Lockheed Tapped For JASSM Replacement | General Dynamics To Provide Knifefish Engineering Services | Polish Company to Produce Mk 82 Bombs

Americas

Lockheed Martin won a $23.6 million contract modification to replace joint air to surface standoff missile (JASSM) anti-jam GPS receiver with a new JASSM Anti-Jam GPS Receiver (JAGR), because of obsolescence. According to Lockheed Martin, JASSM is a long-range, conventional, air-to-ground, precision standoff missile for the US and allied forces. Designed to destroy high-value, well-defended, fixed and relocatable targets, JASSM’s significant standoff range keeps aircrews well out of danger from hostile air defense systems. JASSM is a 2,000-pound class weapon with a penetrator/blast fragmentation warhead. Work will take place in Orlando, Florida, and is scheduled to be finished by March 31, 2023.

General Dynamics Missions Systems won a $9.2 million fixed-fee modification in support of the Knifefish. The deal provides engineering services for ongoing development, test, and production of the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) program. Knifefish is a heavyweight class Mine Countermeasure (MCM) Unmanned Undersea Vehicle designed for deployment off the Littoral Combat Ship. The Knifefish UUV provides the mine warfare commander with enhanced mine-hunting capability in a contested environment. Engineering services hours are used for a number of efforts, including test and evaluation, engineering change proposal development, and pre-planned product improvement initiatives. General Dynamics will perform work within the US and estimated completion date is in July, 2020.

Middle East & Africa

Reuters reports that Turkey expects temporary losses for its defense company after the US removed Turkey from the F-35 Fighter jet program. However, the head of Turkey’s Defense Industry Directorate, Ismail Demir, thinks the industry will bounce back even stronger in the longterm. “Our companies may face losses initially, and even though issues like sanctions and more may lead to temporary losses for the defense industry, we think it will result in our defense industry becoming stronger,” he said. Ismail Demir also said the USA’s move was unilateral and not in line with the agreement signed between the parties, and added that Turkey would continue meeting its commitments until its exclusion from the program is finalized.

Europe

RWM Italia certified Nitro-Chef Chemical Plant, a subsidiary of the Polish Armaments Group, to produce the Mk 82 bomb. President of the company, Krzysztof Kozlowski, says production has started for delivery to the Polish Air Force. Two hundred bombs have been ordered. The two companies have signed the deal in November 2017. RWM Italia is part of the Rheinmetall Defense Group – a certified world leader in the production of aerial bombs. The Mk-82 aerial bomb is used to arm Polish F-16 multi-task aircraft. The RWM Italia-certified bomb produced in Poland fulfills the quality requirements set by RWM Italia and is fully interchangeable with the Italian-produced Mk-82 bomb. The Polish bomb will be used in modern aerial bomb configurations thanks to its compatibility with systems used by Raytheon and Boeing. Over the last three years, the Polish Air Force has ordered 1,300 bombs of this type.

Jane’s reports that Russia’s Central Military District’s combined arms and reconnaissance units have received 6,000 AK-74M assault rifles with the Obves upgrade kits. “The district has received six thousand 5.45 mm AK-74M assault rifles fitted out with the Obves modernized equipment sets. The new assault rifles have got the Picatinny rail, which makes it possible to fix any detachable equipment“, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Kuzin, the acting head of the missile and artillery weapons service, has said. The KM-AK includes the AK-200 series’ multislotted combination flash suppressor and compensator handguard, index finger operable fire-selector plate, left-side-folding telescoping buttstock, and finger moulded pistol grip.

Asia-Pacific

The 14th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation gives a glimpse on future AEW aircraft, local media reports. In an article introducing AEW system aircraft written by the 14th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) and posted on its public WeChat account on Tuesday, the company not only gave an overview on the history and facts of AEW carrying aircraft around the world, but also shared its vision on how this type of warplane could develop in the future. China’s top radar firm said, future airborne early warning aircraft could become unmanned, interconnected and highly intelligent.

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Focused Lethality: The Mk82 QRC Program

The “Focused Lethality Munition” is a variant of the 250 pound Small Diameter Bomb I that changes its casing and internal fill, in order to produce more devastating effects within a smaller area. A carbon-fiber bomb body disintegrates instead of fragmenting, which adds explosive force nearby, but largely removes sharpnel issues farther away. Inside, metal particles turn the bomb’s explosive material into short-range projectiles. The result is especially useful in urban areas, in situations where friendly elements are close to the impact zone, and in campaigns fought using contemporary American counter-insurgency doctrine.

Now the USA wants a bigger, but still confined, bang. Enter the Precision Lethality MK82 Quick Reaction Capability Program, designed to turn 500 pound bombs into similar but larger weapons.