Americas
* Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $243.9 million contract to deliver 72 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars to the USAF, as well as spares and support services. Work will be carried out at Linthicum Heights, Maryland, and is expected to be complete by January 31, 2019. Eight of the radars have been earmarked to be retrofitted on F-16s assigned to the Oklahoma Air National Guard at Tulsa. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
* Lockheed Martin has been contracted to deliver Lot 15 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles Extended Range (JASSM-ER) to the USAF. Valued at $413.8 million, 360 missiles alongside engineering and testing equipment will be delivered under the order, which is expected to run until August 21, 2020. This order brings to 910 the number of JASSM-ER missiles under contract with Lockheed, and over 3,000 missiles when combining all JASSM variants.
Middle East & North Africa
* The Lebanese Army has received the first five of an eventual fifteen armored vehicles agreed under a $33.6 million deal with former French President Francois Hollande. The batch, which included two refurbished armored vanguard vehicles and three others to supply spare parts, was handed over during a ceremony in the presence of Gen. Bertrand Boyard, head of the French Armament Control Division of the Armed Forces General Staff, as well as Lebanese and French officers. the operational vehicles supplied will also be equipped with the HOT long-range anti-tank system.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that his government is ready to supply the S-400 air defense system to Turkey, although a deal may be further away than expected. Putin discussed the matter recently during meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan as relations between the two leaders improve while relations between Erdogan and NATO allies continue to strain. Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik dismissed ditching an alliance friendly system in favor of a Russian one saying that “NATO member countries have not presented an offer which is financially effective.”
Europe
* Three offers have been received for Renault Trucks Defense (RTD) as part of a disposal by Volvo of its group government sales unit. The French-German joint venture KNDS, Belgian firm CMI and private equity firm Advent have all made non-binding preliminary offers and a shortlist of preferred bidders is expected to be drawn up in the next three weeks. KNDS are currently working with RTD on the French Army’s Scorpion modernization program, and if they are chosen as the preferred bidder, RTD would join as a third partner to the French-German joint venture rather than face a shut down.
Asia Pacific
* Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to increase the number of fighter jets operated by its air force after ordering 12 FA-50 light fighters from South Korea. “By the time I am out of office, you will have about 24 jet planes,” Duterte announced. He added that Manilla will also cease to receive second-hand military equipment from the US in favor of newer models and hinted that this could be purchased from Russia and China. The Philippine budget allocates more than 100 billion pesos ($2 billion) to modernize the military’s equipment under a five-year plan, spending 25 billion pesos this year on acquisitions from South Korea and Israel.
* Australia’s government is to invest $75.2 million in the procurement of small UAVs for its military. The deal is to occur in two tranches with the initial procurement of AeroVironment’s Wasp AE UAVs with the second tranche expected to be carried out within the next 10 years and will see the Wasps either upgraded or replaced by another system. A government statement added that the acquisition will go towards giving Australian front line troops world-class surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
* Pakistan has been revealed as the undisclosed buyer from Saab, of three Saab 2000 turboprops equipped with Erieye radars in the $155 million deal. These will be added to Islamabad’s airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) assets which already includes four Saab 2000 AEW&C platforms in addition to four Chinese-produced Shaanxi Y-8’s configured to carry out AEW&C missions. Saab will conduct deliveries from 2017 to 2020, with the order to be booked within the next six months.
Today’s Video
* Russia tests Iskander-M during exercises in Tajikistan:
