Raytheon/Lockheed Tapped For Javelin Support | Nigeria Gets 1st 6 A-29s | India To Buy F404 Engines For Tejas

Americas

Sikorsky Aircraft won a $26.9 million contract modification for UH-60M Foreign Military Sales green aircraft. UH-60 Black Hawk is a multi-mission helicopter developed by Sikorsky that has been operational in the US Army since 1978. Work will take place in Connecticut. Estimated completion date is June 30, 2022.

Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin JV won an $8.6 million modification to support Javelin engineering services. The Javelin is a man-portable anti tank missile. Raytheon is responsible for the command launch unit (CLU), missile guidance electronic unit, system software and system engineering management. Lockheed Martin is responsible for the missile seeker, engineering and assembly. Work will take place in Arizona. Estimated completion date is February 15, 2023.

Middle East & Africa

vEurope

HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike Group has sailed into the Indian Ocean Region having recently transited the Suez Canal.  Following a series of successful engagements and operations in the Mediterranean it is now sailing East across the Indian Ocean towards India, according to the Ministry of Defense.

Asia-Pacific

A press release from the British High Commission New Delhi says the UK Carrier Strike Group will soon conduct exercises with the Indian Navy. The High Commission says the deployment represents Britain’s “commitment to deepening diplomatic, economic and security ties with India and in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Negotiations by India to buy 100 General Electric F404 turbofan engines for the Tejas Mk1A fighter are about to be completed, new reports from India say. These will power the 83 Tejas Mk1A that the Indian Air Force recently ordered.

Today’s Video

Watch: Here’s the most insane ability of A-29 Tucano in Action

Pilum High: The Javelin Anti-Armor Missile

The FGM-148 Javelin missile system aimed to solve 2 key problems experienced by American forces. One was a series of disastrous experiences in Vietnam, trying to use 66mm M72 LAW rockets against old Soviet tanks. A number of replacement options like the Mk 153 SMAW and the AT4/M136 spun out of that effort in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until electronics had miniaturized for several more cycles that it became possible to solve the next big problem: the need for soldiers to remain exposed to enemy fire while guiding anti-tank missiles to their targets.

Javelin solves both of those problems at once, offering a heavy fire-and-forget missile that will reliably destroy any enemy armored vehicle, and many fortifications as well. While armored threats are less pressing these days, the need to destroy fortified outposts and rooms in buildings remains. Indeed, one of the lessons from both sides of the 2006 war in Lebanon has been the infantry’s use of guided missiles as a form of precision artillery fire. Javelin isn’t an ideal candidate for that latter role, due to its high cost-per-unit; nevertheless, it has often been used this way. Its performance in Iraq has revealed a clear niche on both low and high intensity battlefields, and led to rising popularity with American and international clients.