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Americas
- Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. has been awarded a firm-fixed-price delivery order in support of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. The order provides for the procurement of four aerial refueling retrofit kits and related support equipment in support of the aircraft. The contract is valued at $11,4 million. Northrop Grumman’s E-2C Hawkeye is a carrier-capable “mini-AWACS” aircraft, designed to give long-range warning of incoming aerial threats. Secondary roles include strike command and control, land and maritime surveillance, search and rescue, communications relay, and even civil air traffic control during emergencies.Work will be performed at various locations within the continental US, including St. Augustine Florida; Ronkonkoma, New York and Melbourne, Florida and is scheduled for completion by April 2019.
- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a cost-reimbursement modification to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The contract provides for exercising the second option to the 36-month contract for Phase 3 of DARPA’s Living Foundries: 1000 Molecules program. Current and emerging Department of Defense (DoD) capabilities rely on upon access to a number of critical, high-value molecules that are often prohibitively expensive. The Living Foundries program aims to enable adaptable, scalable, and on-demand production of such molecules by programming the fundamental metabolic processes of biological systems to generate a vast number of complex molecules that are not otherwise accessible, essentially transforming synthetic biomanufacturing into a predictable engineering practice supportive of a broad range of national security objectives. The program has three challenge areas: rapid, improved prototyping of known molecules; prototyping of known, but currently inaccessible, molecules; and prototyping of novel molecules.The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $32 million. Work will be mainly performed in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is scheduled for completion by April 2020.
- Lockheed Martin Corp. Missiles and Fire Control, Dallas, Texas has been awarded to separate contract modifications related to the THAAD interceptor program. The first contract modification provides for the production of additional THAAD Lot 10 interceptors and associated product support and is valued at $145.3 million. The second modification sees for the production of additional Missile Round Pallets-Transportable and is valued at $17.9 million. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system is a long-range, land-based theater defense weapon that acts as the upper tier of a basic 2-tiered defense against ballistic missiles. It’s designed to intercept missiles during late mid-course or final stage flight, flying at high altitudes within and even outside the atmosphere.Combined those modifications bring the total cumulative face value of the contract to $2.4 billion. Work will be performed at various locations including Dallas, Texas; Sunnyvale, California and Anniston, Alabama and is scheduled for completion by August and December 2021 respectively. The Missile Defense Agency is the contracting activity.
Middle East & Africa
- Turkey’s program for the design, development and production of the country’s first indigenous fighter jet is gaining pace. Late last month Turkey’s largest defense contractor Aselsan and Turkish Aerospace Industries signed a memorandum of understanding to share work on the TF-X program. Both companies will work to develop critical systems for the TF-X, including a national radar, electro-optical systems, mission-control systems and integration of these systems into the future aircraft. Earlier this year the Turkish government earmarked an initial investment of $1.2 billion. The next critical stage will be Ankara’s decision on the procurement of an engine for the fighter plane. Up to this date Turkey wanted to build the TF-X with know-how from BAE Systems. In January 2017, Britain and Turkey signed a deal worth more than $137 million to develop the Turkish fighter jet. However, in a surprise move the Russian defense conglomerate Rostec has voiced its interest in supplying those engines. This development may well cause further concern for other NATO members who view the increasing defense cooperation between Turkey and Russia in a critical manner. Turkey’s ambitious TF-X program currently awaits a critical presidential endorsement.
Europe
- The magazine Der Spiegel reports that the German Luftwaffe is currently facing problems keeping the ground readiness of its Eurofighter Typhoon fleet. According to the magazine the majority of the Luftwaffe’s 128 fighter planes is currently not cleared for conducting missions. Engineers are concerned about faulty wing-pods that could seriously impede the functionality of the plane’s self-protection system. Without this system the planes are not ready for conducting missions as part of its NATO obligations. The technicians managed to fix some issues with the pods but are unable to fix an issue with leaking cooling-fluid. The component issue, centers on a so-called “grease nipple” that is part of the system that cools the wingtip pods that house elements of the self-protection system, which was designed by BAE Systems. Supplies of the component have been restricted while the primary supplier, a U.S.-based company, is recertified after a change in its ownership. “We hope to get this problem under control in several weeks or months,” the Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Holger Neumann told a regular German government news conference. He declined to give any details about how many of Germany’s Eurofighters were affected by the spare parts logjam.
Asia-Pacific
- The Japanese government is currently debating the size of its P-1 maritime patrol aircraft fleet. The P-1 is developed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries as an indigenous replacement for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion’s. Japan’s Navy has so far taken delivery of 15 P-1s. Tokyo has yet to define its long-term spending plans, currently there are no follow up contracts in place, however it is possible that the government will acquire up to 58 additional planes, to fully replace its aged P-3C inventory. Japan sent two P-1s to Germany in late April for a debut appearance at the ILA Berlin air show, with one participating in the flying display and the other parked in the static area. “We have brought the aircraft here to promote Japan’s very high level of technology to the world,” the P-1 program managed Capt Ryota Ishida said during a press conference.
Today’s Video
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US naval shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls reported results from the first quarter of its 2018 financial year on 3 May, with figures showing swift growth of both revenues and operating income.
Sales reached USD1.87 billion in the three months ending 31 March, a rise of 8.7% year on year, while income
Belarus’ Minotor-Service automotive company has revealed details of its latest Vitim family of amphibious armoured vehicles designed for patrol, escort, and fire support missions.
The baseline Vitim 4x4 vehicle features a welded monocoque armoured hull, providing Level 2 STANAG 4569
The US Navy (USN) is continuing to work on changing the service’s training culture in order to better prepare its surface warfare officers (SWOs), crews and their ships in the wake of the service-wide reviews prompted by the recent spate of mishaps in the Western Pacific, Secretary Richard
The US Army is establishing a robotics centre of excellence at Fort Benning in Georgia, Edwin Davis, deputy director of the service’s Maneuver Battle Lab (MBL), announced at the Xponential 2018 conference in Denver, Colorado.
Davis said Fort Benning was chosen in part for its proximity to
The first US Navy (USN) Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to enter the Service-Life Modification (SLM) process ahead of the Block 3 enhancement programme arrived at the company’s St Louis production facility in Missouri in late April.
A twin-seat F/A-18F from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106
Excalibur Army, a subsidiary of the Czechoslovak Group, has developed the Tatra T815 Patriot – also known as the Medium Armoured Tactical Multi-Mission Vehicle (MATMMV) – with the first example currently undergoing company trials
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has submitted its two-ship bid to build the CVN 80 and CVN 81 Ford-class aircraft carriers at its Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Virginia and is now preparing to gear up its workforce for that work.
“We submitted our proposal this week to the
Key Points
The attack in Tripoli was the latest of a series of attacks mounted by Islamic State militants targeting election-related sites and individuals in a number of countries where the group has a presence, notably Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those attacks followed a 22 April audio message issued
Key Points
President Putin's fourth term in office is expected to herald changes to how Russia's defence sector is managed
Military modernisation has been a key tenet of the Putin Administration
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s swearing-in for an unprecedented fourth term in office on 7
US ammunition and rocket motor manufacturer Orbital ATK generated revenues of USD1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2018, a rise of almost 21% year-on-year, according to financial results published on 3 May.
The company’s operating income in the three months to 1 April also rose, reaching
The US Department of Defense (DoD) says it is certain recent laser attacks near Djibouti on US military aircraft were conducted by Chinese nationals and put US military personnel at risk.
“They are very serious incidents,” DoD spokesperson Dana White said during a 3 May press conference
German defence and automotive group Rheinmetall AG released financial results for the first quarter of 2018 on 4 May, with figures showing an annual decline in both sales and income. Total company revenue was EUR1.26 billion (USD1.5 billion) for the quarter, a fall of 6.6%, while earnings before
Freewave Technologies has unveiled its Zumlink 900 MHz ISM-band radio, designed for use in low-bandwidth environments, during the Xponential 2018 conference in Denver, Colorado.
The Zumlink is available in different bandwidths and has a fully enclosed module with a radio on an interface card with
Datron World Communications has introduced its latest handheld radio, the multi-band Spectre M HH3100.
The company has developed three variants: the HH3100V which covers the 30-88 MHz frequency range; the HH3100A covering 30-136 MHz; and the HH3100M covering 30-512 MHz.
The HH3100A, in particular,
Specialist video surveillance firm Digital Barriers has developed a new body-worn system to provide live, low-latency recording and streaming of video for the dismounted soldier or covert operator, which it displayed for the first time at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2018 exhibition in Kuala
Hanwha Defense Systems of South Korea has teamed with the Malaysian firm AVP Engineering to offer the 6x6 Tigon armoured personnel carrier (APC) for a potential Malaysian Army requirement.
The first example of the Tigon, which was completed early in 2018, is expected to undertake a limited number
A CIVILIAN was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED), emplaced by unidentified militants, detonated in the village of Kebeiba, near the town of Dibis, in Iraq's Kirkuk province on 2 May, Iraqi News reported. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Islamic State
The Indonesian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has facilitated an agreement between national finance company PT Askrindo and private-sector defence companies to support their development in national and international markets.
The MoD said on 3 May that through the agreement – signed by PT Askrindo
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