Seaspray AESA Radar Flown On MQ-9A | Poland Supplied Ukraine With T-72 | US Army deploys second ARES demonstrator to Indo-Pacific

Americas

Walsh Federal won an $184.8 million deal for construction of an aircraft maintenance hangar at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina.  The work provides for the construction of a two-story, low rise, two squadron maintenance hangar for the F-35B Lightning II aircraft, including a high bay space, crew and equipment space, and administrative space. The deal also contains seven unexercised options, which if exercised would increase cumulative contract value to $206,064,819. Work will take place in North Carolina and is expected to be completed by June 2025.

General Atomics has flown the Leonardo Seaspray 7500E V2 AESA radar on the MQ-9A unmanned air vehicle on April 14. The same radar is being fitted for the MQ-9B SeaGuardian as well. It has a range of 320nm and can scan for both air and surface targets.

Middle East & Africa

Swiftships LLC won a $22.1 million contract action for six 28-meter Coastal Patrol Craft material production kits, Zodiac Rigid Inflatable Boats, Forward Looking Infrared Systems, personal computer packages, associated contractor engineering technical services, and provisioned item orders. This contract includes options, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $26,357,027. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales to Egypt. Work will take place in Louisiana and is expected to be finished bay November 2023.

Europe

Poland’s prime minister has confirmed the country supplied its Soviet-designed T-72 tanks to Ukraine to support the fight against Russia, which invaded Ukraine February 24. The announcement came shortly after his British prime minister Boris Johnson announced plans to supply an undisclosed number of Challenger 2 tanks to Poland to “backfill” the operational needs of its military.

Asia-Pacific

The L3Harris Technologies Airborne Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare System (ARES) demonstrator for the US Army has been flown to the Indo-Pacific. The US Army said the aircraft departed over the weekend, the bombardier Global 6500 business jet “will support real-time intelligence collection and processing, exploitation and dissemination (PED) operations while in the US Army Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility.” The Army wishes to use ARES to inform future sensor and system requirements for the Multi-Domain Sensing System. L3Harris announced the aircraft made its first flight in August 2021 and ARES can fly above 40,000 feet and use Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) to counter long-range threats. Mission endurance is 14 hours.

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Central Biological Chemical Weapons Defense Unit carried out a joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear decontamination study with the US Air Force at Yokota Air Base, Japan on April 18. The study was a two-day event involving familiarization briefings from Airmen assigned to the 374th Airlift Wing and a demonstration of the skills utilized in a CBRN rescue for mass causalities from aircraft such as the C-130, the service said in a press release.

Today’s Video

WATCH: T-72 vs M1 Abrams | Armor Penetration Simulation | NERA