Americas
Huntington Ingalls will perform early service life period work on the USS Gerald R. Ford. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC awarded the deal, which is valued at $687.1 million. Per the terms of the contract, Huntington Ingalls will support ship repair and modernization during continuous incremental availabilities, planned incremental availabilities, full-ship shock trials and continuous maintenance and emergent maintenance during the ship’s early service life period. The company will perform work until June 2024. The Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier or CVN 78 is the lead ship of her class. CVN 78 is the first new US aircraft carrier design in 40 years. The ship has 250% more electrical capacity than previous carriers, which will allow the ship to load weapons and launch aircraft faster than ever before. The USS Gerald R. Ford is currently undergoing sea trials. She is scheduled to be delivered in October and deployed around 2020. Issues with Ford’s nuclear propulsion system and Advanced Weapons Elevator had delayed the delivery for three months.
The US Special Operations Command awarded Boeing a $194.2 million delivery order modification. The deal procures six renew-build and one new-build MH-47G rotary wing aircraft. The MH-47G is the special operations variant of Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook multi-role, heavy-lift helicopter used by the US Army Special Operations Aviation Command. The aircraft is able to support heavy-lift missions such as troop, weapons, vehicles and other equipment transportation, as well as civil and humanitarian relief missions. It can conduct long-range missions at a low level and in adverse weather conditions during the day and at night. The CH-47F/MH- 47G modernization programs, which includes a mix of remanufactured and new aircraft, will help the aircraft remain in the Army fleet at least through the 2030s. The current modification will sustain US Special Operations Forces (SOF) heavy assault, rotary wing aircraft and mitigate the impact of the MH-47G aircraft availability in light of increased SOF operational demands.
Middle East & Africa
Boeing will supply more than 2,000 pieces of equipment to repair Kuwaiti Super Hornets under a $41 million contract. The deal is for peculiar support equipment, support equipment spares and test equipment for the maintenance and repair of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft. The Naval Air Warfare Center in Lakehurst, New Jersey awarded the deal. Boeing will perform work in St. Louis, Missouri and will finish in June 2022. In 2018, the US Navy placed a potential $1.17 billion contract with Boeing to develop Kuwait’s Super Hornet baseline configuration. The Super Hornets will be delivered by 2022.
Israel’s Elbit System launched a new Long Range Oblique Photography (LOROP) system that according to the company introduces Multi-Spectral sensing capability and Artificial Intelligence analytics to stand-off strategic intelligence gathering missions. The so called Condor MS integrates three high resolution Electro Optic sensors into the already widely operational Condor 2 system. The sensors are Visible & Near Infra-Red (VNIR), Medium-Wave Infrared (MWIR), and Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR). The Condor systems can be installed onboard platforms like the F-16 A/B/C/D/I, F-4, SU-30 and B-737. According to a press release by Elbit, the new Condor MS can identify a large number of targets at extremely high rates, hence significantly shortening the time frame needed to close sensor-to-shooter loops.
Europe
The US Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana awarded a $10 million contract to Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions Division for removable media cartridges. The deal supports the Trident Ballistic Missile Submarine (SSBN) program and includes Foreign Military Sales funding to the UK. The Trident II D5 is the latest generation of the US Navy’s submarine-launched fleet ballistic missile. It is a three-stage, solid-propellant, inertial-guided ballistic missile developed by Lockheed Martin. The missile can carry multiple independently targeted reentry bodies for a maximum range of over 7,360 kilometers. A system upgrade is incorporating requirement changes to increase performance and address obsolescence. Curtiss-Wright will perform work in Fairborn, Ohio, and will finish by October 2024.
Asia-Pacific
Japan is planning to put an experimental infrared sensor on board the ALOS-3 satellite that it plans to launch into space orbit next year. The government will mount a sensor on the satellite in order to acquire its own early warning satellite capability to detect ballistic missiles launched from North Korea and elsewhere. The image sensor that uses tiny semiconductor particles is said to be able to detect infrared rays in two wavelength bands. ALOS-3 is an earth observation satellite that continuously observes the global land area, and orbits at an altitude of 669 kilometers.
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