Americas
Bell Boeing won a $42.2 million contract modification for fleet software sustainment of the V-22 flight control system. The order includes engineering and technical support for the Osprey. The V-22 Osprey is the world’s first production tiltrotor aircraft, blending the vertical flight capability of a helicopter with an airplane’s speed, range, altitude and endurance. The modification combines purchases for the Marine Corps of $25.5 million and the Air Force of $13 million. Ninety-three percent of work will take place in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania and the remaining seven percent will occur in Fort Worth, Texas. The Pentagon expects the company to fulfill the order by June 2021.
The Navy awarded BAE Systems a $36.7 million contract for demonstration and development of the Dual Band Decoy capability. BAE Systems will demonstrate a new Dual Band towed decoy to help US Navy F/A-18E/F jet fighter-bomber pilots avoid modern sophisticated enemy radar-guided anti-aircraft missiles. The Dual Band Decoy towed decoy project was launched in June last year. It seeks to meet an urgent Navy need to protect crews of area-penetrating attack jets like the Super Hornets from enemy radar-guided missiles that operate on two separate frequencies, such as X-band and S-band. The Dual Band Decoy capability will leverage existing and projected contractor technologies and expand capabilities relative to the currently fielded Integrated Defense Electronic Countermeasures AN/ALE-55 Fiber Optic Towed Decoy and AN/ALE-50 Advanced Airborne Expendable Decoy used on the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will take place in Nashua, New Hampshire and is scheduled to be completed in August 2021.
Lockheed Martin won a $12.7 million modification for post delivery support of the USS St. Louis. The USS St. Louis or LCS-19 is a Freedom Class littoral combat ship of the US Navy. In December, the Navy christened the ship in Marinette, the 10th Freedom-class LCS built by Lockheed Martin’s Fincantieri Marinette Marine. In all, six Freedom Class ships are under construction and two are in the pre-production phase. The company will plan and implement deferred design changes that have been identified during the construction period. The corrections and upgrades are needed to support St. Louis Sailaway and follow-on post delivery test and trials period, the DoD announced on Thursday. Lockheed will perform work within the US and scheduled completion date is in December next year.
Middle East & Africa
According to TASS, Angola received all 12 Su-30K fighters from the Aviation Repair Plant of Belarus. The aircraft were modified to the Su-30SM standard and are able to fire the RVV-AE (NATO AA-12) air-to-air missile. Alexander Vorobey, Deputy Director for Development of the 558th ARZ said that two SU-30K fighters were transported to Angola in April thus completing the agreement for 12 Su-30K for the Angolan Air Force. The Russian SU-30 is a twin-engine, two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft. The new SU-30SM standards are equipped with 12 points of suspension of aviation weapons and can use guided aircraft missiles such as anti-ship X-31A, anti-radar X-31P, and air-to-air class RVV-AE. To protect against high-precision weapons, each Angolan fighter is equipped with a satellite jamming station.
Europe
Belarus reportedly shows interest in buying Russian-made air defense systems, including Pantsir-S self-propelled hybrid gun/missile air-defense systems and the Tor-M2 self-propelled surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. Alexander Mikheyev, head of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport told this information to TASS at the HeluRussia 2019 exhibition on Friday. The Pantsir-S gun/SAM system was designed for the strategic defense of high-value targets. The Tor missile system is an all-weather low-to-medium altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system. The TOR-M2 / M2E is designed to attack aircraft, helicopters, aerodynamic UAVs, guided missiles and other components of high precision weapons flying at medium, low and extremely low altitudes in adverse air and jamming environment.
Asia-Pacific
The US State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale of SM-2 Block IIIB Standard missiles to South Korea. The deal is valued at $313.9 million. The State Department has cleared the Republic of Korea to procure up to 94 rounds of SM-2 Block IIIB Standard Missiles and twelve MK 97 MOD 0 Guidance Sections for SM-2 Block IIIB. Also included is technical assistance: training and training equipment; publication and technical data; and related logistics support, and other related elements of logistics and program support. South Korea’s military already uses the SM-2, and is in the process of building more missile defense capable destroyers that use the weapons.
According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the State Department cleared Japan to procure 160 AIM-120C-7 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), and one AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM guidance section. If approved by Congress, the sale would be worth $317 million. The deal includes containers, weapon support and support equipment, spare and repair parts. The sale will provide Japan with “a critical air defense capability to assist in defending the Japanese homeland and US personnel stationed there,” according to the agency.
Today’s Video
Watch: This Robotic M1 Abrams Tank Can Smash Through Enemy Defenses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTANRuu6ySM