USAF And Boeing Agree on Pegasus RVS Design | German Tornados Return From Jordan | Netherlands Receive New CH-47

Americas

The US Air Force has come to an agreement with Boeing for the final KC-46A Pegasus Remote Vision System design. Two agreements were reached on April 2 to be incorporated in the KC-46 contract. The first Memorandum of Agreement institutes the redesign and retrofit of RVS 2.0 in full compliance with the contract requirements at no additional cost to the government. This agreement addresses deficiencies that hindered safe and effective refueling operations. The other agreement is to previously withheld contract payments to help Boeing counter Covid-19 impacts. This amount is worth $882 million for 33 KC-46s delivered so far. Within 120 days, the Air Force and Boeing will conduct an expedited process to determine final specification compliance or non-compliance.

Huntington Ingalls Industries won a $1.5 billion contract modification for the procurement of the detail design and construction of Landing Platform Dock (LPD) Class 31 and the LPD 17 Flight II ship. LPD 31 will be the 15th in the San Antonio class and the second Flight II LPD. Ingalls’ LPD Flight II program vendor base consists of more than 600 manufacturers and suppliers in 39 states, including 387 small businesses. More than 1,500 shipbuilders work on each LPD. Ingalls has delivered 11 San Antonio class ships to the Navy, and it has three more under construction. The San Antonio class is a major part of the Navy’s 21st century amphibious assault force. Work will take place in Mississippi, Virginia, Wisconsin and Louisiana. Work is expected to be finished by February 2027.

Middle East & Africa

Tornado reconnaissance aircraft of Tactical Air Force Wing 33 returned to their home base at Büchel from Al-Asraq, Jordan, on April 2, the Bundeswehr announced. Their homecoming ended a four-year mission against the Islamic State, starting from Incirlik, Turkey, in January 2016, and continuing from Al-Asraq starting in October 2017. During that period, the four Luftwaffe Tornados clocked up 7,500 flying hours during 2,467 missions, including more than 870 from Al-Asraq, collecting about 114,000 images for Operation ‘Inherent Resolve’, according to the Bundeswehr.

Europe

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics won a $512 million contract for F-16 Block 70 production for the Republic of Bulgaria. This contract value includes $4,185,516 of pre-priced options. The contract provides for the production of eight F-16 Block 70 aircraft. The F-16 Block 70 and Block 72 aircraft variants combine capability upgrades, most notably the advanced Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, with new avionics architecture and structural upgrades to extend the structural life of the aircraft. Nations like the United States, Belgium, Israel, South Korea, Poland, Portugal, Turkey and others have deployed this aircraft in their arsenal. Work related to the deal will be completed in Fort Worth, Texas, and Greenville, South Carolina,, Estimated completion date is January 31, 2027.

Boeing delivered the first of14 new-build CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to be built to the latest US Army standard to the Netherlands, the manufacturer announced on April 3. The helicopter, which is the first to be built for the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) with the advanced digital cockpit, was formally handed over at Boeing’s production facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As noted by Boeing, delivery of the remaining aircraft is expected to continue into 2021. The Netherlands currently fields 11 CH-47D helicopters that it first received in 1995 and six early-standard CH-47F helicopters that began arriving in 2012. Boeing is also to temporarily suspend production activities at its Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, facilities – the location of the CH-47’s final assembly line – for two weeks after the end of the working day on April 3, due to measures adopted during the coronavirus pandemic.

Asia-Pacific

South Korea is working hard to prepare its RQ-4fleet for initial operations this year. An anonymous military source told Yonhap that work is progressing smoothly. South Korea brought in the RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) in December and has been working to put it in operation. A reconnaissance squadron was established in charge of the asset that month. Under a 2011 deal with the United States, South Korea purchased four units. The remaining three had been expected to arrive here in the first half of this year, but the schedule is not fixed, according to officials.

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