29 mai 2020 | International, Terrestre
By: Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has OK'd a trio of packages to update Kuwait's Patriot missile defense systems, with a combined potential price tag of $1.425 billion.
The three packages, announced on the website of the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Thursday, include $425 million for sustainment and technical assistance, $200 million for a repair and return program, and $800 million for 84 Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile segment enhancements.
DSCA notifications are not final sales; if cleared by Congress, Kuwait will then enter negotiations over the package, during which quantities and costs can shift.
The potential sales “will supplement and improve Kuwait's capability to meet current and future threats and provide greater security for its critical oil and natural gas infrastructure,” according to the DSCA. “Kuwait will use the enhanced capability to strengthen its homeland defense. Kuwait will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment and services into its armed forces.”
The repair and return program involves shipping items that can't be serviced on the ground back to the U.S. military for refurbishment, and then inducted into the military's regular repair cycle. When the repairs are complete, the parts are shipped back to the country that owns them, which is then billed for the repairs.
Work will be performed at a number of locations, primarily the Huntsville, Alabama, locations of Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Leido and KBR. In addition, work on the PAC-3 missile segments will be done at Lockheed's Dallas, Texas, office.
Kuwait has been a reliable customer for American military goods. Excluding Thursday's announcements, the country has been cleared for 13 Foreign Military Sales cases since the start of fiscal 2017, with an estimated price tag of $13.9 billion.
15 mai 2023 | International, Aérospatial
French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with France's TF1 television on Monday that France is open to training Ukrainian fighter jet pilots in France and that those training programmes could start right away.
7 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Airbus Defence & Space has revealed a more than decade-long research and demonstration effort into very low observable (LO) technologies, conducted as a classified effort for the German defence ministry. Showing its LO UAV testbed – or LOUT – platform at Manching on 4 November, Airbus future combat air system (FCAS) programme manager Mario Hertzog said the company began initial concept work in 2007. This led to a contract award in 2010 to refine configuration and material choices, and the production of a diamond planform demonstrator was completed in 2014. Pointing to the company's long involvement with LO reseach, Hertzog says: “Bringing all our experience into one programme was a logical conclusion.” The chosen configuration used for aerodynamic and anechoic chamber testing since 2014 has a roughly 12m (39.3ft) wingspan and similar length, and is described as a 4t-class vehicle. The subsonic design would use a conventional engine concealed behind a diverterless inlet, and has twin intakes blended into its upper fuselage. A cockpit transparency and sensor apertures also formed part of the testing. The aircraft's exhaust nozzle also is shielded from beneath, with Hertzog noting that such a vehicle would be optimised for use against ground-based air-defence systems. This mission requirement also led the company to hone LO techniques for the vehicle's landing gear doors and centerline internal weapons bay, Hertzog notes. Focus areas have included testing LO materials, including a radar absorbent structure for engine intake ducts, and on assessing radar frequency and infrared signature performance. Modelling work has also been conducted to analyse the likely acoustic characteristics of such a design. Airbus confirms that it has completed contracted work on LOUT, but says additional activities could be conducted. However, Hertzog declines to say whether Berlin could seek a flight-test campaign with such a system. Lessons learned from the LOUT programme will be available for potential adaptation during a long-term evolution activity on the Eurofighter Typhoon, and on a proposed French-German-Spanish FCAS development, Hertzog says. "Stealth is and will remain an enabler for survivability," he notes. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/pictures-airbus-reveals-classified-lout-stealth-tes-462003/
15 octobre 2023 | International, Naval
South Korean authorities cited the risk of Chinese economic retaliation when they charged marine technology firm SI Innotec last year with violating trade laws for its work on Taiwan's new military submarine program, according to a police document seen by Reuters and two people familiar with the matter.