Americas
L3Harris Technologies won a $34.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for the production and delivery of 31 BRU-75A and BRU-76A Bomb Rack Unit shipsets for the P-8A Lot 13 aircraft, to include 14 for the Navy; 14 for the government of Canada; and three for the government of Germany. Work will be performed in Amityville, New York, and is expected to be completed March 2030. Fiscal 2024 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $15,553,595; and Foreign Military Sales customer funds in the amount of $18,886,508, will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competed. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
XTEND has secured an additional $30 million in funding to expand its US operations and scale production of its AI-powered tactical autonomous robotic systems. The company said the new capital will be used to ramp up manufacturing, integrate real-time AI capabilities, and expand deployments across allied defense forces, as well as in humanitarian and emergency response operations. “The successful completion of our Series B financing highlights the surging demand for mission-critical autonomous systems from allied defense and public safety agencies,” XTEND CEO Aviv Shapira said.
Middle East & Africa
Israel’s military said it was striking military vehicles belonging to government forces in the Sweida area of southern Syria, after Syrian state media reported a new strike on the Druze-majority city. “The (Israeli army) began striking military vehicles belonging to Syrian regime forces in the area of Sweida in southern Syria,” a military statement said, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered the army to “immediately strike regime forces and weaponry that were brought into the Sweida region in the the Druze mountains in Syria in order to carry out operations against the Druze.”
Europe
The Spanish military plans to procure over 200 self-propelled howitzers to replace its aging fleet of M109 guns. The planned acquisition will be of both wheeled and tracked artillery units and associated vehicles under two separate subprograms for over $3.51 billion. Under the first subprogram, a total of 128 tracked howitzers will reportedly be procured.
Asia-Pacific
The largest-ever war-fighting drills in Australia, Exercise Talisman Sabre, are underway and expected to attract the attention of Chinese spy ships. Australia launched missiles from its M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, on Monday during live-fire exercises at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, a 1,700-square-mile Outback expanse in Queensland state. The HIMARS launchers were recently bought from the United States.