Before: AH-64A

Upgrades all the way to Block III?; Support contract. (Aug 2/11)

The United Arab Emirates is best known for its city of Dubai, an ultra-modern port city that has become the trading and commercial hub of the Middle East. As a May 2005 article in National Defense Magazine notes, however, it has also acquired a reputation for a strong and respected military procurement system.

One of their current initiatives involves the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters the country acquired in 1991 and 1994. The plan involves remanufacture and modernization of 30 AH-64A aircraft to the current AH-64D Longbow Block II standard. Deliveries to the UAE were scheduled to begin in May 2008 and continue through November 2009, with support activities continuing through November 2010. Ancillary equipment requests also come with that effort. DID presents a timeline that extends back to the original 2002 DSCA announcement…

AH-1Z: Hellfire test

The US military has been conducting a pair of competitions for defensive warning systems to equip its helicopters and transports. The Army’s CIRCM remains a hot competition as of July 2011, but the US Navy and Marines have picked their winner for the Joint and Allied Threat Awareness System (JATAS).

This missile and gunfire warning system will equip the services’ MV-22B Osprey, MH-60R/S Seahawk, AH-1Z Viper, UH-1Y Venom and CH-53K HLR platforms, replacing ATK’s AN/AAR-47 Missile Approach Warning System…

• JATAS and its Predecessors
• Contracts & Key Events
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

US UH-60M carries
Iraqi PM, 2007

June 24/11: The US DSCA announces [PDF] the United Arab Emirates’ formal request for 5 UH-60M Black Hawk VIP helicopters. The move will bring the UAE’s UH-60M fleet to 45 helicopters, which breaks down as at least 17 standard transports, up to 23 modified and armed AH-60M Battlehawks, and 5 VIP helicopters. It will also keep pace with Jordan’s monarchy, which recently bought a pair of UH-60M VIP machines. With nearby Bahrain as a UH-60M customer, and Saudi Arbia submitting a major buy request for the type, the UH-60M is quickly becoming the Gulf Cooperation Council’s referenceable standard.

The estimated cost is $217 million, but actual costs will depend on negotiated contracts. The complete request involves…

• UK Public Accounts Committee report cites GBP 3.5 billion in cost overruns for RAF Typhoon fighter program; MoD says program is “under control and back on track.”

• Republican US senators send letter to President Obama, opposing reported proposal giving Russia “red-button” sway over European missile defense shield, and sharing sensitive information about the program.

• Boeing Military Aircraft president Christopher M. Chadwick discusses India’s potential orders for 4 more P-8i sea control jets, and 10 C-17 heavy aerial transports.

• DARPA wants to explore the science of storytelling. Otherwise known as “Neurobiology of Narratives.”

• David Axe offers front-line descriptions of recent combat in Afghanistan.

• Recent NASA R&D funding involves new “magic skin” outer layers for composite airframe structures – incl. conductive film and energy-absorbing foams.

• L-3’s Platform Integration division gets approval to begin low-rate initial production of the ISR mission avionics suite for the US Navy’s EP-3E Spiral 3-configured electronic eavesdropping aircraft.

• Russian Navy floats out 3rd Steregushchy-class corvette (Boyky) from the St. Peterburg Severnaya Verf shipyard.

• UK completes Route Trident extension linking Lashkar Gah and Gereshk in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.

• General Atomics opens a UK division to support its British customer, who has received 6 MQ-9 Reapers and awaits the arrival of the other 4.

• GD NASSCO launches USNS William McLean (T-AKE 12) dry cargo/ammunition supply ship at its San Diego shipyard.

• US falls short on efforts to develop and acquire medical countermeasures for CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiation, and Nuclear) agents, says GAO [PDF]. As the Japanese are learning, those countermeasures can have civilian applications, too.

FAB F-5

April 11/11: Elbit Systems’ Brazilian subsidiary, AEL Sistemas S.A, announces a follow-on sub-contract from Embraer Defense and Security to upgrade another 11 F-5 fighters under the F-5BR program. This order would take the FAB’s upgraded F-5EM fleet to 57 aircraft, including 11 (8 F-5Es, 3 F-5Fs) bought from the Jordanian Air Force.

The current contract is valued at $85 million, and will be performed through 2013 as a follow-on to earlier 2001 and 2007 contracts. It will include engineering services and the delivery of all system equipment, including the mission computer, display systems, radar, EW(Electronic Warfare/countermeasures) system, ammunition management system and other avionics products. AEL will also supply a flight simulator, spares and ground support equipment. Elbit AEL | Embraer.

AEL avionics equip many of Brazil’s fighters and military aircraft. Elbit’s May 2008 investor filing with the SEC had this to say about their program history with Brazil’s F-5s:

Dutch CH-47D, Afghanistan

1st flight; Equipment clarifications; Software delays; Readiness rates. (Jan 25/11)

On Sept 27/06, the US DSCA (Defense Security Cooperation Agency) notified Congress of the Netherlands’ request for up to 9 of the newest CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopters in a country-specific CH-47F (NL) variant, complete with ACMS Block 6 cockpits and 18 T55-L-714A turbine engines. The Dutch were also looking to upgrade their 11 existing CH-47D Chinook Cargo Helicopters to the newer CH-47F configuration. If all options were exercised, the DSCA notification placed the contracts’ values at up to $652 million.

Early procurements are going to be a bit more modest, however:

• Dutch CH-47F-NLs [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings [NEW]
  Continue Reading… »

SOAR MH-60Gs
(click to view larger)

ITT’s AN/ALQ-211 SIFRC system [PDF] provides detection, analysis and protection against radar-guided threats, including triangulation and GPS geolocation of threats, advance warning that may enable a pilot to route around the threat, and cueing of countermeasures like chaff dispensers via integration with the CV-22’s entire self-protection suite. It’s a modular system with multiple sensors and electronic components installed all around a rotary-winged or fixed winged aircraft. Variants of the ALQ-211 SIFRC equip US AFSOCOM’s CV-22s (ALQ-211v2), as well helicopters like SOCOM MH-47s and MH-60s (ALQ-211v6/v7), some NH90s (ALQ-211v5), and AH-64D attack helicopters (ALQ-211v1). Foreign F-16 jet fighters also deploy the ALQ-211, most recently as the ALQ-211v4 AIDEWS integrated defensive system.

A 2005 contract from US Special Operations Command morphed into a much larger contract in 2008, and delivery orders continue…

Swiss F/A-18Cs

“F-18 Hornets: Keeping ‘Em Flying” details the efforts underway in a number of countries to extend the useful lifespans of their F/A-18 A-D Hornet fleets, from major structural replacements to capability upgrades.

Switzerland’s official December 2007 request [PDF] for equipment to extend the useful life of its 33 Swiss Luftwaffe F/A-18C/D fighters (26 F/A-18Cs, 7 F/A-18D 2-seat), via its F/A-18C/D Upgrade 25 Program, falls into this same category. Part of that program even included a successful trip to the USA, which allowed them to use American weapon ranges to test the integration of their new AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles with their existing Hornet fleet This phase of the “Upgrade 25” Program is worth up to $535 million. The request, subsequent political developments, and follow-on contracts include…

• Switzerland’s Upgrade 25
• Contracts & Key Events
  Continue Reading… »

• Breaking China’s monopoly: US DoD considers funding private US providers of rare earth metals used in high-tech weapons to break China’s near monopoly.

• London calling: UK, France expected to sign defense cooperation accord in London this week.

• US intelligence agencies’ spending reaches a record $80.1 billion in FY 2010.

• Helping hand: UK MoD’s Salvage and Marine Operations provides salvage and recovery assistance to Royal Navy vessels, and even two Russian Victor-class nuclear attack submarines.

• Testing the waters: Russia test-fires a RSM-54 Sineva SLBM from a Bryansk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, an RSM-50 SLBM from another nuclear submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk, and a land-based RT-2PM Topol ICBM from the northern Plesetsk launch pad.

• Research and Markets: South Korea’s defense spending is expected to reach $32 billion this year, up from $26 billion in 2009.

• Raytheon gets $14.8 million contract to supply dual pod countermeasure dispensers for the USMC’s CH-53 heavy lift helicopters.

• Rocky Mountain Instrument coughs up another $1 million related to the export of defense-related optics to China, Russia, and other nations without a license, this time for causing other defense contractors to commit fraud against the Pentagon.

Luftwaffe Challenger VIP

On Sept 30/10, the US DSCA announced [PDF] Germany’s official request to buy 6 AN/AAQ-24v Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures Systems (LAIRCM) defensive systems, to equip its 2 Airbus A319CJs, and 4 Bombardier Challenger 601 VIP jets. The estimated cost is $146 million, and the prime contractor will be the Northrop Grumman Corporation in Rolling Meadows, IL. Germany already uses LAIRCM systems on its transport fleet, so implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Germany.

If a contract is negotiated, the order could include up to 5 Control Interface Units, 4 System Processors, 32 AAR-54 Missile Warning Systems, and 8 Small Laser Transmitter Assemblies; plus Operation Flight Program software, installation support, some requested modifications, support equipment, spare and repair parts, publications and technical documents, repair and return, depot maintenance, training and training equipment, and other forms of U.S. Government and contractor support.