October 21, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Contracts for October 20, 2021
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May 10, 2019 | International, Aerospace
US clears $3 billion Apache sale for Qatar
By: Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has cleared a potential foreign military sale deal of 24 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, in a deal that could be worth up to $3 billion.
The proposed sale would double Qatar's previous procurement of AH-64Es, which are used for “close air support, armed reconnaissance, and anti-tank warfare missions,” according to a notice posted on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency's website Thursday. “The helicopters will provide a long-term defensive and offensive capability to the Qatar peninsula as well as enhance the protection of key oil and gas infrastructure and platforms.”
The notification is not a guarantee of a final sale. Congress can still weigh in, and once cleared by the Hill, negotiations between customer and supplier often lead to different prices or quantities.
Included in the sale are the 24 helicopter bodies, 52 T700-GE-701D engines; 26 AN/ASQ-170 Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation Sight (MTADS); 26 AN/AAQ-11 Modernized Pilot Night Vision Sensors; 2,500 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles; 28 M230 30mm automatic chain guns, as well as other equipment and training.
Primary work will be done at Boeing's Mesa, Ariz., facility, Lockheed Martin's Orlando, Fla,, location and General Electric's Cincinnati, OH facility, as well as other locations. There are no known industrial offsets in the deal.
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December 10, 2018 | International, Aerospace
Air Force wants to house three F-35 squadrons at rebuilt Tyndall, move Raptors permanently
By: Stephen Losey Nearly two months after Hurricane Michael devastated Tyndall Air Force Base in Northern Florida, the Air Force on Friday said it wants to rebuild the installation — so it can station three squadrons of F-35 fighters there. But the change in plans, if approved, would mean operational F-22 Raptors from the 95th Fighter Squadron would not return to Tyndall. The Air Force is asking Congress for supplemental funding to repair Tyndall's damage, the service said in a release. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said the amount of money is still being decided. A preliminary evaluation showed Tyndall could accommodate up to three F-35 squadrons, the Air Force said. If Congress grants the supplemental repair funds and the F-35 basing is approved, F-35s could be based there beginning in 2023. The move would mean operational F-22s that were formerly at Tyndall would be permanently moved to squadrons at other bases that are now temporarily housing them: Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. Those F-22 squadrons would grow from 21 to 24 fighters apiece to permanently accommodate the Tyndall aircraft. “We have recommended that the best path forward to increase readiness and use money wisely is to consolidate the operational F-22s formerly at Tyndall in Alaska, Hawaii and Virginia, and make the decision now to put the next three squadrons of F-35s, beyond those for which we have already made decisions, at Tyndall,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said. “We are talking with congressional leaders about this plan and will need their help with the supplemental funding needed to restore the base." This decision will allow the Air Force to tailor the new construction at Tyndall to the best fit for F-35s, the Air Force said. The 325th Fighter Wing, which was comprised of two F-22 squadrons, was located at Tyndall before the Oct. 10 storm. Most Tyndall aircraft evacuated before the storm hit, but 17 Raptors could not be flown and stayed behind, sustaining varying levels of damage that is now being repaired. Nearly a month after the storm, Wilson said that F-22 training with the 43rd Fighter Squadron would be temporarily moved to nearby Eglin Air Force Base. The Air Force said it will conduct a formal process to decide what will be the best location for the 43rd and its training mission. The 95th has 21 F-22s and 36 active-duty airmen, the Air Force said last month, and its associated maintenance units have about 500 airmen. F-35 basing decisions in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin, which have already been announced, will not be changed. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/12/07/air-force-wants-to-house-three-f-35-squadrons-at-rebuilt-tyndall-move-raptors-permanently
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October 29, 2018 | International, C4ISR
Microsoft, Amazon pledge to work with Pentagon following anonymous online rebukes
By Aaron Gregg Microsoft executives launched a spirited defense of their work with the U.S. military on Friday in a blog post written by company president Brad Smith, who pledged to work with Pentagon as it embarks on a multibillion-dollar effort to build advanced artificial intelligence capabilities into its operations. Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos offered a similar statement last week at a conference in San Francisco hosted by Wired Magazine. “If big tech companies are going to turn their back on the Department of Defense, this country is going to be in trouble,” Bezos said at the conference. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The two companies are responding to a broader wave of discontent that has complicated the efforts of Silicon Valley tech companies to work with the military. Search giant Google recently announced it would disallow its advanced algorithms to be used in weapons systems, and separately said it would decline to bid on a $10 billion opportunity to build the Pentagon's departmentwide cloud computing infrastructure. That contract, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or “JEDI” for short, is designed to give the Pentagon access to new weapons capabilities that are enabled by artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Oracle submitted bids by the Oct. 12 deadline, company spokespeople confirmed this week, and the Defense Department is expected to award a contract next year. Amazon is seen as a front-runner because of its earlier work handling classified data for the CIA. The retorts by the executives followed a pair of anonymously written posts on the website Medium over the past month — both of which the site said had been verified by its editorial staff — in which self-described employees of Amazon and Microsoft raised concerns over the tech companies' relationship with the Defense Department. The Post could not independently verify the authenticity of the two Medium posts. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company could not verify the Medium post's authenticity, and an Amazon spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a blog post titled “Technology and the U.S. military” that was published Friday on Microsoft's website, Smith wrote that the company would continue to work with the U.S. military while looking for ways to ensure its technology is used responsibly. “To withdraw from this market is to reduce our opportunity to engage in the public debate about how new technologies can best be used in a responsible way,” Smith wrote. "We are not going to withdraw from the future.” Full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/26/microsoft-amazon-pledge-work-with-pentagon-following-anonymous-online-rebukes