August 15, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
May 4, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Finnish officials begin sifting through final HX fighter offers
The government in Helsinki received finals offers from five vendors for the multibillion-dollar HX fighter competition, kicking off an evaluation phase slated to run through the remainder of 2021.
On the same subject
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November 27, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Northrop Grumman Receives $4.8 Billion Contract for USAF Global Hawk Modernization
Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $4,800,000,000 contract for Global Hawk surveillance drone development, modernization, retrofit and sustainment activities for all Air Force Global Hawk variants, a Pentagon contract announcement said. This contract provides for management, including program, business and technical areas; configuration management, data management, reliability, availability and maintainability. Technical refresh; studies and analyses; design, development, integration, test and evaluation; contract/production line closeout/shutdown; training; sparing; overseas contingency operations support; fielding; cyber security/information assurance; interoperability support; facilities modifications/renovation; integrated logistics support; requirements management specification management; and quality assurance. Guidance will be included within each individual delivery order/task order statement of work and performance work statement regarding these and other tasks. This contract provides flexibility to accommodate the broad enterprise of activities associated with the Global Hawk program. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed Sept. 30, 2030. Global Hawk drones provide the US Air Force with wide area surveillance. The high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned system provides leading-edge intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability that is able to deliver near real-time 24X7 situational awareness. https://www.defenseworld.net/news/28395#.X8FOaM1KiUk
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August 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace
US Air Force may have accidentally revealed interest in hypersonic nuke
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has issued, and quietly revoked, a solicitation to industry seeking technologies that would support a hypersonic glide vehicle capable of traversing intercontinental ranges, potentially signaling the military's interest in a hypersonic nuclear weapon. According to an Aug. 12 request for information first reported by Aviation Week, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center sought ideas for potential upgrades to intercontinental ballistic missiles, including a “thermal protection system that can support [a] hypersonic glide to ICBM ranges.” The items listed as potential ICBM upgrades were all marked “unclassified/for official use only,” which notes information that — while not secret — is not normally released to the public. The RFI was then withdrawn after Aviation Week began inquiring about it, the report noted. Asked about the RFI on Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, said the service's next-generation ICBMs — known as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent — will not be available as a hypersonic variant when it is fielded in the late 2020s. “With a weapon system that's going to be fielded until the 2070 time frame, it's hard to know exactly where we may go with that down the road,” he during an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “Right now, though, the threshold warhead does not include hypersonic glide vehicles. I think I can say that safely without talking too much about what the warheads will look like.” However, he noted that GBSD's open-architecture backbone makes it able to adopt emerging technologies. He did not comment specifically on whether a hypersonic glide vehicle was under consideration. As we bring the system online, we will ensure that we have the ability to roll different technologies in and to incorporate that into GBSD,” he said. “And that's one of the, I think, best features ... of GBSD, is that it's going to give us that flexibility. So that if we decide down the road that there's a particular technology that needs to be incorporated, we'll be able to do that.” As the sole bidder in the GBSD competition, Northrop Grumman is expected to win an estimated $85 billion over the life of the program. A contract award is slated to occur by September, although Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said in April that she expected a decision this month. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/nuclear-arsenal/2020/08/19/the-air-force-might-be-eyeing-a-hypersonic-nuclear-weapon/