Americas
Raytheon won a $38 million modification to previously awarded contract for an option exercise and the award of a technical refresh of DDG-1000 Class Total Ship Computing Environment Hardware in support of Zumwalt Test Facility Ship Mission Center, peripherals and spares hardware. Work will be performed in Manchester, New Hampshire; Nashua, New Hampshire; Portsmouth, Rhode Island; and San Diego, California, and expected to complete by May 2027. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DS, is the contracting activity.
The US Army has issued a request for information (RFI) regarding a new large drone that can support large-scale combat operations. The unmanned aerial system (UAS) should fall under Group 4 or 5 (more than 1,320 pounds/600 kilograms), or the same category as the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1C Gray Eagle. It must be able to perform precision strike, surveillance, reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, and command-and-control missions.
Middle East & Africa
The Tunisian Armed Forces are set to enhance their training capabilities with a comprehensive upgrade of their primary training area at Ben Ghilouf. This development comes following the publication of detailed plans on the US government’s System for Award Management (SAM) website on May 15. The upgrade project is currently in its third phase, as indicated by a solicitation from the US Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command. This phase involves the construction of a new life support area (LSA), which will include seven barracks buildings with the capacity to house 630 personnel, two dining facilities that can serve 430 individuals simultaneously, and two ablution blocks.
Europe
In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Donbas.Realii project, Brig. Gen. Sergiy Golubtsov, Chief of Aviation for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, discussed the ongoing integration of Western weapons and future plans for advanced Western fighter jets. Golubtsov acknowledged the challenges of using Western-made bombs like JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) and missiles like HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) on Soviet-era Ukrainian aircraft. He emphasized the effectiveness of these weapons but conceded limitations due to incompatibility issues. However, he highlighted the development of Ukrainian-made guided bombs based on existing Soviet-era unguided munitions with added indigenous guidance kits. Testing of these indigenous glide bombs will commence in a few weeks. Ukrainians had to overcome the difficulties of selecting the correct wing, GPS module and control modules first.
Asia-Pacific
The US and Philippine armies have inaugurated an operations center at Fort Magsaysay, Central Luzon to support the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center-Exportable (JPMRC-X). JPMRC-X is a rotational deployment approach to upskill American warfighters in varying conditions across the Indo-Pacific region. It will coincide with this year’s iteration of Exercise Salaknib, an annual bilateral training with Manila’s troops, from June 1 to 10. According to the US Army, the operations center will facilitate real-time planning, information exchange, and execution of military operations for JPMRC-X participants.
