Americas
Illinois-based aviation service provider AAR has received a $1.2-billion contract to perform maintenance for the US Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft fleet. The agreement stipulates depot-level engine and airframe sustainment as well as on-site assessments to maintain the planes’ operability. Tasks will incorporate technical directives, modifications, overhauls, and aircraft-on-ground support, scheduled and unscheduled. Work for the engine will be facilitated in partnership with Georgia-based aviation industry partner Delta TechOps.
The Montana Air National Guard (MT ANG) conducted a groundbreaking training exercise on September 25. The exercise involved landing a C-130 Hercules aircraft on a stretch of US Highway 87 between Great Falls and Belt, marking the first time the MT ANG has performed such a maneuver with this aircraft type. Col. Jason Green, Mission Support Group commander for the 120th Airlift Wing, emphasized the strategic importance of the exercise: “We are working on skills we need to be able to engage with the next peer that we have, which is China. We’re proving that we could [land our aircraft] in remote places.”
Middle East & Africa
Air strikes and shelling rocked Khartoum on Thursday as the army attacked paramilitary positions throughout the Sudanese capital, eyewitnesses and a military source told AFP. The clashes began at dawn, several residents reported, in what appeared to be the army’s first major offensive in months to regain parts of the capital controlled by its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Sudanese army forces were “waging fierce fighting against the rebel militia inside Khartoum,” a source in the military told AFP, referring to the RSF.
Europe
Lockheed Martin won a $422 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract to provide program management, logistics, sustainment, and systems engineering services in support of the integration of the government of the Czech Republic into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program as a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer. Work will is expected to be completed in September 2027. FMS customer funds in the amount of $422,244,473 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Asia-Pacific
Japan successfully launched an intelligence-gathering radar satellite aboard an H2A rocket on September 26, marking a significant step in its space-based surveillance capabilities. The H2A Flight 49 lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture at 14:24:20 Japan Standard Time, following two weather-related postponements, according to Kyodo News. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the launch provider, confirmed the mission’s success in a statement: “The rocket flew as planned, and we confirmed the normal separation of the Information Gathering Satellite Radar No. 8.”
