Lockheed Wins Deal To Support Apaches | Russian Military Gets A-50U AWACS | USN And RAAF Get Multi-Spectral Targeting System

Americas

Lockheed Martin won a $102.4 million deal for production and delivery of hardware components and spares of the Apache Attack Helicopter Modernized Target Acquisition Designation/Pilot Night Vision Sensor System. The Apache Arrowhead (also Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor or M-TADS/PNVS), is an integrated targeting and night vision system developed by Lockheed Martin for the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order. Estimated completion date is July 31, 2024.

General Atomics won a $69.9 million deal that provides non-recurring engineering and program management services in support of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) system for the CVN 81 aircraft carrier, minus energy storage subsystem. The deal provides for the evaluation, production, manufacture, assembly, integration and test of engineering changes to product hardware, software, technical data, and logistics products throughout the configuration management process associated with the EMALS and AAG system for the CVN 81 aircraft carrier, minus the energy storage subsystem. Work will take place in California. Estimated completion will be in December 2023.

Middle East & Africa

Israel unveiled a package of “confidence-building measures” for the occupied West Bank, after Defense Minister Benny Gantz hosted talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on his first visit in years. Abbas, leading a high-ranking delegation on his first visit to Israel for an official meeting since 2010, held talks with Gantz at his home in the central town of Rosh HaAyin, according to Israeli sources and media. After the rare visit, which drew condemnation from the enclave’s Hamas rulers, an Israeli was wounded in a shooting attack on the Gaza border on Wednesday, the military said.

Europe

Russia’s state-owned Rostec handed over modernized A-50U long-range Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) aircraft to the military. The A-50U can detect fundamentally new types of aircraft, and is also capable of simultaneously tracking a greater number of targets and guided fighters than the previous modification.

The US State Department last week approved the sale of 230 Javelin FGM-148F anti-tank Missiles and 20 Javelin Command Launch Units (CLUs) to the Lithuanian Army for an estimated cost of $125 million. The original Foreign Military Sale (FMS), valued at $28.23 million, included one hundred eleven (111) Javelin FGM-148F missiles and ten (10) Javelin CLUs. Therefore, this notification is for a total of three hundred forty-one (341) Javelin FGM-148F missiles and thirty (30) Javelin CLUs.

Asia-Pacific

Raytheon won a $23.2 million deal for the procurement of multi-spectral targeting systems for the US Navy Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). These systems provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) detection, identification and targeting capability in day/night operations for both manned and unmanned platforms. Work will take place in Texas. Estimated completion will be by March 2023.

Today’s Video

Watch: Episode 86. The A-50: Chasing the Invisible

EMALS/ AAG: Electro-Magnetic Launch & Recovery for Carriers

As the US Navy continues to build its new CVN-21 Gerald R. Ford Class carriers, few technologies are as important to their success as the next-generation EMALS (Electro-MAgnetic Launch System) catapult. The question is whether that technology will be ready in time, in order to avoid either costly delays to the program – or an even more costly redesign of the first ship of class.

Current steam catapult technology is very entertaining when it launches cars more than 100 feet off of a ship, or gives naval fighters the extra boost they need to achieve flight speed within a launch footprint of a few hundred feet. It’s also stressful for the aircraft involved, very maintenance intensive, and not really compatible with modern gas turbine propulsion systems. At present, however, steam is the only option for launching supersonic jet fighters from carrier decks. EMALS aims to leap beyond steam’s limitations, delivering significant efficiency savings, a more survivable system, and improved effectiveness. This free-to-view spotlight article covers the technology, the program, and its progress to date.