Americas
The US Army awarded Avon Protection Systems with a $92.7 million firm-fixed-price contract for the joint service aircrew mask. The deal sees US Air Force pilots wearing the new M69 aircrew mask and includes related accessories and support. The contract runs for an initial five years plus two further one-year option periods. Avon Protection anticipates receiving the first order under this contract shortly with deliveries expected to commence in the second half of the current financial year. Work is scheduled to be finished by December 21, 2024 and locations as well as funding will be determined with each order.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center contracted Fairbanks Morse Engine with $13.6 million for engineering, logistics and program management services in support of the Navy diesel engine systems. Work also includes technical services and engine training. Fairbanks Morse Engine is a subsidiary of Enpro Industries and was previously contracted to build the four main propulsion diesel engines for the LPD-30, the Navy’s first LPD Flight 2 class ship with the engines scheduled to be delivered in the second and third quarters of 2020 to Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Work for the new contract will be performed in Wisconsin, California and Virginia and is expected to be completed by January 2024.
The pentagon assigned the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) global transportation and distribution and North American regional warehousing to The Defense Logistics Agency and US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM). The assignment is based upon data submitted by the F-35 partner nations, Foreign Military Sales customers, and Pentagon Providers and is part of a series of assignments that designated airframe, propulsion, and component repair maintenance, repair, overhaul, and upkeep provides across F-35 Global Solution’s three-region construct. The global F-35 fleet has nine partner nations (US, UK, Turkey, Australia, Italy, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark) and three foreign military sales customers (Israel, Japan, South Korea).
Middle East & Africa
The Indian Airforce (IAF) will construct 108 Next-Generation Hardened Aircraft Shelters (NGHAS) for its fighter fleet at several of its bases in northeastern India. The NGHASs cost an estimated total of $788 million and will be built at Tezpur, Chabua, and Hasimara to protect IAF fighters such as the Sukhoi Su-30MKI as well as 18 of the 36 Rafale combat aircraft New Delhi ordered from France in 2016. China has ramped up activity in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which overlooks Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Ladakh. The new hangars are designed to protect the fighters even from a direct hit by a 2,000 lb bomb.
Europe
The Ukraine adds a modernized interceptor vessel to the Azov Sea flotilla, Jane’s reports. On January 2nd an upgraded Project UMS-1000 PC 12 M-2 high-speed interceptor craft entered service with the State Border Guard maritime detachment at the naval and shipbuilding port of Mariupol. The UMS-1000 are Ukrainian vessels. In December it was announced that 20 new boats for the border guard are going to be manufactured in the Ukraine.
Saab’s second GlobalEye Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft successfully completed its first flight on Thursday. The flight lasted three hours, collecting flight-test data and was operated from the company’s airfield in Linköping, Sweden. GlobalEye is a multi-role airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) solution. It consists of a suite of sensors using Saabs’s Erieye Extended Range (ER) radar and mission system. The aircraft has extended detection range, endurance and manages tasks such as search and rescue, border surveillance, and military operations.
Asia-Pacific
The Chinese company Shen Zhou Ming Da High Technology Co Ltd. (SZMID) is looking for export opportunities for its DZ-02 Pro Portable Jammer Gun, Jane’s reports. The Anti-drone weapon is intended to disrupt unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as commercial multi rotor and small fixed-wing UAVS as well as satellite navigation signals BeiDou Galileo, GLONASS, and GPS systems. The system weighs 4.8 kg including the battery and has an overall length of 750 mm with its adjustable stock retracted, a height of 300 mm including the optical sight, and a thickness of 60 mm.
Today’s Video
Watch: Rolling out the first GlobalEye AEW&C aircraft – Saab
