

Work is to be performed at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities in Grand Prairie and Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA; Orlando and Ocala, FL; and the PAC-3 All-Up Round facility in Camden, AR. Deliveries on the contracts will be completed by July 2011. One bid was solicited and one bid received (W31P4Q-09-C-0002). Lockheed Martin release.

Dec 19/08: Support. An $8.3 million cost plus fixed fee contract for U.S. PATRIOT new equipment training within and beyond the continental USA. Work is expected to be complete by Dec 14/11. One bid was solicited from the OEM on July 2/08 (W31P4Q-09-D-0001).

Dec 17/08: Big UAE order. Raytheon receives a not-to-exceed $3.3 billion order for Patriot Config-3 systems, including Patriot GEM-T and Lockheed PAC-3 missiles, whole life support, and training.

Raytheon and teammate Lockheed Martin have worked with the U.S. and UAE governments during the past year to develop this agreement. The initial request was for up to 9 full fire units, with a stated maximum value of $9 billion. See “Gulf States Requesting ABM-Capable Systems,” and the Sept 9/08 order, for more background.

Raytheon established its first office in the UAE in 1983, and began delivery and support of the medium range Hawk Air Defense System to the UAE in 1987. The Hawk has also been upgraded to have limited ABM capabilities, but the addition of Patriot 3 systems represents a major advance in capability for the UAE. Raytheon multimedia release.

UAE – PAC-3

Oct 3/08: Taiwan. Taiwan issues a series of DSCA-cleared official requests to buy $6.363 billion of equipment, thanks to Congress’ extended session. All export requests are listed in DSCA releases as being “…consistent with United States law and policy as expressed in Public Law 96-8. The U.S. is committed to providing military assistance under the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act.” Purchase requests include Patriot PAC-3 systems [PDF]:

• 330 PATRIOT Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles
  
• 24 Launching Stations
  
• 4 AN/MPQ-65 Radar Sets
  
• 2 Tactical Command Stations
  
• 2 Information and Coordination Centrals
  
• 12 Antenna Mast Groups
  
• 6 Communication Replay Groups
  
• 4 Engagement Control Stations
  
• 282 Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) (115 AN/VRC-88E, 96 AN/VRC-90E, 13 AN/VRC-91E, and 58 AN/VRC-92E) radios
  
• 9 Electronic Power Plant III (EPP)
  
• 50 Multifunctional Information Distribution Systems (MIDS, provides Link 16 data sharing)
  
• Plus battery and battalion maintenance equipment, vehicles, generators, electrical power units, personnel training and equipment, trailers, communication equipment, tool and test sets, spare and repair parts, publications, supply support Quality Assurance Team support services, U.S. Government and contractor engineering and logistics services, technical documentation, and other related elements of logistics support.

See also their Nov 9/07 request re: upgrading its Patriot PAC-2 batteries to be PAC-3 compatible. The estimated cost of this request is $3.1 billion, and the prime contractors will be Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MA and Lockheed-Martin in Dallas, TX. Taiwan has not previously purchased PAC-3 missiles, but they do use PAC-2s. They will require several U.S. Government representatives for 2-week intervals twice annually, to participate in program management and technical reviews.

DSCA: Taiwan PAC-3 request

Nov 28/08: South Korea. The South Korean Air Force formally receives the first shipment of Patriot missiles from Germany, after a series of performance tests since their delivery in August 2008.

The shipment is reportedly part of a EUR 551 million (about $710 million) second-hand deal signed in September 2007. The Patriot missiles will replace the country’s outdated Nike air defense missiles. They will be deployed by 2012, after 2 years of trial operation. Deutsche Welle.

Nov 21/08: CTR. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA receives a $77.4 million firm-fixed fee price contract. It exercises an option for the ongoing “technology refreshment” of 166 Patriot PAC-2 missile forebodies to Guidance Enhanced Missile Plus (GEM+) standard.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, with an estimated completion date of Aug 30/11. One bid was solicited and one bid was received by US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (DAAH01-00-D-004).

Oct 10/08: PAC-3 re-cert. Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX received a $5.4 million firm-fixed-price contract to support re-certification of 72 baseline PAC-3 missiles during each of the fiscal years of 2009 and 2010 (144 tl.), and 1 Lot of consumable material to support re-certification of 24 baseline PAC-3 missile during FY 2009.

A weapon’s certification for use does not last forever. Recertification is important to assure the Army that stored missiles remain fully operational, and will perform to standard if needed. Work will be performed in Huntsville, AL and will end on Sept 30/10 (W31P4Q-06-C-0180).

Oct 2/08: Pure Fleet. Lockheed Martin Corp. of Grand Prairie, TX received a $9 million firm fixed price contract on Sept 26/08, for add-on items to the Patriot Pure Fleet. Since Lockheed makes the PAC-3 missiles, the items are likely to be related. The work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX and will be complete by Feb 28/10 (DAAH01-03-C-0164).

FY 2008

South Korea buys German missiles, and new ground systems for “SAM-X”; Export requests from Israel, Kuwait, South Korea, Taiwan, UAE; Saudi support contract; Japanese PAC-3 test; Israel evaluates “Sniper” EO addition; Deployment in Poland. PAC-3, labeled
(click to view full)

Sept 30/08: Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA received a $11.3 million firm fixed price contract for 1,201 Patriot thread rings, part number 10272350. Work will be performed in Killeen, TX with an estimated completion date of May 31/11. One bid was solicited and one bid was received (W31P4Q-07-C-0159).

Sept 26/08: Pure Fleet. A $77.5 million firm-fixed-fee price contract for Patriot “Pure Fleet” conversion equipment. Work will be performed in Andover, MA with an estimated completion date of April 30/11. One bid was solicited and one bid was received (W31P4Q-07-C-0151).

Sept 17/08: Japan test. Members of the Japanese Self Defense Force conduct a successful interception of a tactical ballistic missile target (usually a Lance rocket) at White Sands Missile Range, NM, USA. They used the Patriot PAC-3 system, whose missiles are license-produced in Japan for the JASDF.

The PAC-3 system will provide the point defense component of Japan’s missile defense shield, while the jointly-developed SM-3 Standard Block IA naval missile provides wider theater-level coverage. Lockheed Martin release.

Sept 9/08: Israel Config-3. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announces [PDF] Israel’s official request to enhance 3 of its existing Patriot fire units to Config-3 status, while using the PAC-2 GEM+ missile. The request includes 3 Patriot System Configuration 3 Modification kits, which will upgrade 3 PATRIOT fire units to Radar Enhancement Phase 3 (REP-3) and Classification, Discrimination and Identification Phase 3 (CDI-3). The sale will also include communication support equipment, tools and test equipment, integration and checkout, spares and repair parts, installation and training, publications and technical documents, and other forms of support.

The estimated cost is $164 million, the contractor is Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MA, and Israel won’t need any US government or contractor representatives to help with the upgrades.

DSCA: Israel Config-3 request

Sept 9/08: UAE. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announces [PDF] the United Arab Emirates’s official request for 4 Patriot PAC-3 missiles with containers, 19 MIM-104D Patriot Guided Enhanced Missiles-T (GEM-T) missiles with containers, 5 Anti-Tactical Missiles, and 5 Patriot Digital Missiles. These missiles are for lot validation and testing of the PAC-3 missiles notified for sale in the $9 billion Dec 4/07 request noted below, which would equip 9 full fire units.

The estimated cost of this sale is $121 million, as it also includes AN/GRC-245 Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS Export), Power generation equipment, an Electric power plant, Trailers, Communication and support equipment, plus other related elements of support.

The principal contractors are the Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MA; and Lockheed-Martin in Dallas, TX (PAC-3 missiles). The purchaser intends to request industrial offsets, but these will be negotiated with each contractor. An in-country field office will likely be manned by 1-4 U.S. Government personnel who will remain in country for an undetermined length of time, and 65 contractor personnel are expected to be in country for an extended period for training purposes.

UAE – Test equipment

Aug 25/08: Poland. The US State Department announces a missile defense agreement with Poland, which includes the deployment of an American Patriot PAC-3 battery in country:

“We also talk about the desire of the United States and Poland to pursue cooperation involving air and missile defense cooperation. The United States is prepared, and we commit in this document to deployment of a U.S. Army Patriot battery in Poland. We’ll begin those deployments once, of course, we reach the necessary agreements with the Poles, and that could begin next year. And then we set the goal of establishing a garrison for the U.S. Army Patriot battery in Poland by the year of 2012.”

The battery will be redeployed from another location, and many analysts believe it will be removed from Germany. See: US Department of State briefing | Stars and Stripes | RIA Novosti, Russia | UPI.

Aug 6/08: Israel’s PATRIOT + Sniper. David Eshel reports that Israel is evaluating an electro-optical add-on system called “Sniper” that can scan for, find, and magnify targets out to the Patriot missile’s full range.

As Eshel explains, many surface-air missiles cannot take advantage of their range right now, because rules of engagement will not allow them to be fired without positive identification. IFF (Identification, Friend or Foe) technology is supposed to provide that, but it is not 100% reliable. This has led to “blue on blue” kills in the past, which have helped create the current restrictions.

July 15/08: South Korea. The second part of South Korea’s Patriot missile buy has now come through. Germany will be selling 64 Patriot PAC-2 missiles to Korea. Then, a joint venture between Raytheon and German MBDA subsidiary LFK called COMLOG will manage upgrades to PAC-2 GEM-T configuration, to give the missiles some anti-ballistic missile capabilities, and greater effectiveness against UAVs.

COMLOG has now issued a $38.5 million contract to Raytheon for this work, and Raytheon’s same-day release re: Kuwait places the total value of South Korea’s Patriot-related orders at $269 million so far. Raytheon release.

ROK buys missiles from Germany

June 27/08: Raytheon Integrated Defense in Andover, MA receives a $76.5 million firm fixed price / cost-plus-fixed-fee, level of effort contract to upgrade 6 Patriot Radar Sets to PAC-3-Kuwait configuration. Work will be performed at Raytheon’s Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA; its Warfighter Protection Center in Huntsville, AL; and their Mission Capability and Verification Center in White Sands, NM; with an expected completion date of July 31/13. One bid was solicited with 1 bid received (W31P4Q-07-C-0151).

This contract is related to the Dec 4/07 DSCA request; Raytheon’s July 15/08 release refers to it as a $156 million contract, which indicates that the DefenseLINK announcement covered the 50% initial payment, with the rest to follow. It also notes that the Kuwaiti upgrades are very similar to the upgrades the US Army is implementing under its “Pure Fleet” initiative.

A 2009 release later reports the value of this contract as $148 million.

Kuwait – Config-3

May 5/08: Raytheon – Integrated Defense Systems in Andover, MA received a $68.6 million firm-fixed price and cost-plus-fixed fee contract for “PATRIOT tactical assets.” Work will be performed in Andover, MA and is expected to be complete by Apr. 30, 2010. One bid was solicited on Dec 20/06 (W31P4Q-07-C-0151).

April 23/08: Raytheon announces a $79 million Foreign Military Sales award from the U.S. Army to provide Taiwan with Patriot Configuration-3 radar upgrade kits and related engineering and technical services. This is part of a much larger order; see Nov 9/07 entry for more.

Work will be performed by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems at the Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA; the Warfighter Protection Center in Huntsville, AL; and the Mission Capability and Verification Center in White Sands, NM.

Taiwan – Config-3

March 31/08: ROK. A $118.1 million firm-fixed-price contract for the design, development, fabrication, production, training, integration, testing and delivery of PATRIOT hardware for the Republic of Korea Air Force. The firm will provide command and control, communications, maintenance support, and training equipment for Patriot systems. See Feb 4/08 entry.

Work will be performed in Andover, MA and is expected to be complete by Dec 31/10. One bid was solicited on Feb 26/08 (W31P4Q-08-C-0288). See also Raytheon’s April 22/08 release, which places the total value of the effort at $241 million.

South Korea

Feb 4/08: SAM-X. Raytheon has announced an initial contract (amount undisclosed) for preliminary planning efforts aimed at integrating Patriot Fire Units into South Korea’s national command and control structure. This work is in preparation for a Foreign Military Sale of the Patriot air and missile defense system to South Korea under its $1.2-1.6 billion SAM-X program. Raytheon says that it expects significant follow-on awards to complete the system integration and to provide command and control, communications and maintenance support equipment, as well as the training of Korean operators and maintainers and technical assistance to the deployed systems.

Under SAM-X, up to 48 fire systems of Patriot PAC-3 missiles would replace South Korea’s aged Nike missiles; Raytheon has been the only contender since Russia’s Rosvoorouzhenie (S-300/SA-20) dropped out of the race in 2000. While the S-300 has longer range, that isn’t South Korea’s priority. The capital city of Seoul contains 25% of the country’s population, and is within range of at least 11,000 short-range missiles and artillery tubes on the other side of the Demilitarized Zone. South Korea’s Defense Ministry had originally planned to award the SAM-X contract to Raytheon by the end of 2001, but the negotiation broke up over funding approval, and price and the payments timetable issues. An attempt was made in 2007 to buy second-hand Patriot PAC-2 systems from Germany, and there are reports that this is still the plan – missiles and launchers from Germany, electronics and integration from Raytheon.

South Korea: Work on SAM-X begins

Jan 31/08: Support. An $11.4 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract for services in support of the Patriot Missile Support Center. Work will be performed in Andover, MA, and is expected to be complete by Jan 31/11. One bid was solicited on Dec 20/06, and 1 bid was received (W31P4Q-08-C-0025).

The contract was issued on Jan 31/08, so Raytheon’s March 5/09 release is correct in its timing. Subsequent discussions with Raytheon also place this contract’s value at $24.1 million, rather than $11.4 million.

Dec 19/07: Pure Fleet. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX received a $71.4 million firm-fixed-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a PAC-3 Fiscal Year FY 2008 production buy for pure fleet requirements. This involves supplying PAC-3 missiles, 4-box launchers, et. al. for retrofit onto Patriot PAC-2 systems, which are having their other components upgraded to PAC-3 status.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX and is expected to be complete by May 31/10. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was 1 bid solicited on Nov 24/06, and 1 bid was received (W31P4Q-06-C-0180).

Lockheed Martin’s Jan 8/08 release says that the Dec 18-19/07 contracts include production of 148 hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missiles, 17 launcher modification kits, spares and other equipment, as well as program management and engineering services. Production of all equipment will take place at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities in Dallas and Lufkin, TX; Chelmsford, MA; Ocala, FL; and the PAC-3 All-Up Round facility in Camden, AR. Deliveries on the contracts will be completed by July 2010.

Dec 18/07: Lockheed Martin Corp Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX received a $485.1 million firm-fixed price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles and associated systems. Note that this would be a FY 2008 order, and is likely to be an order for the full year’s planned procurement of 108 missiles and associated systems.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX and is expected to be completed by July 31/10. There was 1 bid solicited on Nov 24/06, and 1 bid was received (W31P4Q-06-C-0180).

FY 2008 PAC-3

Dec 14/07: Pure Fleet. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Andover, MA received a $155 million firm-fixed-price contract for Patriot “Pure Fleet” tactical assets. In English, they will upgrade additional tactical Patriot fire units from PAC-2 to PAC-3 standard, in order to meet current and emerging threats. Exact numbers were not mentioned by DefenseLINK, but a Feb 13/08 Raytheon release put the number at 8 Patriot fire units (includes radars, control stations, and launcher sets).

Work will be performed in Andover, MA, and is expected to be complete by Apr. 30, 2010. There was one bid solicited on Dec. 20, 2006, and one bid was received (W31P4Q-07-C-0151).

Dec 11/07: GEM-T. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA received a $66.9 million firm-fixed-price contract for “Patriot PAC-2 frequency generator upgrades.” A Feb 13/08 Raytheon release described the work as “152 Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical (GEM-T) upgrades, the second of two large orders received in 2007 for GEM-T. The award increases the total number of GEM-T missiles ordered to 952 since program inception for a total contract value of $430 million.”

Work will be performed in Andover, MA and is expected to be complete by July 31/10. There was one bid solicited on June 30/99, and one bid was received by the US Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (DAAH01-00-D-0004).

Dec 4/07: UAE. The United Arab Emirates moves to become a Patriot missile customer, officially requesting 9 full fire units with all equipment, plus 288 PAC-3 missiles, 216 PAC-2 GEM-T missiles, and support. The bill? Up to $9 billion.

See “Gulf States Requesting ABM-Capable Systems” for full details.

DSCA: UAE PAC-3/GEM-T request

Dec 4/07: The US DSCA announces Kuwait’s formal request to upgrade its Patriot systems to PAC-3 capability, upgrading 6 radar sets, bringing 60 PAC-2 missiles to GEM-T standard, adding 80 PAC-3 missiles, and more. The entire contract would be worth up to $1.363 billion. See “Gulf States Requesting ABM-Capable Systems” for full details.

DSCA: Kuwait PAC-3 upgrade request

Nov 9/07: The US DSCA announces [PDF] Taiwan’s formal request to upgrade and refurbish their 3 existing PATRIOT fire units’ ground support equipment to the latest Army Configuration 3 under a $939 million contract. Raytheon Corporation in Andover, MA will be the prime contractor, and the effect of the sale will be to add Patriot PAC-3 radar and communications enhancements to Taiwan’s existing Patriot batteries, turning them into a PAC-2 GEM-T type configuration in use by other US allies.

• 2 PATRIOT, MIM-104 (Patriot-As-A-Target)
  
• Radar Enhancement Phase 3 (REP-3)
  
• Classification, Discrimination and Identification Phase 3 (CDI-3)
  
• Remote Launch Communication Enhancement Upgrade (RLCEU)
  
• An Electric Power Plant.
  
• 36 AN/VRC-88E SINCGARS EXP Vehicle Short Range Radio Systems
  
• 32 AN/VRC-90E SINCGARS EXP Vehicle Long Range Radio Systems
  
• 4 AN/VRC-91E SINCGARS EXP Long Range Radio Systems
  
• 11 AN/VRC-92E SINCGARS EXP Dual Range Radio Systems

It also includes non-MDE (Military Designated Equipment under US Arms transfer laws) items such as all necessary modification kits, communication support equipment, tools and test equipment, integration and checkout, spares and repair parts, installation and training, publications and technical documents, U.S. Government and contractor technical assistance, other related elements of logistics and program support, and 4 telemetry kits for its live fire training.

DSCA: Taiwan Config-3 request

Oct 9/07: Dutch delivery. Lockheed Martin announces that it has delivered the first PAC-3 Missiles to government and military representatives of The Netherlands, during a ceremony held at its manufacturing facility in Camden, AR.

The Netherlands became the first international customer to buy the PAC-3 Missile in 2005, when it purchased missiles through a Foreign Military Sales contract with the U.S. government.

Oct 8/07: Pure Fleet Raytheon announces a $150 million U.S. Army contract to begin the Patriot “Pure Fleet” modernization program bringing all Army Patriot equipment to state-of-the-art PAC-3 status. “Pure Fleet” is the result of the Army’s decision in February 2006 to upgrade additional tactical Patriot fire units to the Config-3 standard, in order to meet current and emerging threats.

The new contract calls for Raytheon to provide hardware upgrades to 4 Patriot radars, engagement control stations and launchers as well as enhanced logistics capability through support to a common configuration. The initial contract provides for the upgrade of 1 battalion, consisting of 4 fire units, and work will be performed at Raytheon’s Integrated Air Defense Center, Andover, MA.

Oct 3/07: Saudi Arabia. Raytheon announces 2 contracts from The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia totaling more than $100 million. The awarded contracts include a multi-year contract to Raytheon to continue to provide technical, training and logistics support from 2007-2009 inclusive for the Kingdom’s Patriot and Hawk surface-air missile systems. The other is a contract extension to provide local support services for 2007. Raytheon release.

FY 2007

US Buys; Kuwait’s 4-year support contract; 500th PAC-3 missile delivered. Patriot PAC-2
(click to view full)

Aug 16/07: #500. A Lockheed Martin release celebrates their recent delivery of the 500th PAC-3 missile to the US military.

PAC-3 #500 to USA

April 24/07: Support. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA received an $11.5 million modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-reimbursable contract for an on-site depot level diagnostic, fault isolation, clean-up, and repair capability for the PATRIOT weapon system major items.

Work will be performed in Korea (39.1%), El Paso, TX (18.6%), Germany (14%), Killeen, TX (2.5%), Fayetteville, NC (1.8%), Lawton, OK (1.8%), Andover, MA (7%), Japan (4.6%), and Kuwait (4.9%), and is expected to be complete by June 16, 2010. This was a sole source contract initiated on Dec. 15, 2005 by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-06-C-0352).

April 13/07: Support. Raytheon announces contract modifications totaling $13 million from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command to continue to provide technical and material support of the Patriot Missile Field Surveillance program in the United States and at overseas locations. The facilities under contract process Patriot PAC-2 and Guidance Enhanced Missile-T (GEM-T) missiles for stockpile reliability testing, recertification and repair in support of the Patriot Field Surveillance program. The program is an international cooperative effort, in which foreign partners fund and benefit from common support. International partners include Germany, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, Kuwait, Taiwan, Greece, and Spain.

The contract modifications, which include options for up to $12 million, call for Raytheon to provide technical personnel and material to support the processing of Patriot missile rounds and the operation of the Patriot missile facilities, missile assembly/disassembly facilities and the Patriot missile transmitter facility. The modifications exercise $13 million in options for 2007 against the basic 2005-2006 contract award, that now totals $43 million. Raytheon release.

April 4/07: Support. Walton Construction Co. LLC in Kansas City, MO received a $13.5 million modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for FY07 PATRIOT engineering services. See this corporate list of projects for a better idea of their usual expertise.

Work will be performed in Burlington, MA (3.95%), Huntsville, AL (8.09%), Andover, MA (9.82%), Tewksbury, MA (76.44%), El Paso, TX (1.67%), and Norfolk, VA (0.03%), and is expected to be complete by Jan. 9, 2009. This was a sole source contract initiated on Aug. 26, 2003 by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-04-C-0020).

This exact amount, contract number, and workshare is identical to the April 3, 2007 Raytheon award in all respects, so this may be a mistake. DID is treating it as one for the purposes of our FY 2007 calculations.

March 19/07: Lockheed Martin received a $376 million contract for hardware and services associated with the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) Missile program. The contract includes production of 112 hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missiles per the FY 2007 budget, launcher modification kits, spares and other equipment, as well as program management and engineering services.

Production of all equipment will take place at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities in Dallas and Lufkin, TX, and the PAC-3 All-Up Round facility in Camden, AR. See Lockheed Martin release.

FY 2007 PAC-3

March 12/07: Pure Fleet. Raytheon announces a $38.6 million US Army contract for test equipment upgrades and engineering as the first step in the upgrade of three Patriot battalions (12 fire units) from PAC-2 to the PAC-3 configuration. The intent of the so-called “Pure Fleet” effort is to upgrade Patriot fire units for the Army’s worldwide requirements, providing all fielded units with Patriot configuration-3 capability.

The initial work includes software and hardware upgrades to Patriot test stations, and engineering to address obsolescence in the factory and key suppliers (i.e. components that are no longer manufactured). The work will be performed at Raytheon’s Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA. Raytheon release.

March 1/07: Raytheon received an $18 million operation and maintenance support contract from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command to provide Kuwait with Patriot system technical assistance. The firm will provide support to Kuwaiti operational and maintenance personnel at fire unit locations, and also at the depot in Kuwait. This program is a 4-year follow-on Foreign Military Sale award to continue a program that has been in place under various awards since 1996. Raytheon release.

Kuwait is also upgrading its Spada anti-aircraft missile systems to Spada 2000 configuration, a move that will offers these less advanced weapons similar range to Kuwait’s Patriots.

Kuwait – 4-year support

Feb 2/07: Support. Raytheon in Andover, MA received a $10.5 million modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Patriot (PAC-2) Missile Support Center. Work will be performed in Andover, MA and is expected to be complete by Jan. 31, 2008. This was a sole source contract initiated on Nov 9/04 (W31P4Q-05-C-0033).

Feb 2/07: Support. Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX received a $5.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Patriot PAC-3 Missile support services, Field Surveillance Program. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX and is expected to be complete by Jan 31/10. This was a sole source contract initiated on July 3/06 (W31P4Q-07-C-0135).

Feb 1/07: CTR. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA received a delivery order amount of $59.6 million as part of a $257.4 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for continuous technology refreshment of Patriot PAC-2 Forebodies to Guidance Enhanced Missile Plus (GEM+) Frequency Generator upgrade. Work will be performed in Andover, MA and is expected to be complete by April 30/09. This was a sole source contract initiated on June 30/99 (DAAH01-00-D-0004).

See our April 3/06 contract coverage. This would be the 12th delivery order for GEM+ upgrades. Raytheon release.

Jan 18/07: Upgrades abroad? As the 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Regiment deploys to Kuwait to accompany the USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group, the Boston Globe reports that Raytheon has been talking to 9 foreign customers about upgrading their existing Patriot systems. They would be upgrading from various versions of the larger, fragmentation warhead PAC-2, to the “hit to kill” Patriot PAC-3 system with more anti-missile capability.

Countries named by Raytheon executives included Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, Japan, and Taiwan. Raytheon also revealed that they are in discussions with several potential new customers, including Turkey and South Korea. See also Raytheon’s pointer, and the full Boston Globe article.

Dec 27/06: Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX received a $376.9 million modification to a firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Patriot PAC-3 FY 2007 production effort.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX (53.6%), Lufkin, TX (2.6%), Camden, AR (4.4%), Huntsville, AL (28%), Chelmsford, MA (4.5%), Clearwater, FL (1%), and Atlanta, GA (5.9%), and is expected to be complete by July 31, 2009. This was a sole source contract initiated on March 24, 2006 (W31P4Q-06-C-0180).

FY 2007 PAC-3

Dec 27/06: Kuwait. Raytheon Southeast Asia Systems Co. in Andover, MA received an $18.1 million modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for technical assistance for the Kuwaiti Patriot missile system. Work will be performed in Kuwait, and is expected to be completed by Jan. 2, 2011. This was a sole source contract initiated on June 30, 2006 (W31P4Q-06-C-0232).

FY 2006

US orders; Export requests from Germany Japan, South Korea; Deployment to Japan; GEM+ missile BMD test. PAC-3 development
(click for video)

Sept 29/06: Support. Raytheon Co. in West Andover, MA received a delivery order amount of $223.6 million as part of a $600.3 million firm-fixed-price contract to buy new spares for the Patriot Missile System. Work will be performed in West Andover, MA and is expected to be complete by Sept 30/09. This was a sole source contract initiated on Sept. 3/03 (W31P4Q-05-D-0029).

Sept 29/06: The US DSCA (Defense Security Cooperation Agency) notifies Congress of Japan’s request for 16 PAC-3 sets (each cannister contains 4 missiles, so 64 total missiles) plus support equipment, modification kits, publications, spare and repair parts, U.S. Government and contractor technical assistance and other related elements of logistics support. The estimated cost is $144 million.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Dallas, TX is the prime contractor, and implementation will involve up to 2 U.S. Government representatives and up to 8 contractor representatives in Japan for two weeks following delivery. See full DSCA release [PDF].

DSCA: Japan PAC-3 request

Sept 28/06: The US DSCA notifies Congress of South Korea’s request for up to $1.5 billion worth of SINCGARS and Patriot missile system support equipment as well as associated equipment and services.

In addition to a request for 58 AN/VRC-90E ITT Long-Range Radio System SINCGARS(Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System) vehicular systems, Korea is requesting two (2) 30 KW Electric Power Unit II, Patriot missile system support equipment including spare and repair parts, Information Coordination Centrals, maintenance equipment, transporters, calibration support, tools and test equipment, modification kits, system integration and check out, devices, documentation, personnel training and training equipment, technical support, and other related elements of logistics support.

Korea needs this surface-to-air equipment to continue the upgrade of its air defense capabilities, and implementation of this proposed sale will involve up to 24 U.S. Government and contractor representatives for up to 2 years to participate in training, maintenance, program management and technical reviews in Korea. See full DSCA release [PDF].

DSCA: South Korea request

Sept 6/06: Germany has requested a possible sale of 72 PAC-3 CRI (cost reduction initiative) missiles, and 12 each of Missile Round Trainers, support equipment sets, modification kits, publications, spare and repair parts, and other related elements of logistics support. The estimated cost if all options are exercised is $298 million.

Germany already operates Patriot missiles, and requires no technical or contractor assistance. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Dallas, TX is the contractor for the missiles et. al. See DSCA release [PDF format].

DSCA: DSCA: Germany PAC-3 request

Sept 6/06: Support. A delivery order amount of $135.1 million as part of a $376.7 million firm-fixed-price contract for new spares to support and maintain the Patriot Missile System. Work will be performed in Andover, MA and is expected to be complete by Sept 30/09. This was a sole source contract initiated on Sept 3/03 (W31P4Q-05-D-0029).

August 24/06: Japan. Associated Press reports that the USA has offered Japan up to 80 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to boost its defenses following North Korea’s missile tests last month. Note that the report was very unclear re: the distinction between missiles and Patriot systems. Quoting NHK, AP noted that instead of deploying an unspecified number of locally produced missiles in 2008 or 2009, the missiles would be US-made and delivered to a Japanese military base in March 2007.

Japan’s Defense Agency will reportedly ask for an extra $100 million in the 2007 budget (219 billion yen or $1.87 billion for missile defense, up from 140 billion yen this year) to buy the missiles while local production gears up, in addition to the anticipated $1.88 billion Kyodo reported as the likely request for development and deployment of missile defenses. Kyodo adds that a supplementary budget will also be requested to speed up the deployment of the Patriot PAC-3 missiles.

June 30/06: Support. A $7.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-reimbursable contract for on-site depot level diagnostic, fault isolation, clean-up, and repair capability for the Patriot weapon system.

Work will be performed in Korea (19.14%), Germany (8.76%), Tacoma, WA (10.39%), Qatar (9.79%), Killeen, TX (15.14%), Lawton, OK (7.05%), El Paso, TX (17.88%), Fayetteville, NC (8.68%), and Andover, MA (3.17%), and is expected to be complete by June 16/10. Contract This was a sole source contract initiated on Dec 15/05 (W31P4Q-06-C-0352).

June 26/06: To Japan. AP reports that the U.S. military will deploy 3-4 Patriot PAC-3 batteries on the southern island of Okinawa by the end of 2006, and sending 500-600 additional U.S. troops. In related news, testing of the USA’s X-Band ABM radar at its new location in JASDF Shariki at Tsugaru, 360 miles northeast of Tokyo, has been moved ahead by several weeks. In addition, a previously negotiated agreement to expand cooperation on a joint ballistic missile defense shield and joint production of interceptor missiles was formally signed.

The moves come as North Korea prepares to test-fire a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile at a launch site on its northeastern coast. See Military.com for more details.

June 5/06: Testing. Raytheon’s Patriot PAC-2 Guidance Enhanced Missiles (GEM+) destroys 2 surrogate ballistic missile targets, highlighting a successful test flight at White Sands Missile Range, NM. This was the first of four development flight tests to be conducted by the Army’s Patriot Lower Tier Project Office using Raytheon’s newly developed Patriot system post deployment build-6 (PDB-6) software.

Many foreign militaries use the PAC-2 version, so these upgrades offer the potential for an immediate capability boost. See details in corporate release.

April 19/06: Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX received a $379.8 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for 112 PAC-3 missiles, launcher mod kits, parts library, storage and aging, missile and midsection audits, interim contractor depot support, PALS FSC, shorting plugs, test set cables, concurrent spares, and replenishment spares for the PATIROT PAC-3. The PAC-3 Missile Segment upgrade consists of the PAC-3 Missile, the PAC-3 Missile canister (which holds four PAC-3 missiles), a Fire Solution Computer and an Enhanced Launcher Electronics System.

Work on this contract will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX (53.6%), Lufkin, TX (2.6%), Camden, AR (4.4%), Huntsville, AL (28%), Chelmsford, MA (4.5%), Clearwater, FL (1%), and Atlanta, GA (5.9%), and is expected to be complete by July 31, 2008. This was a sole source contract initiated on March 31, 2005 by the Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-06-C-0180). See also: Lockheed Martin May 4/06 release. /p>

FY 2006 PAC-3

April 3/06: CTR. Raytheon Co. in Andover, MA received a delivery order amount of $46.9 million as part of a firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the “Continuous Technology Refreshment of Patriot PAC-2 Forebodies to GEM+ Frequency Generator Upgrade.” Raytheon reports that this is the eleventh delivery order awarded for GEM+ upgrades, for a total contract value of $256 million. This was a sole source contract initiated on June 30/99 (DAAH01-00-D-0004).

GEM+ missiles are essentially PAC-2 interceptors that have been refurbished, modernized, and integrated with the PAC-3 system of radars, et. al. Since the program’s inception in 2000, Raytheon has received awards for 770 GEM+ upgrades and has delivered 515 consistently on or ahead of schedule, with the remainder on track for delivery in 2006 and 2007. Work will be performed in Andover, MA, and is expected to be complete by Aug 31/08. See also Raytheon press release.

April 3/06: Support. Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX received a $6.1 million increment as part of a $36.4 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Development and Maintenance of a PAC-3 Missile Support Center. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX and is expected to be complete by Jan. 31, 2007. This was a sole source contract initiated on Dec. 13, 2005 by the Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-04-C-0125).

March 21/06: Lockheed Martin Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX received a $250.1 million modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for production of PATRIOT PAC-3 missiles.

Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, TX (87%), Chelmsford, MA (7%), Camden, AR (4%), and Lufkin, TX (2%), and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2010. This was a sole source contract initiated on May 27, 2004 by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-05-C-0051).

FY 2006 PAC-3

Feb 2/06: Support. Raytheon in Andover, MA received a $13.5 million modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Patriot (PAC-2) Missile Support Center. Work will be performed in Andover, MA and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2008. This was a sole source contract initiated on Nov 9/04 (W31P4Q-05-C-0033). This 2-year award follows exactly one year after the original $7.1 million contract was issued for CY (calendar year) 2005.

Dec 1/05: Industrial. Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems in Redondo Beach, CA received a $6.9 million cost-plus-fixed-fee R&D contract to develop and demonstrate a wafer-scale assembly (WSA) process for a batch fabricated SMART three-dimensional cell that will enable affordable, scalable, high performance architectures for millimeter-wave arrays.

Solicitation began March 2005, and 7 proposals were received. Negotiations were complete November 2005, and work will be complete by October 2007. The Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH manages contract. (FA8650-06-C-7600). The Patriot system uses this technology.

Additional Readings Background: Missiles

• Designation Systems – Raytheon MIM-104 Patriot.

• Raytheon, via WayBack – Patriot Data Sheet. Excellent resource for identifying the exact improvements made for each new version of the Patriot PAC-2 and ground systems. GEM-Ts are PAC-2s improved for use against ballistic missiles, for instance, while GEM-Cs are improved for use against cruise missiles.

• Designation Systems – Lockheed Martin Patriot PAC-3.

• Lockheed Martin – PAC-3 Missile.

• Lockheed Martin – PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE).

• GlobalSecurity.org – Patriot TMD.

Other PATRIOT Modifications

• DID – Getting More Value from Patriots: Israel’s Sniper EO Add-on. In practice, air defense units often require positive identification before they can fire. This Israeli system helps provide that, and can also lower the firing battery’s emissions signature.

• DID – Patriots for Eagles? Covers the ALHTK concept, which would mount PAC-3 derivative missiles on fighter jets for use as launch-phase missile interceptors.

News & Views

• DID – Alone, If Necessary: The Shield of Poland. Raytheon will offer PATRIOT Config-3 ground systems with PAC-3 MSE missiles, while MBDA & Lockheed will offer the successor MEADS system that developed the PAC-3 MSE.

• DID – Beyond Patriot? The Multinational MEADS Air Defense Program. PATRIOT’s intended successor. The US backed out, but Germany, Italy and Poland may carry it forward anyway.

• US DoD, via WayBack (Sept 17/09) – DoD News Briefing with Secretary Gates and Gen. Cartwright from the Pentagon. Cartwright cites a PAC-3 cost per-missile of $3.3 million, and compares it with other missile defense weapons like THAAD, SM-3, and GBI.