NG Tapped For Hawkeye Inspection | UAE Deployed 1st Barak | Poland To Lease MQ-9s

Americas

Northrop Grumman won a $31.6 million deal, which provides for the inspection and teardown of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye fatigue test article to identify fatigue critical locations and demonstrate that the E-2D aircraft structure satisfy the program’s service life requirement. Work will take place in Florida, New York and California. Expected completion will be in June 2027.

BAE Systems won an $11.2 million contract to provide systems engineering and integration in support of US Trident II (D5) Strategic Weapons System Program D5 Life Extension 2 Strategic Systems Programs Alteration. Tasks to be performed include technical planning, requirements management and integration of Strategic Systems Programs subsystems including interface with the Columbia common missile compartment; configuration management, system security engineering, safety engineering support and infrastructure operations model-based engineering and information systems program acquisition. Work will take place in Maryland, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Maryland and Florida. Work will be finished by October 20, 2024.

Middle East & Africa

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deployed its first Barak air defense system from Israel, according to a report by Breaking Defense, citing defense sources. The development comes a few months after Abu Dhabi quietly reached out to Jerusalem following a drone and missile attack by the Houthis on some of the country’s critical infrastructure.

Europe

Poland will lease a number of MQ-9A unmanned air vehicles from General Atomics while it prepares to acquire the MQ-9B. The country’s Armaments Agency concluded the $70 million contract on October 20. The planned acquisition of an undisclosed number of aircraft is poised to make the  Polish Armed Forces the first military on NATO’s eastern flank to purchase the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drone.

Lithuania says that it has placed an order unspecific number of Bolide and MK-2 missiles for the RBS 70 air defense system. The contract is worth $45 million and will Lithuanian Defense Ministry says it will help to achieve a “more effective execution of air defence tasks.”

Asia-Pacific

Lockheed won a $49.6 million modification, which provides non-recurring engineering and add/delete efforts to bring 12 MH-60R aircraft from standard Foreign Military Sales configuration to a unique configuration for the government of Australia. Additionally, this modification procures 12 Australian unique modification one kits and 10 embedded Global Positioning System Inertial Navigation Systems spares. Work will take place in New York, Connecticut and Alabama. Expected completion will be in December 2026.

Today’s Video

WATCH: The Indo Israeli Barak 8 Air Defense System

Australia’s MH-60R Maritime Helicopters

Australia’s AIR 9000, Phase 8 project aimed to buy 24 modern naval helicopters to 16 existing S-70B-2 Seahawks, along with the disastrous A$1.1 billion, 11-helicopter SH-2G “Super Seasprite” acquisition attempt. With a total sales and support value of over A$ 3 billion, it was a highly coveted award.

The finalists were familiar, and both had roots in Australia. Sikorsky’s MH-60R is a modernized descendant of the RAN’s existing S-70B anti-submarine helicopters, and Australia’s army operates the S-70A utility helicopter. On the other hand, a multi-billion dollar 2006 order made the European NH90-TTH (“MRH-90”) the Army’s future helicopter, and some MRH-90s will even serve as Navy utility helicopters. NHI/Eurocopter’s NH90-NFH naval variant builds on that base. So why did the MH-60R make Australia its 1st export win?