Americas
* Raytheon has been awarded a $92 million US Navy contract for engineering and manufacturing development of the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR). The deal includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to $723 million. A 2015 US Naval Institute report stated that EASR will be deployed on the future USS John F. Kennedy, the second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier that is set to debut in 2020.
* The US Army awarded a series of contracts as part of the preliminary design review for the replacement of General Electric’s T700 engine. General Electric and Advanced Turbine Engine were awarded $102 million and $154 million contracts respectively, with the winner getting to provide engines for a wide variety of military helicopters including the UH-60 Blackhawk and AH-64E Apache. The Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP) plans to deliver an engine early in the next decade that will replace the T700 with a new design that delivers more power and consumes less fuel, yet fits into the same space reserved for current engines.
* Following the Twitter reveal of the Northrop Grumman & BAE offering to the USAF’s T-X trainer competition, Boeing and Saab’s clean sheet design was revealed on Boeing’s website. With two engine inlets, a high mounted wing and a conventional, vertical tail, the design is a step away from its T-45 Goshawk used by the US Navy. Things are hotting up.
* After much waiting, trial and error, the F-35’s Block 3F software upgrade has speeded up testing of the new fighter’s weapons systems. Since it’s completion, Lockheed Martin has completed 30 weapons delivery accuracy tests in one month, compared to just three accomplished with the Block 2 software. These include Boeing’s Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and GPS-guided Small Diameter Bomb, and Raytheon’s AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-9X Sidewinder.
Middle East & North Africa
* The US State Department has approved the sale of Mark V fast patrol boats, weapons, ammunition and training to Qatar in a $124 million defense package. Used by US Special Operations Forces for insertion and extraction of SEAL combat swimmers, the vessels will be equipped with .50-caliber machine guns, MLG 27mm naval gun systems and Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) Systems.
* An inquiry into a leak of sensitive technical information of France’s Scorpene attack submarine is being planned by the French government. The leak surfaced in a report by an Australian newspaper who received 22,400 pages of ship builder DCNS’s company data on the six Scorpene boats it’s constructing for the Indian Navy. The company fears that such a leak may harm the company’s deal with Australia to design and build the Shortfin Barracuda A1 diesel-electric submarine.
Europe
* Russia’s latest armored tank, the T-14 Armata, is to be equipped with additional protective armor in order to better defend it in urban operations. Developed by the Russian Research Institute, “plate shields,” which are similar in appearance to the bars on metal bunk beds, will be installed along the perimeter of the machines giving additional protection to the platform’s wheels and tracks. The Russian Army plans to acquire 2,300 of the tanks by 2020.
Asia Pacific
* The annual US-South Korean war games kicked off this week in what has been a year of growing diplomatic tension on the peninsula. The Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise will run until September 2 and involves some 50,000 US troops stationed in South Korea. In response, the The North called the exercises preparations for invasion, and early on Monday threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike that did not occur. The last number of months has seen increased North Korean missile testing, the deployment of THAAD systems in the South and most recently, the defection of the North Korean ambassador to the UK. What’s next?
Today’s Video
The T-14 Armata:
