Sikorsky To Upgrade Jolly Green II | DoS Approved FMS For Training Jordanian F-16 Pilots | Kongsberg To Upgrade Sentinel Radar

Americas

The US Air Force is to contract Sikorsky to upgrade its HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopter to improve on the 2012 requirements baseline. According to the service, the manufacturer is to bring the capabilities of the Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) up to today’s specifications, ahead of the commencement of full rate production in fiscal year 2022. Under the potential five-year deal for rolling capability upgrades to both the helicopter’s hardware and software systems, Sikorsky stands to receive up to $980 million.

Work to integrate the AN/SPY-6 radar on the new Aegis Flight III guided-missile destroyer, the future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), has started. Installation is being carried out at the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. “As the future USS Jack Lucas takes shape, we are at the cusp of a new era for detection and discrimination of threats and decision-making at sea,” said Capt. Jason Hall, program manager for Above-Water Sensors for the US Navy’s Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems. “SPY-6 will fill critical mission gaps and enable precision operations in jammed and cluttered environments like never before.”

Middle East & Africa

The US State Department that it has approved an FMS package to Jordan, worth about $60 million, for an F-16 air combat training centre and related equipment. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) delivered the required certification on February 11 to notify Congress of this possible sale. The government of Jordan has asked to buy an F-16 Air Combat Training Center and related equipment, which includes full mission trainers, combat tactics trainers, instructor/operator stations, tactical environment simulators and brief/debrief stations, as well as technical support and documentation. “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a Major Non-NATO Ally that is an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” the DSCA’s announcement said.

Europe

The French defense procurement agency has awarded Thales and Airbus a contract for the new joint tactical signals intelligence (SIGINT) system to upgrade the French forces’ critical signals monitoring, direction finding and spectrum analysis capabilities. The tactical SIGINT programme will upgrade the electronic warfare capabilities of front-line units, providing a set of high-performance portable or vehicle-mounted assets compatible with the latest communications technologies.

Kongsberg disclosed that it has been awarded $31 million by the Norwegian Materiel Defense Agency to upgrade the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) portion of the Sentinel radar for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). “Norway continues to upgrade their ground-based air defense capability by implementing the latest available technology. The modernization will enhance NATO commonality and reinforce the NASAMS capability,” says Kjetil Reiten Myhra, Executive Vice President of Integrated Defense Systems in Kongsberg.

Asia-Pacific

The Times Now News from India has reported that the Indian Army has leased four Heron unmanned air vehicles from Israel as part of an emergency procurement program. The news coincide with a press release from IAI recently on the lease of two Herons to an unnamed country in Asia. The lease comes with the defense ministry changing the rules and allowing for the leasing of certain weapon systems. Similarly, the Navy has leased Predator drones from the United States.

Today’s Video

Watch: First HH-60W Jolly Green II Helicopters Arrive At Moody

Pave Hawks – New Combat Rescue Helicopter

In 2006 the US Air Force awarded Boeing a contract worth north of $10 billion for 141 HH-47 combat search-and-rescue helicopters, but by mid-2009 the CSAR-X program was cancelled during its System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase by the Pentagon. At the time Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote that this program had “a troubled acquisition history and raises the fundamental question of whether this important mission can only be accomplished by yet another single-service solution.”

That cancellation may have been warranted, but the underlying operational constraints are increasing as years go by, with a tentative replacement for aging helicopters that keeps slipping. In 2012, the Air Force got the green light to take another crack at it. The competition narrowed to a single bidder, and after wobbly budgetary announcements, the program was greenlighted. By the end of 2014 it was officially designated as HH-60W.

AMDR: Raytheon Wins Dual-Band Radar, Pending Protest

The US Navy’s Dual-Band Radar that equips its forthcoming Gerald R. Ford class super-carriers replaces several different radars with a single back-end. Merging Raytheon’s X-band SPY-3 with Lockheed Martin’s S-band VSR allows fewer radar antennas, faster response time, faster adaptation to new situations, one-step upgrades to the radar suite as a whole, and better utilization of the ship’s power, electronics, and bandwidth.

Rather than using that existing Dual-Band Radar design in new surface combatant ships, however, the “Air and Missile Defense Radar” (AMDR) aims to fulfill DG-51 Flight III destroyer needs through a new competition for a similar dual-band radar. It could end up being a big deal for the winning radar manufacturer, and for the fleet. If, and only if, the technical, power, and weight challenges can be mastered at an affordable price.

Israel Sells Heron UAVs to India, Leases to Germany Imminent, Signs contract with Vietnam

In November 2005, media reports claimed that India was set to purchase some 50 Heron MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) UAVs from Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) in a deal worth $220 million. They would be put to use carrying out reconnaissance missions on India’s mountainous borders with China and Pakistan, and along India’s long coastal waters. India was said to have been close to sealing the deal in 2004, but it was postponed due to the change in governments in New Delhi.

The Heron’s performance during the December 2004 tsunami apparently clinched the deal. Its performance since, and Chinese aggression on the Indian border, has green-lighted a follow-on contract.