23 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin anticipates another wave of international F-16 sales, with countries from Africa, South America and Southeast Asia among those interested in purchasing the jet, the company's chief financial officer said Tuesday.
“I think this is a good fourth-generation aircraft for those customers that can't afford the F-35 or, frankly, can't at this time buy the F-35,” Lockheed CFO Kenneth Possenriede told investors during an April 21 earnings call. “It might be a good intermediary step for customers to go from the F-16 to F-35. So we see it frankly as complementary and not competing against themselves.”
Unlike the F-35 program, which is seeing disruption within its supply chain that could delay future deliveries, the F-16 production line has experienced little impact as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Possenriede said.
The company moved production of the F-16 production line from Fort Worth, Texas, to Greenville, South Carolina, in 2019 to accommodate production of 16 Block 70 aircraft for Bahrain. Since Bahrain's order in 2018, Lockheed has garnered contracts for eight F-16s for Bulgaria, 14 aircraft for Slovakia, and is working with the U.S. government on a sale of 66 jets for Taiwan.
“We also have a couple of orders for F-16 that we're working to try to shape,” Possenriede said. “There is an African country that is interested in F-16, so we're hopeful that will happen. [There is also a] South American country, and then there are some Southeast Asian countries that are interested in F-16 as well.”
Possenriede didn't detail which nations were considering purchases of the F-16, as defense companies typically wait until international militaries publicly declare their interest in a sale before talking about specific customers.
Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group, said there's a “pretty good chance” that some of those orders materialize.
“Lockheed was doing a disservice by forgetting the F-16 program for so many years. They had this idea that the future was F-35 and nothing but F-35, ignoring the part of the market that is not prepared to buy the F-35 price tag,” he said. “It's actually a really good franchise with a really solid core market. It seems ill-advised to neglect it.”
If a new customer in Africa is looking to buy F-16s, it could be Botswana, which has indicated an interest in buying fighter jets, Aboulafia said. Lockheed has already sold F-16s to Morocco and Egypt, and the U.S. State Department in 2019 cleared Morocco for new F-16s and upgrades.
In South America, Lockheed has been trying to sell F-16s to Argentina for years, but Aboulafia believes a second order for Chile is a more likely prospect. In Southeast Asia, a sale to Indonesia “would seem to be one of the most likely possibilities,” he added.
21 février 2024 | International, Aérospatial
The company has struck a partnership with Tokyo spanning civilian and defense topics, as executives hope to sell the MQ-9B SeaGuardian drone.
4 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Lisi Aerospace vient de signer avec Lockheed Martin un contrat longue durée de fourniture de fixations pour le programme d'avion de combat F-35, rapporte Air & Cosmos. Le contrat couvre les années 2020-22, avec trois options d'un an jusqu'en 2025, pour une valeur totale estimée à 60 millions de dollars sur six ans. L'ensemble du contrat sera servi depuis la plateforme nord-américaine de Lisi Aerospace. Ce contrat permet de renforcer la position de Lisi Aerospace en tant que fournisseur majeur de fixations pour l'aéronautique et pour l'aviation militaire. Air & Cosmos du 3 juin
7 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — House and Senate lawmakers have authorized an injection of about $51 million in funding to cyber-harden missile defense systems, according to the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act conference report, and appropriators are expected to follow suit in the defense spending bill with roughly $100 million in additional funding. Congressional authorizers noted in a summary of the NDAA conference report, released July 23, that the conferees were supporting an increase in funding to address cyberthreats to U.S. missile defense systems. WASHINGTON — House and Senate lawmakers have authorized an injection of about $51 million in funding to cyber-harden missile defense systems, according to the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act conference report, and appropriators are expected to follow suit in the defense spending bill with roughly $100 million in additional funding. Congressional authorizers noted in a summary of the NDAA conference report, released July 23, that the conferees were supporting an increase in funding to address cyberthreats to U.S. missile defense systems. What the new defense bill means for cyber U.S. House and Senate negotiators boosted funding for cybersecurity in the annual defense authorization bill, which serves as a repudiation of the Trump administration's foreign policy. By: Justin Lynch The U.S. military and its allies are reliant on missile defense systems both regionally and to defend the homeland. Such a capability will require a more robust level of protection against cyberattacks as adversaries grow in their ability to take down systems through jamming and other electronic warfare capabilities. The strategy to disarm enemy systems using jamming and electronic attack already plays a major role in war gaming against possible peer adversaries in the future. Using cyber and electronic attack is seen, at times, as the first line of offense to take down enemy air defense systems, so as to allow the injection of friendly forces into denied territory. And since that's part of the strategy to penetrate enemy systems, it will be and already is a part of the adversaries' strategies, too. Full Article: https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2018/07/27/congress-offers-millions-in-budget-to-cyber-harden-missile-defense-systems/