Americas
Leidos won a $30 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract modification for integrated logistic support, fleet support and life cycle sustainment of the US Navy’s AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 surface ship Undersea Warfare Systems. The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 is a combat system that’s able to search, detect, classify, localize and track undersea contacts and to engage and evade submarines, mine-like small objects and torpedo threats. It is the primary undersea warfare system used aboard US Navy surface combatants. The system uses active and passive sonar to conduct anti-submarine warfare search. The acoustic energy received is processed and displayed to enable operators to detect, classify, localize, and track threat submarines. Leidos will perform work within the US as well as Japan and Spain and is expected to be finished by June next year.
The Naval Sea Systems Command awarded Austal a modification for Littoral Combat Ship Class design services. The deal also includes integrated data and product model environment (IDPME) support. The IPDME will enable the Navy to access enterprise data management, visualization, program management applications, and network management and control. According to the Department of Defense, the company will provide efforts to support Littoral Combat Ship Class ships, including but not limited to technical analyses, non-recurring engineering, configuration management, software maintenance and development, production assessments, and diminishing manufacturing sources and seaframe reliability analysis. The Littoral Combat Ship is a set of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for operations near shore by the US Navy. Work under the modification will take place in Alabama and Massachusetts and is scheduled to be complete by June 2025.
The Naval Air Systems Command tapped Bell Boeing Joint Project Office to facilitate additional structural improvements, tooling assessment, and test aircraft retrofit tooling in support of the V-22 Nacelle Improvement effort. The contract modification provides for non-recurring engineering. Bell-Boeing’s V-22 Osprey is a joint service multirole combat aircraft utilizing tiltrotor technology to combine the vertical performance of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft. With its rotors in vertical position, it can take off, land and hover like a helicopter. It is the first production tiltrotor aircraft. Bell Boeing wants to increase Osprey mission readiness rates by 10 to 12 percent by removing eight of the 10 wiring interface boxes on the aircraft’s nacelles, changing wiring types, and through nacelle structural upgrades, such as latch changes. The fleet’s readiness rate has been below 60 percent. 84 percent of the work will take place in Fort Worth, Texas with a scheduled completion date in August next year.
Middle East & Africa
General Electric won a $24.9 million modification by the US Naval Air Systems Command to procure 72 F-414-GE-400 engines for the F/A-18 Super Hornets of the Navy and the government of Kuwait. 24 will be for the US Navy and 48 for Kuwait. The General Electric F414 is an afterburning turbofan engine. The contract also includes two spare and six test F414-GE-400 install engines devices for the government of Kuwait. Kuwait will underwrite 69 percent of the figure, or $17.5 million, under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work, which will take place in Evandale, Ohio, is scheduled to be finished in December next year.
The US confirmed that Iran shot down an American Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk. While Iran claimed the drone had violated Iranian airspace, the US insists that the aircraft had been over international waters at the time. The attack comes in a time of tensions between Iran and the US. Last week, the US announced it wants to send 1,000 additional troops to the region. It has already sent an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers. Jane’s reports that shooting down the Global Hawk might have confirmed that Iran has developed highly capable surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems in recent years. Iran credited a 3 Khordad, one of several new indigenous surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, with the shootdown. There are no fixed SAM sites within range of the shootdown location, affirming the claim that a mobile system like the 3 Khordad was used in the engagement.
Europe
The 47th annual Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) exercise came to an end on Friday in Kiel, Germany. The annual maritime-focused exercise in the Baltic region is one of the largest exercises in northern Europe. It started on June 9. The US Navy’s 2nd Fleet was leading the two-week-exercise. Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as NATO partner nations Finland and Sweden, participated and completed 389 serials, a planning term for a coordinated military exercise. During the exercise, a UK-led Maritime First Responder Force took to sea for the first time. The nine-nation Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) was formally created a year ago. The BALTOPS 2019 exercise is the second of three phases of the Baltic Protector Deployment 2019. UPI reports that BALTOPS ended with the start of “Kiel Week,” an annual sailing competition which draws millions of tourists to the city of Kiel.
Asia-Pacific
The Bangladesh Air Force ordered additional surplus ex-Royal Air Force C-130J Super Hercules. It previously had ordered two units from the UK. Marshall Aerospace and Defense Group will undertake the support contract. The new Super Hercules aircraft will improve Bangladesh’s overall airlift and logistics capability. The procurement also allows the Bangladesh Air Force to retire older C-130B Hercules it acquired second hand from the US in 2004. The C-130J is expected to become the most capable airlift asset of the BAF.
Today’s Video
Watch: U.S. Navy Successfully Tests Upgraded RAM Missile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc4rqbNV6-g
