Americas
Boeing won a $22.5 million contract for Laser Small Diameter Bomb all up rounds and warhead shipping containers. The deal provides 522 all up rounds and 131 warhead shipping containers for use by US Special Operations Detachment 1. The GBU-39 is a 250 pounds precision-guides glide bomb that is intended to provide aircraft with the ability to carry a higher number of more accurate bombs. It uses an advanced anti-jam GPS-aided inertial navigation system to attack fixed or stationary targets, and carries a multipurpose penetrating blast-and-fragmentation warhead with a programmable fuze. Boeing will perform work at St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be complete by February 8, 2021.
The US Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $13.9 million contract modification, which is for engineering services and travel for the AN/SLQ-32(V)6 upgrades design agent contract under the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program or SEWIP. SEWIP is an evolutionary acquisition and incremental development program. AN/SLQ-32(V)6 upgrades the existing AN/SLQ-32(V) electronic warfare system by incorporating SEWIP Block 1B3 and SEWIP Block 2 systems. The AN/SLQ-32 is an electronic warfare system that provides powerful countermeasures protection for small and mid-size surface ships. The SLQ-32 systems feature a lens-fed multi-beam array that generates very high jamming power at continuous wave so that an almost unlimited variety of jamming techniques can be used. Work will take place in Syracuse, New York and estimated completion will be by September 2020.
Middle East & Africa
Colonel Terence Taylor, commander of Combined Joint Special Operations Air Component–Afghanistan, told reporters recently that the new AC-130J gunship are in high demand over Afghanistan. Taylor said the gunships were flying every night and so far clocked 218 sorties. The new aircraft’s missions are part of an increase in the pace of the air war following the collapse of peace talks between the United States and the Taliban in early September, and a vow by President Donald Trump “to hit our enemy harder” than ever before. The Air Force’s new AC-130J has been operating over Afghanistan for a little more than four months. The AC-130J Ghostwriter’s gunship comes with the standard 105 mm cannon and an additional 30 mm GAU-23/A cannon, along with wing pylons designed to haul both GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress on the potential Foreign Military Sale to the United Arab Emirates of 10 CH-47F helicopters. The estimate cost for the package is $830.3 million. This request represents the 10th Foreign Military Sales request from the UAE since the start of fiscal 2017, for a total approximate worth of $10.5 billion. It is also the first Foreign Military Financing request cleared by the DSCA since the Trump administration declared a regional emergency in order to get several weapons packages pushed through Congress despite opposition on Capitol Hill, leading to bipartisan criticism of the move. The UAE bought its first lot of CH-47Fs, 16 aircraft for estimated total of $2 billion, in 2009.
Europe
Swedish Defense company Saab carried out the first flight tests with its new advanced Electronic Attack Jammer Pod (EAJP). Saab flew its EAJP on the Gripen combat aircraft for the first time on November 4, the company announced. According to Saab, the pod’s interfaces with the aircraft’s hardware and software, as well as cockpit control and monitoring, were tested during the flight. “The purpose of Saab’s new EAJP pod is to protect aircraft against radars by sophisticated jamming functions, thereby blocking the opponent’s ability to attack them,” the company added. The EAJP is part of Saab’s Arexis family of electronic warfare systems, and the test marked the latest milestone since the system was first briefed to reporters earlier in the year.
Asia-Pacific
Bell-Boeing won a $68.2 million delivery order, which provides non-recurring as well as recurring engineering associated with the development, qualification test, integration, airworthiness substantiation, flight test demonstration and validation/verification of the Japan unique configuration into MV-22 Block C aircraft and the MV-22 Containerized Flight Training Device. This effort also includes logistics and training efforts, to include post-delivery reach-back support, aircraft preservation and de-preservation, storage, aircraft transit support as well as the remaining unique kits and installs in support of the government of Japan. The V-22 is a multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing, and short takeoff and landing capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft. Work will take place in Pennsylvania, Texas, Japan, Alabama, Kansas, Texas, Indiana, Virgnia, Alabama and is expected to be finished in August 2024.
Today’s Video
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