C-130 Super Hercules Multi-Year Contract to Save $680M | Israeli APS Heavy Combat Vehicle Passes Milestone Test | Competition to Extend Life of UK’s Challenger 2 Fleet

Americas

• Canada looks set to procure an interim fleet of Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets to fill a capability gap as it procrastinates on how to proceed with its new fighter competition. The Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau promised during the election campaign not to buy the F-35 to replace its aging CF-18s; but the government has been struggling with how to fulfill that promise, for fear any attempt to exclude the stealth fighter from a competition will result in a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit, according to one senior Defence Department official.

• According to Joseph Fountain, supervisory contract officer with Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Mobility Directorate, a multi-year contract has been signed with Lockheed Martin to procure 78 C-130J Super Hercules with the option to buy up to 83 over the next five years. Under the contract, the second multi-year deal for the C-130J, the Defense Department will save about $680 million and provide the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard with important airlift capabilities. The contract also funds an affordability program in which Lockheed receives $35 million up front and agrees to $65 million in labor reductions over the life of the contract, which according to Fountain will allow the company to assemble the aircraft more efficiently.

Middle East North Africa

• The US military has commenced airdrops of small arms and munitions to rebels fighting with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the northern Syrian city of Marea. At present the town, located in Aleppo province, is besieged by militants from the Islamic State looking to increase their influence in the region where several armed militias, as well as the the Syrian government, are battling for control. This is the first reported time that the US has supplied weapons to any rebels fighting in Syria other than the Kurds.

• Israel’s new actively protected heavy combat vehicle for engineering missions has passed another milestone test after successfully navigating deep terrain, followed by another vehicle emplacing a self-deployed bridge in support of follow-on forces. Based on the Namer heavy troop carrier, the engineering version of the vehicle is equipped with the Trophy Active Protection System (APS), designed to give 360 degree protection from multiple launchings. The APS system has been developed by local company Rafael and a number of US companies.

Europe

• A looming capability gap in Germany’s military transport fleet may result in the Ministry of Defense looking to urge A400M partner nations to procure and jointly operate a limited fleet of C-130 Hercules airplanes. Ongoing participation of German forces in Mali has highlighted the need for aircraft capable of landing on small and poorly fortified airfields and participation in special operations, limitations found in the A400M. At present, Germany operates the C-160 Transall which is due for retirement in 2021.

• A partnership known as Team Challenger 2 has emerged to bid for the life extension project of the UK’s Challenger 2 main battle tank fleet. BAE Systems, General Dynamics UK, Leonardo-Finmeccanica, Moog Inc., QinetiQ and Safran Electronics have all teamed up to offer a bid, which sees competition from another team including Lockheed Martin, CMI Defence, Krauss Maffei Wegmann, and Ruag. The project will see the winners work to extend the out-of-service date of the tank by 10 years to 2035, addressing obsolescence issues on the aging vehicle as well as looking to install some capability enhancements.

Asia Pacific

• Kazakhstan is looking to purchase a number of transport, cargo and tanker aircraft with preliminary talks on such a sale with Russian manufacturer Ilyushin. A variety of models are being looked at including the modernized Il-76MD-90A, the Il-78 aerial refueling tanker and the Il-112 light military transporter. The discussions began at the KADEX-2016 military hardware exhibition in the Kazakh capital Astana.

• Reuters has reported that both South Korea and Vietnam may look to purchase refurbished Lockheed Martin P-3 and S-3 maritime surveillance planes with Hanoi expected to request formal pricing and availability data on four to six older US Navy P-3 Orion aircraft in the next few months. According to the company, the sales will help to counter China’s military buildup and repeated North Korean missile launches. Vietnam is also looking at making purchases of CN-295 transport aircraft, license built by Indonesia.

Today’s Video

• Footage of the Lockheed Martin/KIA T-50A maiden flight:

LM’s T-X Competition Configured T-50A Takes First Flight | US Army Fires LM JAGM from UAV | Slovakia MoD Rejects Offer from Swedes for Saab Gripen Lease

Americas

• Lockheed Martin has announced that one of the company’s test pilot’s has made the first flight of the T-50A that is configured to compete in the US Air Force T-X competition. Equipped with a 5th generation cockpit, the aircraft is billed as the only one being offered that meets all of the USAF’s Advanced Pilot Trainer (APT) program requirements. LM is co-developing the aircraft with South Korean firm Korea Aerospace Industries.

• Setbacks to the KC-46A tanker program have been compounded as Boeing has admitted that a software solution to fix the load issues on the flying boom was not robust enough and the company will have to modify the hardware itself. The plane was initially aiming to have a low-production order to deliver 18 tankers by next August. Issues arose during refueling trials with larger aircraft such as the C-17 military transporters which caused unacceptable stress loads along the axis of the boom.

• NG Imaging Systems has been awarded an $81 million contract for sniper engineering and manufacturing development as well as low-rate initial production of a family of weapons sights. The contract marks the first clip-on thermal weapon sight specifically developed and fielded for the sniper community by the Army. Completion and delivery is expected for June 2021.

• The US Army has successfully fired Lockheed Martin’s multi-mode Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) from a UAV for the first time. Testing was conducted on an MQ-1C Gray Eagle at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The Gray Eagle test was the seventh flight test for the JAGM missile. The missile was previously tested on Apache attack helicopters and Marine Corps Cobra helicopters.

Europe

• Slovakia’s Ministry of Defense has rejected an offer from the Swedish government on a lease agreement for Saab Gripen fighters. Under the provisions of the deal, Slovakia would have seen Stockholm lease six JAS 39Cs and two JAS 39Ds for an undisclosed price for a total of 1,200 flight hours per year. However, since elections in March saw a change of government including the Slovak National Party, the new prime minister Robert Fico has praised the capabilities of the MiG-29 aircraft.

• Following its northern neighbor Romania, Bulgaria looks set to modernize its air force with surplus F-16s supplied by Portugal. The Portuguese Ministry of National Defense reports that a request for information has been filed by the government in Sofia for nine of the aircraft to be modernized. Any deal would result in F-16s supplied by the US government under its Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program or aircraft of allied nations that are replacing the type with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

Asia Pacific

• Discussions are under way between Japan and Thailand’s military governments for the potential purchase of Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol plane and the ShinMaywa US-2 amphibious aircraft which could pave the way for both government’s to become limited defense partners. The defense equipment contract that needs to be signed for any deal to follow through is being seen by some commentators as an effective wedge by Japan to block the continuation of cooperation between Bangkok and region rival China.

• After the relaxing of the decades long arms embargo on Vietnam, Hanoi doesn’t seem to be rushing after US arms just yet. It’s been reported that negotiations have begun with the Indonesian government over the purchase of CN-295 transport aircraft – an Airbus C-295 license-built by Indonesian Aerospace. Indonesia’s Vice President Jusuf Kalla made the announcement, saying the sales proposal was discussed with Vietnam’s deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Today’s Video

• Rare footage of North Korean Mi-2 helicopter firing anti-tank guide missiles:

Egypt Officially Receives First Mistrals | Germany Sticks with A400M but May Add Other Options | RIA Novosti Flight Testing Yak-130 Alternative SR-10

Americas

• The US Navy has decommissioned all of its aging low-pressure chambers as it waits for new normobaric hypoxia chambers to be built. The older chambers were first commissioned in 1947 and can no longer be repaired. For now, aviators will rely on the Reduced Oxygen Breathing Device for hypoxia training.

Middle East North Africa

• Egypt has taken over the first of its new Mistral-class helicopter carriers in a ceremony in the French city of Toulouse. The country’s Defense Minister Sedki Sobhi was in attendance with his French counterpart with the vessel to be named after Egypt’s famous strong-man President Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

• Piaggio has confirmed that it has lost its P.1HH Hammerhead UAV prototype after it took off from Trapani airport on May 31. The crash will be a setback for the UAV’s flight-test program and an investigation is currently being mounted. An order for eight of the drones was placed by the UAE in March of this year.

Europe

• Despite the mounting delays, Germany is to keep true to its commitment to the A400M program. The government is, however, looking at acquiring other transport planes since the aircraft cannot land at small airports. Germany has taken umbridge with Airbus’s delays over the last few months, with German parliamentary and military sources indicating that the German air force was looking at potentially acquiring up to 10 C-130J aircraft built by Lockheed Martin.

• RIA Novosti reports that Russian Aerospace Forces are flight testing the forward-swept wing SR-10 jet trainer in the Moscow Region. According to its manufacturer, one of the benefits of the aircraft is that it’s more economically feasible for training pilots with the sophistication of a fighter. The plane will be an alternative to the Yak-130.

• MQ-9 UAVs operated by the Italian Air Force are to be fitted with General Atomics integrated Rafael RecceLite reconnaissance pod. Flight testing will be carried out in early 2017 at Amendola Air Base, Italy. The company believes that the adoption of the system “could lead to similar efforts with other NATO customers that operate MQ-9.”

Asia Pacific

• Russian Helicopters are to provide Kazakhstan with a number of Mi-35M attack helicopters scheduled for delivery for the end of this year. The helicopters will replace the Mi-24s that Kazakhstan currently operates and which are the basis for the Mi-35M. Russian manufacturers are presenting the new Mi-35M at the KADEX-2016 international military equipment exhibition which is currently running in the Kazakh capital Astana until June 5.

Today’s Video

• The SR-10:

Jordan’s JBSP Border Security Program

Jordan

In May 2008, the U.S. Army’s Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM) chose DRS Technologies, Inc. in Gaithersburg, MD (since acquired by Italy’s Finmeccanica) for the initial phase of the Jordan Border Security Program. The overall system will include Distant Sentry(TM) mobile and fixed surveillance towers that utilize a variety of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) sensors, communications between the towers and mobile and fixed Command and Control (C2) Centers, and electronic infrastructure, software, and computing systems for the centers themselves. The Iraqi border is reportedly the focus of the JBSP program, but that country’s borders with Syria are also a concern.

A number of other countries are building or have built similar virtual and/or physical systems, from Saudi Arabia along the Iraq border, to India in Kashmir, to Israel along its hostile borders with Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. Note, however, that these systems are not a panacea. Israel’s high-tech systems did not detect or prevent the cross-border Hezbollah kidnappings that led to the 2006 war in Lebanon, however, and the US GAO has been less than complimentary concerning Team Boeing’s SBInet system along the USA’s southern border.

US Funded Jordan Border Enters Final Phase | Russia Developing Own Rail Gun Tech Battlefield Meteorite | Airbus A400M Problems Home Grown

Americas

• Raytheon has been awarded a $365.8 million contract for the production of Aegis Weapon System AN/SPY-1D(V) Radar Transmitter Group, Missile Fire Control System MK 99 equipment, and associated engineering services. The contract combines purchases for the US Navy, South Korea, and Japan and contain options that could amount to $423 million. Completion of the contract is expected by October 2022.

Middle East North Africa

• A US funded Jordan Border Security Project with the government of Jordan and US contractor Raytheon is entering its final phase . The $100 million program aims to secure the Hashemite Kingdom against infiltrators from the Islamic State and other extremist organizations operating beyond its border with Syria and Iraq. Under the program, Raytheon and Jordanian subcontractors have been deploying and testing the sensor-fused border barriers while, in parallel, training other Jordanian partners to maintain and operate the system. As well as the barriers, patrol paths and watchtowers, the system is integrated with day and night cameras, ground radars, and a full command, control and communications suite. The system will be completed by the end of next year.

Europe

• Russia has announced that it is developing its own rail gun technology as the first pictures of US efforts made their way to press. The “battlefield meteorite” is capable of firing a projectile at an initial speed of 4,500 miles per hour, piercing seven steel plates, and leaving a 5-inch hole — able to “blow holes in enemy ships, destroy tanks and level terrorist camps.” For Russia, the new weapon will not replace traditional weapons “even in the mid-term perspective,” as much time needs to pass from the first tests to the mass production, especially considering the high price of the production, according to Russian senator Franz Klintsevich.

• Some of the problems surrounding the development of the A400M cargo lifter are “homemade” according to Chief Executive Officer of Airbus Group, Tom Enders. Quoted in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Enders said that the current issues in the program could have been avoided by not opting to develop the aircraft’s engine from scratch, but also mentioned the insufficient quality from suppliers. Despite the delays the issues have caused to delivery, Airbus has urged governments to stay the course and not look for alternatives…naturally.

Asia Pacific

• Australia has been cleared for the purchase of SM-2 Block IIIB STANDARD missiles, equipment, and support through Foreign Military Sale (FMS) by the US State Department. Included in the sale are up to 80 STANDARD Missile, SM-2 Block IIIB Vertical Launching Tactical All-Up Rounds, RIM-66M-09 and a potential of up to 15 MK 97 SM-2 Block IIIB Guidance Sections (GSs), and holds an estimate of up to $301 million. The air defense missiles will be used for anti-air warfare test firings during Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trials for the Royal Australian Navy’s three new Air Warfare Destroyers (AWD) currently under construction.

• With plans underway to develop a submarine launched ballistic missile capability to counter North Korean missile threat, South Korean Aegis ships will be installed with new vertical missile launch systems that will allow them to launch the longer range SM-3 and SM-6 ship-to-air missiles. At present, the three King Sejong the Great class destroyers are only able to fire off the SM-2 missiles with a range of 150 Km, but this should increase to a range of 400 Km. Sources say that if the government were to buy 20 SM-3 per ship, it would cost taxpayers $763 million for the 60 units.

• Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) has made its maiden flight after much delay. The Indian indigenous trainer will see at least 70 of the aircraft procured by the Indian Air Force despite the service’s preference for the Swiss built Pilatus PC-7 Mark II. Funding for the HTT-40 had been blocked by the Defense Ministry after the IAF claimed that the trainer would be too expensive, too heavy, and that it will not meet their need.

Today’s Video

• HTT-40 Basic Trainer maiden flight:

Bell-Boeing: $58.8M to Integrate VARS for MV-22 | Saudis Blocked from Buying Cluster-Bombs from US | UK Looking at Boeing for $2.9B in AH-64E Apaches

Americas

• The Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office has been awarded a $58.8 million US Navy contract in order to develop and integrate the V-22 aerial refueling system (VARS) for the MV-22. Once installed, VARS will operate by using a portable refueling station that will roll up the Osprey’s back ramp and into its back cabin. Crews will use it to aerially refuel F-35s, F/A18 Hornets and other aircraft – including V-22s and CH-53 helicopters – by extending a hose and drogue out the open back ramp. NAVIR will supervise the contract execution, and the whole project is to be completed by June 2019.

• Aurora Flight Sciences tested the new capabilities of the Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS) last week, and if proven workable, could see the entire USMC rotary-wing fleet converted into autonomous flying machines starting from 2018. With the May 26 test seeing the system mounted on a Bell 206 helicopter, it’s believed that the AACUS will now be tested on a UH-1H roughly this time next year. The AACUS is an autonomy applique kit that enables operations of full-scale rotary-wing aircraft in and out of austere landing zones, tactically, with little human assistance.

Middle East North Africa

• Sales of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia have been blocked by the Obama administration after reports of their use by the kingdom in the ongoing conflict in Yemen. An Amnesty International report revealed last week that British-made BL-755 munitions, sold to both Saudi Arabia and coalition partner UAE in the 1980s and 1990s, were discovered in a village in northern Yemen, spurring claims that war crimes were being conducted against civilians. Neither the US nor Saudi Arabia have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions treaty, which bans the use of the munitions.

Europe

• General Dynamics European Land Systems and Airbus recently demonstrated the loading of the former’s Piranha 5 8×8 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) into an Airbus A400M cargo lifter. Testing was carried out in San Pablo, Spain and no special requirement was needed in order to load and tie-down the armored vehicle inside the transport’s cargo hold. Spain is one of the key partner nations involved in the A400M program, and the Piranha 5 has been selected for the integration of Spanish technologies and subsystems under an R&D contract for the future Wheeled Combat Vehicle (VCR in Spanish) project.

• Russia has carried out its second successful test of a new anti-satellite missile dubbed Nudol. The weapon was launched from the Plesetsk test launch facility on May 25, and follows the first successful test which occurred on November 18 last year. It remains unknown if the missile was fired against a satellite or fired in a suborbital trajectory without hitting a target.

• It’s been reported that the British government is set to buy 50 AH-64E Apaches off-the-shelf from Boeing in a deal expected to be worth $2.9 billion. The announcement confirming the sale is expected to be made at the Royal International Air Tattoo or Farnborough air show in July. This will disappoint Leonardo-Finmeccanica who hoped to instead land the contract producing the helicopters at its Agusta-Westland plant in Yeovil, Somerset.

Asia Pacific

• South Korea is to pursue the development of their own submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) to be fitted on their next generation Chang Bogo-III submarine. This class of boat is planned to be equipped with vertical launch systems, with 10 indigenous Hyunmoo cruise missiles each. The cold launch technology for launching missiles underwater will be based on the S-400 air defense missile, gained from Russia as repayment for loans given to Moscow in 1991.

• This week’s Singapore Shangri-la Dialogue may see sideline discussions between France and India over the closing of a multi-billion sale of 36 Rafale fighters. The defense ministers from both nations will be in attendance, and it’s expected that issues like consensus on actions to be taken in case of a material breach, stringent liability clause, and guarantees by France are likely to be discussed.

Today’s Video

• V-22 Aerial Refueling Proof of Concept: