Americas
General Dynamics won a $17.7 million contract modification for the US Ship Harry S Truman (CVN-75) fiscal 2020 extended continuous incremental availability. The USS Harry S. Truman is the eighth Nimitz Class aircraft carrier of the US Navy. The Truman will be returning home mid-month after remaining at sea the past few months to protect the crew from COVID-19 following a deployment to the Middle East. In early April, the Navy decided to keep the Truman Carrier Strike Group at sea in the Atlantic for the “sustainment phase” where the group would remain safe from COVID-19 and in a high readiness state in case they were called upon to quickly deploy again. An extended continuous incremental availability (ECIA) includes the planning and execution of depot-level maintenance, alterations and modifications that will update and improve the ship’s military and technical capabilities. The fiscal 2020 U.S. Ship Harry S. Truman ECIA is comprised of 117 total work items. The nuclear aircraft carrier’s (CVN) private sector maintenance addresses the maintenance, repair and modernization efforts for CVN 68 Class home, ported-in and visiting the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area, as well as for selected non-nuclear propulsion plant repairs while coordinating with the Naval Supervising Activity, Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY), to properly integrate their efforts with nuclear propulsion plant work conducted by NNSY. Work will take place in Portsmouth, Virginia. Estimated completion will be by January 2021.
On Twitter, Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday, announced that he has directed staff to begin preparing an order that would prohibit the Confederate battle flag from all public spaces and work areas aboard Navy installations, ships, aircraft and submarines. Also on Tuesday, Army leadership expressed an openness to renaming posts named in honor of the Confederacy. “The order is meant to ensure unit cohesion, preserve good order and discipline, and uphold the Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment,” Gilday wrote. The Navy told Politico that the service is “open” to renaming the service’s 10 bases and facilities that are named after Confederate leaders. Installation and symbols like statues of Confederate leaders have come under renewed national scrutiny in the last five years and again in the two weeks since the death of George Floyd.
Middle East & Africa
Turkey agreed in principle with Russia to procure a second batch of S-400 air defense systems, local news reports. This will include a road map for achieving joint production and technology transfer to Turkey. The deployment of the first batch of S-400 air defense systems was delayed due to the global pandemic and was not complete by April 2020 as previously planned. Despite this setback, Turkey assured that eventually the systems will be deployed and used in spite of the US threats of sanctions against the country.
Europe
The United Kingdom deployed operational Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning Strike Fighters aboard the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier for the first time. Four aircraft from the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron, known as ‘the Dambusters’, arrived on HMS Queen Elizabeth on June 9 following the earlier embarkation of support personnel from the unit. As noted by Commander Air on board Queen Elizabeth, Commander Ed Phillips, the arrival of the first operational jets marks a major milestone in the standing-up of the UK’s carrier strike capability ahead of the ship’s first operational deployment in 2021. According to the RN, Queen Elizabeth will now enter an intense period of flying having just successfully completed four weeks of basic sea training. The aim is to demonstrate that the F-35Bs can successfully defend the aircraft carrier by delivering combat air patrols and being ready to launch at short notice.
Asia-Pacific
Lockheed Martin won a $70.2 million contract to support Aegis development for the Navy, as well as the governments of Japan, South Korea and Norway. The deal funds Aegis weapon system upgrades to the USS Ticonderoga and USS Arleigh Burke as well as Aegis ballistic missile defense and foreign military sales requirements. It also supports continued technical engineering, configuration management, associated equipment/supplies, quality assurance, information assurance and other operations and maintenance efforts required for the Aegis development and test sites. The Aegis combat system is capable of simultaneous operations against multi-mission threats: anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare. It was first installed on the USS Ticonderoga, which was commissioned in 1983, and is still used on Ticonderoga and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Work will take place in Moorestown, New Jersey. Expected completion date is in June 2021.
An An-124 cargo plane has delivered an Anasis 2 communications satellite on June 8 to Cape Canaveral. The military communications satellite will be launched into space aboard a Falcon 9 rocket next month. The satellite was previously designated as KMilSatCom 1 and is owned by the South Korean government. Seoul bought the satellite as part of the offset arrangements for its purchase of F-35As. Lockheed Martin subcontracted the manufacture of the satellite to Airbus. Anasis 2 is based on the Eurostar E3000 spacecraft platform.
Today’s Video
Watch: Watch the Largest F-35 Show of Force in History
