Americas
Lockheed Martin won a $76.7 million modification in support of the AEGIS development and test sites operations. The option is for continued technical engineering, configuration management, associated equipment/supplies, quality assurance, information assurance and other operation and maintenance efforts at the Combat Systems Engineering Development Site, SPY-1A Test Facility and Naval Systems Computing Center. The deal also provides for continued site maintenance and planned improvements of the sites for AEGIS Combat System and Aegis Weapon System upgrades to CG-47 and DDG-51 class ships through the completion of Advanced Capability Build 20 and Technology Insertion 16, in addition to AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense and FMS requirements. The AEGIS Weapon System is a centralized, automated, command-and-control and weapons control system that was designed as a total weapon system, from detection to kill. The modification combines purchases for the US Navy and Missile Defense Agency as well as the governments of Japan, Australia, South Korea and Norway. Work is scheduled to be complete by June 2020.
The US Navy contracted Ultralife with $10 million to procure Universal Vehicle Adapter radio battery chargers, MRC-UVA-V1, in support of the Family of Special Operations Vehicles Ground Mobility Vehicle and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected platforms. The MRC-UVA-V1 is a handheld radio charging solution for vehicle communications. The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected family of vehicles provides soldiers with highly survivable multimission platforms capable of mitigating improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades, explosively formed penetrators, underbody mines and small arms fire threats which produce the greatest number of casualties in Overseas Contingency Operations. Ultralife will perform work in Newark, New York and is expected to be complete in June 2024.
Middle East & Africa
The US Army Contracting Command awarded Sikorsky a $15 million contract modification to procure the Post Green DD250 aircraft support, storage and maintenance for UH-60M aircraft for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of the National Guard. The UH-60M is a variant of the Black Hawk medium-lift utility helicopter. The UH-60M has multi-mission capabilities and features a new airframe, advanced digital avionics and a powerful propulsion system. It can be used to perform tactical transport, utility, combat search-and-rescue, airborne assault, command-and-control, medical evacuation, aerial sustainment, search-and-rescue, disaster relief and fire-fighting. In July 2017, Sikorsky secured a $3.8 billion contract from the US Department of Defense to deliver 142 UH-60M helicopters for the US Army and 115 helicopters to the National Guard of Saudi Arabia. Sikorsky will perform work in Stratford, Connecticut and estimated completion date is April 30, 2022. Foreign Military Sales funds in the full amount were obligated at the time of the award.
Europe
Thales announced that it won a contract to design and build the ground segment for the next-generation Syracuse 4 satellite communication system for the French armed forces. Syracuse 4 is a geostationary military satcom program designed to replace the Syracuse 3A and Syracuse 3B satellites currently in orbit. According to Thales, Syracuse 4 will benefit from Thales’s expertise in satellite communication systems, which the company has built up as a technology orchestrator and integrator in France and internationally. It will rely on the System21 highly secure transmission system to guarantee the availability and confidentiality of all communications and protection against jamming, interference, interception, detection and cyberattacks. This contract will enable French Armed Forces to meet their initial strategic capability objectives for the Scorpion vehicle program, the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier and the Rafale combat aircraft.
According to local reports, Bulgarian president Rumen Radev warned the government not to cut the F-16 fighter aircraft package. The government is in negotiations with the US on the acquisition of new F-16 fighter jets. Radev wants to make sure that the aircraft’s combat capabilities will not be cut back for the sake of lowering the price. The president is a skilled fighter pilot who headed the Bulgarian Air Force before being elected President and Commander-in-Chief. “Every move down and trimming back of this package already leads to the impossibility of achieving the airplane’s operational capabilities, so I expect the government to ensure that there is no cut in the combat capabilities, and Bulgarian taxpayers will not give their money in vain,” Radev said. The government has already received a concrete offer for the acquisition of eight F-16 Block 70 fighter aircraft, It however hopes to reduce it to about $1.2 billion in the framework of negotiations.
Asia-Pacific
The New Zealand government said it has made progress in its program to procure Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from the US government. New Zealand agreed to procure four P-8A aircraft in July 2018. It said at that time that the acquisition – including training systems, infrastructure, and introduction into service costs – would total $1.5 billion. A factsheet released last week states that delivery of the first P-8A to the RNZAF is expected by April 2023 with initial operating capability achieved by July of the same year. The entire fleet of four aircraft is slated to reach final operating capability by 2025.
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