Turkey Orders 30 F-16C Block 50s etc. for $2.9B

TuAF F-16s

More than 200 F-16 aircraft currently make up the backbone of Turkey’s current fighter fleet. On Sept 28/06, the US DSCA (Defense Security Cooperation Agency) notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Turkey of 30 more F-16C Block 50 aircraft, as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $2.9 billion. This sale is in addition to Turkey’s billion-dollar upgrade program for its existing F-16 fleet, which aims to bring all of its aircraft to a common configuration.

Turkey is one of 5 countries that has built F-16s locally (USA, Belgium, Netherlands, South Korea, Turkey), and the final Turkish F-16 under this contract will be delivered in 2013. This article will cover the deal, as its component contracts and agreements come together.

US Modernizing its FPS-117 Surveillance Radars

Early brochure

The L-band, solid-state, 3-D AN/FPS-117 remains a very popular air surveillance radar around the globe, and can support both military and civilian functions. They’re designed for relatively good range and minimal maintenance, even in extremely harsh environments like northern Alaska and Greenland.

Lockheed Martin MS2 Radar Systems in Liverpool, NY has long since taken over from GE as the contractor who makes and maintains them, while the Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, UT handles contracts, with a goal of maintaining current system coverage until 2025…

Australia’s Troubled E-737 “Wedgetail” AWACS Program

E-737 Wedgetail
over New South Wales

The island continent of Australia faces a number of unique security challenges that stem from its geography. The continent may be separated from its neighbors by large expanses of ocean, but it also resides within a potential arc of instability, and has a number of important offshore resource sites to protect. Full awareness of what is going on around them, and the ability to push that awareness well offshore, are critical security requirements.

“Project Wedgetail” had 3 finalists, and the winner was a new variant of Boeing’s 737-700, fitted with an MESA (multirole electronically scanned array) radar from Northrop Grumman. That radar exchanges the traditional AWACS rotating dome for the E-737′s “top hat” stationary antenna. That design, and the project as a whole, have run into severe turbulence, creating problems for Boeing earnings, the ADF, and other export orders for the type. DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This one covers contracts, events, and key milestones within Australia’s E-737 program, from inception to the current day.

Gulf States Requesting ABM-Capable Systems

Patriot PAC-2

It’s becoming clear that Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have stepped up their defense spending in recent years. Uncertainty creates perceptions of risk, and perceptions of risk lead to responses aimed at reducing that risk. That’s why arms spending is an incomplete but very concrete way of tracking a state’s real assessment of threats and priorities. Iraq is no longer a missile/WMD threat, but Iran’s ballistic missiles are another matter. They may be based on North Korean designs that lack accuracy, but the prospect of nuclear payloads is producing reactions.

Gulf states recognize that even a lucky conventional missile could wreak havoc if it hit key oil-related infrastructure, or damaged the larger and more nebulous target of business confidence. The spread of nuclear weapons would change the calculus completely. A 2007 US National Intelligence Assessment [redacted NIE summary, PDF] believed that Iran’s nuclear program had stopped, but others, including the United Nations and Israel, were more skeptical. By 2010, that skepticism had spread to US intelligence, which repudiated an assessment that seems set to join the infamous 1962 NIE of no Soviet missiles in Cuba [1].

The Gulf states’ response to these developments covers a range of equipment, but anti-ballistic missile capabilities appear to be rising to the top of the priority list.

AMDR Competition: The USA’s Next Dual-Band Radar

DBR testbed, Wallops

The US Navy’s Dual-Band Radar that equips its forthcoming 14,500t Zumwalt class“destroyers” and Gerald R. Ford class super-carriers replaces several different radars with a single back-end. Merging Raytheon’s X-band SPY-3 with Lockheed Martin’s S-band VSR allows fewer radar antennas, faster response time, faster adaptation to new situations, one-step upgrades to the radar suite as a whole, and better utilization of the ship’s power, electronics, and bandwidth.

Rather than using the existing Dual-Band Radar design in new ships, however, the “Air and Missile Defense Radar” (AMDR) aimed to fulfill future CG (X)/ DG-51 Flight III cruiser needs through a new competition. It could end up being a big deal for the winning radar manufacturer, and for the fleet. If, and only if, the technical, power, and weight challenges can be mastered at an affordable price.

Radar Refits: F-15s Looking for the AESA Edge

Before: APG-63 MSA

Most F-15C Eagle air superiority fighters use APG-63 radars, passive arrays mounted on a movable swashplate. While upgrades over the years have improved them, a new generation of radar technologies has appeared. With cruise missile defense rising in importance, and longer-range detection desired, upgrades are necessary. That requires new radars, using AESA technologies that dramatically improve range, while reducing maintenance. The USAF has also discussed a retrofit set that would turn the F-15C Eagless into multi-role fighters, and a next-generation AESA radar would be part of that, too. Meanwhile, they’ve started a program to upgrade select F-15C units with AESA radars, as an air-air improvement.

Those F-15C units will now be joined by the USAF’s entire 2-seat, multi-role F-15E Strike Eagle fleet, whose future AESA radar has received some improvements, and a new designation.

ARCTEC Renewed for Alaska Radar Maintenance

The Alaska Radar System’s 17 remote radar sites (primarily AN/FPS-117 SEEK IGLOO and AN/FPS-124 SEEK FROST radars), serve aviation needs, and also act as the North Warning System for the USA. Upgrades are underway to keep FPS-117s running until 2025.

Keeping them running is a job for ARCTEC, who has also handled contracts related to the USA’s more advanced BMEWS and PAVE PAWS early warning radars, one of which is located at Clear Air Force Station, AK. This article covers ARS maintenance contract orders from the contract’s beginning in 2004 to its final period.

PAVE PAWS Radar Upgrades: Clear AFS Goes from Warning to BMD Targeting

Clear Air Force Station:
EWR is upper right

In fall 2012 The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and U.S. Air Force award Raytheon a $125.3 million contract to modernize and upgrade the US Air Force’s early warning radar (EWR) system at Clear AFS, AK. The existing phased array radar face will remain, but new electronics and back-end software will improve performance. The difference is not a small one – with the upgrades, the upgraded EWR (UEWR) can start providing targeting data to interceptor systems.

The US military is slowly stitching together its missile defense program…

BAE Supporting BMEWS Ballistic Missile Warning Radars to 2018

Fylingdales SSPARS

In September 2012, BAE Systems Technology Solution and Services, Rockville, MD received a 6-year, $49.2 million contract modification to manage, operate, maintain and logistically support the Solid State Phased Array Radar Systems (SSPARS). This array is also known as BMEWS, the ballistic missile early warning system of large radar installations developed during the Cold War. The radars themselves are about 11 stories tall, and excel at searching large volumes of sky that extend into space. Each has several transmitter faces, in order to provide wide coverage. BAE has a history of handling these support contracts, alongside firms like ARCTEC. This maintenance and support contract is expected to be complete by Sept 30/18. The 21st Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, CO, who provides missile warning and space control to NORAD and U.S. Strategic Command, manages this contract (FA2517-06-C-8001, PO 0312).

Work would be performed at Cape Cod Air Force Station, MA; Beale Air Force Base, CA

• ; Thule Air Base, Greenland*; Clear Air Force Station, AK, and Royal Air Force Fylingdales, United Kingdom*. Installations with an asterisk have received UEWR upgrades, which also allow them to be used as low-grade targeting radars for ballistic missile defenses. Alaska’s Clear AFS is next. See also BAE’s November 2012 release.

Morocco’s Air Force Reloads: F-16s all in

French Mirage F1s

Morocco’s combat air force currently flies 2 squadrons of old F-5 fighters, and 2 squadrons of only slightly newer Mirage F1s. T-37 light jets serve as high-end trainers. Their neighbor and rival Algeria flies MiG-23s of similar vintage, but the Force Aérienne Algérienne also flies SU-24 Fencer and SU-25 Frogfoot strike aircraft, plus even more modern and capable MiG-29s, and is receiving multi-role SU-30MKs as part of a multi-billion dollar weapons deal with Russia.

Morocco can’t beat that array. Instead, they’re looking for replacement aircraft and upgrades that will prevent complete overmatch, and provide a measure of security. Initially, they looked to France, but key reversals have handed most of this modernization work to the United States.