Americas
Lockheed Martin won a $7.3 million contract modification for Apache modernized day sensor assembly kits. The Apache is the Army’s primary attack helicopter. It is a quick-reacting, airborne weapon system that can fight close and deep to destroy, disrupt, or delay enemy forces. The Apache is designed to fight and survive during the day, night, and in adverse weather throughout the world. The principal mission of the Apache is the destruction of high-value targets with the HELLFIRE missile. Work will take place in Florida. Estimated completion date is August 31, 2020.
Boeing delivered the first MH-47G Block II Chinook helicopters to Army Special Operations Command, the company announced. Under the current iteration of the contract, Boeing will build a total of 24 aircraft for a total potential value of $602.2 million. The company had signed a $265 million deal in July to to build upgraded Chinook aircraft for SOCOM. The Block II version of the Chinook includes newly designed rotorblades, changes to the drive system and improvements like non-segmented fuel cells.
Middle East & Africa
Israeli strikes on Syria killed one civilian, three government troops, and seven allied foreign fighters, a war monitor said on Tuesday in a new toll. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which had previously put the toll from Monday’s strikes at five, said Iran-backed paramilitary fighters were among those killed in the attack. The Britain-based monitor said the strikes hit Syrian army positions south of Damascus as well as positions belonging to Iran-backed paramilitaries, including fighters of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, in the southern province of Daraa.
Europe
UKspace is working in partnership with the Royal Air Force (RAF) to develop a new Commercial Integration Cell at the UK Space Operations Centre (SpOC), which will enable enhanced coordination of military and commercial space operations. They say that the partnership will establish a CIC in the UK similar to that currently operated by the US Space Force at the Combined Space Operations Centre in Vandenburg, further improving interoperability between the allied nations in support of Operation OLYMPIC DEFENDER and national operations.
The Russian state-owned Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets are suspected to have violated Danish airspace on Friday, August 28, according to HQ Allied Air Command. The Russian Su-27, flying from Kaliningrad, followed the US Air Force B-52 bomber well into Danish airspace over the Island of Bornholm, committing a significant violation of airspace of a NATO nation. Danish Quick Reaction Alert aircraft were launched to counter the violation, however the violating Russian fighter turned back before interception. The Danish jets remained airborne and patrolling to protect the sovereignty of Danish airspace.
Asia-Pacific
China plans to double its stockpile of nuclear warheads within the next decade, but its nuclear force would still be a fraction of that of the United States, says a Pentagon report released on September 1. In its to Congress on military and security developments in China, the Pentagon said Beijing is working to develop a more assertive position and match or surpass the United States as the dominant power in the Asia-Pacific region. Part of that strategy is a plan to modernize and expand its nuclear forces, the report said.
Today’s Video
Watch: Su-27 Ukrainian Air Force exercise almost ends in disaster
