Americas
Boeing won a $3.4 million deal for the procurement and delivery of 17 Lot 13 P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (14 for the government of Canada and three for the government of Germany), as well as associated non-recurring engineering. Work will be completed in March 2028. Foreign Military Sales customer funds in the amount of $1,190,593,943 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.
Huntington-Ingalls won an $80 million cost-plus-award-fee modification to exercise options for the accomplishment of the planning yard services for the Littoral Combat Ship in-service ships. Work is expected to be completed by April 2025. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.
Middle East & Africa
The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly voted 13-79 against a resolution that would have blocked a $23 billion F-16 sale to Turkey that the Biden administration approved last month. Turkey has sought to lock down the sale, which includes 40 new F-16s made by Lockheed Martin as well as modernization kits for 79 fighter jets in its current fleet, for several years. The State Department finally approved the sale when Turkey ratified Sweden’s NATO membership after stalling for more than a year.
Europe
Poland has inked an agreement with mobility developer AMZ-Kutno to supply 286 Kleszcz light armored reconnaissance personnel carriers to the army. The deal follows a study by Warsaw’s military science organizations and the National Center for Research and Development to equip land forces with a new reconnaissance system based on the Soviet-made Bóbr vehicles and their modern iterations.
The Netherlands plans to order four new air-defense frigates for more than $3.8 billion to replace its current fleet, Dutch State Secretary of Defense Christophe van der Maat said in a letter to parliament Friday. The Dutch Defense Ministry intends to work with local shipbuilder Damen Naval for the naval platform and with Thales for the above-water warfare system, though it still needs to reach agreement with the companies, the government said. The four existing air-defense frigates will be replaced one by one, with the first new vessel expected to be operational in 2036. The current Zeven Provinciën-class frigates came into service between 2002 and 2005 and would need to be replaced in the 2030s, according to the ministry. In addition, modern weapons such as hypersonic anti-ship missiles and a proliferation of relatively simple systems such as drones have created a growing threat to naval vessels.
Asia-Pacific
Taiwan’s maiden indigenous submarine prototype will begin the final round of harbor acceptance tests on Tuesday. The Narwhal prototype will be moved to a floating dock before being shifted to a dry dock for the tests, Taiwan’s national news agency reported. These include an inclining test to determine the vessel’s stability and its center of gravity, the outlet added.
