Latest updates[?]: The government of the United Arab Emirates is placing a $38.8 million order with Saab in support of its advanced airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) solution GlobalEye. The Erieye family of Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft offer of small size, lower purchase price, dual air/sea scan capabilities, and comparatively cheap operating costs are making it one of the world’s most popular AEW systems. Saab is currently producing the GlobalEye AEW&C, combining air, maritime and ground surveillance in one single solution. GlobalEye combines a full suite of sophisticated sensors including the powerful new extended range radar (Erieye ER), with the ultra-long range Global 6000 jet aircraft. According to Saab, the Erieye ER gives the aircraft a 70% increase of the detection range (about 403 miles) compared to the previous version. The radar provides wide-area moving target indication (GMTI) as well as improved performance against small targets such as stealth aircraft, unmanned aircraft, cruise missiles or submarine periscopes. GlobalEye brings extended detection range, endurance and the ability to perform multiple roles, including tasks such as search and rescue, border surveillance and military operations.

Latest updates[?]: India has requested the purchase of six AH-64E Apache helicopters. The possible US foreign military sale is valued at $930 million. The AH-64E Guardian Block III (AB3) is the helicopter’s next big step forward by incorporating 26 key new-technology insertions. If the deal goes through India would receive the newest Block III helicopters and up to 180 AGM-114L-3 Hellfire Longbow missiles, 90 AGM-114R-3 Hellfire II missiles, 200 Stinger Block I-92H missiles and other equipment ranging from fire control radars to ammunition. The prime contractors will be Lockheed Martin, General Electric, and Raytheon. This proposed sale would strengthen the US-Indian strategic relationship and to improve the security of an important partner in a region that is currently highly contested.

Latest updates[?]: The government of Qatar is planning to equip its Dassault Rafale fighter jets with Lockheed Martin Sniper targeting pods. Sniper is an electro-optical targeting system in a single, aerodynamically efficient pod weighing less than 450 pounds. The system is capable of detecting, identifying and engaging multiple moving and fixed targets in both air and earth-centric scenarios, but also presents an answer to the challenge of non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Lockheed Martin’s AN/AAQ-33 Sniper ATP was designed to be a major step-change from the firm’s twin-pod LANTIRN systems, making use of a low radar signature profile and an advanced array of sensors and electronics, in order to offer longer range detection and identification. A universal interface, which self-detects the plane type it’s on and automatically load the appropriate Operational Flight Program, is an important time and money saving feature. The pod deliveries to the Qatar Emiri Air Force are scheduled to begin by 2019.

Latest updates[?]: Germany may soon join the list of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense deployed countries. The US reportedly held preliminary discussions about moving the powerful missile defense system to Germany to boost European defenses against potential aggressions. The THAAD system is a long-range, land-based theater defense weapon that acts as the upper tier of a basic 2-tiered defense against ballistic missiles. It’s designed to intercept missiles during late mid-course or final stage flight, flying at high altitudes within and even outside the atmosphere. This allows it to provide broad area coverage against threats to critical assets such as population centers and industrial resources as well as military forces, hence its previous “theater (of operations) high altitude area defense” designation. The tentative proposal to send the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to Europe predates US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord and comes amid a broader push to strengthen Europe’s air and missile defenses. Moving THAAD to Germany could plug a radar gap caused by a two-year delay in completion of a second Aegis Ashore missile defense site in Poland that was initially due to open this year.

Latest updates[?]: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is set to receive eight CH-47F transport helicopters from Boeing. The contract modification is valued at over $25.7 million. The contract is funded through of the Fiscal 2017 foreign military sales fund. The CH-47F Chinook’s load capacity has made it the world’s most popular heavy-lift helicopter. The USA expects to be operating Chinooks in their heavy-lift role past 2030. The CH-47F looks similar to earlier models but offers a wide range of improvements in almost every aspect of design and performance. The CH-47F Chinook and MH-47G Special Ops version are the latest variants in a family of helicopters that first saw service in 1962 during the Vietnam War. New “F/G” models feature numerous upgrades over the old CH-47Ds, including more powerful engines, reduced vibration, upgraded avionics and self-defense systems, and manufacturing advances designed to improve both mission performance and long-term costs. Work will be performed in Ridley Township, Pennsylvania, with an estimated completion date of July 2021.

Latest updates[?]: Italy’s Piaggio Aerospace has announced that it will deliver its first P.1HH Hammerhead unmanned aircraft system this summer. The first units will be delivered to the United Arab Emirates, the company’s launch customer. The P.1HH Hammerhead is based on Piaggio’s sleek, Ferrari-approved P180 Avanti II business turboprop. Rapid deployment inside larger aircraft is engineered by adding a quickly detachable joint for the outer wings, and the high aspect ratio laminar wings have been stretched to a 50’10” wingspan. The Hammerhead was initially designed as a surveillance only UAV, but there is more than sufficient space for weapons if customers choose this option. The only key limitation to equipping the drone is its 500 kg payload maximum. Piaggio is already looking in to the development of its next UAS, designated P.2HH. The P.2HH will bring about increased capability by way of key design changes, namely a larger fuselage structure for increased internal volume and all-new, wider-spanning composite wings for increased endurance. Deliveries of the new system are scheduled for early-2020.

Latest updates[?]: The Naval Seas Systems Command is contracting Raytheon Missile Systems in support of the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) system. The firm-fixed-price contract is valued at $77 million and provides for the engineering, test equipment, material and management necessary to transition the ESSM Block 2 engineering. The ESSM program is an international cooperative effort to design, develop, test and procure ESSM missiles which provide enhanced ship self-defense. The RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile is used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft, it is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. The biggest goal for Block 2 is to give the missile an active seeker option that allows independent guidance. That would make the ESSM much more effective against saturation attacks, though ESSM would also retain the ability to home in on reflected radiation from the ship’s much larger and more powerful radar. ESSM Block 2’s active guidance will be especially helpful to land-based air defense systems, which are constantly under threat from enemy missiles, rockets, etc. Air defense systems can foil some radar-killing missiles by intermittently shutting off their radars. They can also use transmitted results from other search radars, while depending on their own active seeker missiles to handle target tracking once they get close. Work is expected to be completed by December 2020 and will be performed at multiple locations, including Tucson, Arizona; Hengelo, Netherlands and Ottobrunn, Germany.

Latest updates[?]: Raytheon Missile Systems will deliver Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) to Qatar as part of US foreign military sales. The contract is valued at over $242 million and provides for the delivery of RAM Block 2 guided missile round pack, missile ordnance alterations, and spares. RAM is a missile system designed to provide anti-ship missile defense for multiple ship platforms. The RAM MK-31 guided missile weapon system is co-developed and co-produced under a NATO cooperative program between the United States and Germany. It provides a small, all-weather, low-cost self-defense system against aircraft and cruise missiles. The launching system and missiles comprise the weapon system. The round pack consists of a 5-inch supersonic missile and a launching canister, which slides into the launcher and provides the interface with the carried missile. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $529 million. This contract combines purchases for the Navy and the governments of Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey. Work will be performed at multiple locations, including Ottobrunn, Germany and Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by September 2023.

Latest updates[?]: Despite differences over who will pay for the wall along their common border, the Mexican government has been cleared by the Trump administration for the potential purchase of 8 Sikorsky MH-60R Seahwak helicopters. Announced in a Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) press release on Thursday, April 19, the package is estimated to reach $1.2 billion with Lockheed Martin's Rotary and Mission Systems outfit based out of Owego, New York acting as principal contractor in the sale. Included in sale are engines, radars, radios, naval equipment and spares, alongside deliveries of Hellfire missiles, Captive Air Training missiles, Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) II rockets, and Mk -54 Lightweight Hybrid Torpedoes (LHTs). The Seahawk is the US Navy’s version of the US Army’s UH-60 Black Hawk. According to the DSCA, the potential acquisition of the helicopters is part of a modernization push by Mexico’s armed forces.

Latest updates[?]: Boeing was awarded Thursday, February 1, a $195 million contract modification for the provision of additional Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tail kits. The awarding of the USAF contract brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $927,581,526. Work will take place at Boeing's St. Louis, Missouri, facility with an expected completion date set for January 30, 2020. JDAM tail kits turn previously unguided free-fall munitions such as the 2,000-pound BLU-109/MK 84 or the smaller 500-pound BLU-111/MK 82 warhead, into guided air-to-surface munitions.