30 juin 2021 | International, Naval
Navy's powerful aerial jamming pod moves to next phase
The jammer is the Navy's premier aerial electronic attack platform that will replace the ALQ-99 jamming pod and be mounted aboard EA-18 Growler aircraft.
29 juillet 2024 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
30 juin 2021 | International, Naval
The jammer is the Navy's premier aerial electronic attack platform that will replace the ALQ-99 jamming pod and be mounted aboard EA-18 Growler aircraft.
13 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department on Oct. 9 approved the sale of the F/A-18EF Super Hornet and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Finland, paving the way for the nation to purchase American jets should either Boeing or Lockheed Martin win its ongoing fighter competition. The two U.S. offerings are facing off in a multinational contest that also includes France's Dassault Rafale, the British-made Eurofighter Typhoon and the Swedish Saab Gripen E/F. The F-35 package, worth $12.5 billion, includes 64 F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing jets, 66 Pratt & Whitney F135 engines, and the aircraft's associated communications and electronic warfare systems. Notably, it contains not only the aircraft's current logistics system — the troubled Autonomic Logistics Information System — but also its replacement — the Operational Data Integrated Network — which is under development. Meanwhile, the Super Hornet package — worth an estimated $14.7 billion — includes 50 single-seat F/A-18E jets, eight double-seated F/A-18Fs and 14 EA-18G Growlers, which is the electronic attack variant. The package also includes 166 F414-GE-400 engines for the dual-engine fighter, Sniper targeting pods, AN/APG-79 radars, AN/ALR-67(V)3 electric warfare countermeasures receiving sets, and Next Generation Jammer Midband and advanced electronic attack kits for the EA-18G. Both offers include a suite of munitions for the aircraft, including 500 Small Diameter Bomb II weapons, 150 AIM-9X missiles, 200 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range weapons, Joint Standoff Weapons, Joint Direct Attack Munition kits that turn dumb bombs into precision-guided weapons, and assorted test and support gear for training and maintenance. After the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency posted the notification of the potential sale, Finland's Ministry of Defence released a statement clarifying that the announcement represents an important procedural step forward for the HX Fighter Program, but that negotiations with all competitors are ongoing. “The announcement of the notification procedure does not constitute a procurement decision by Finland, as the decision to procure multi-role fighters will be made by the Government in 2021,” the statement said. “Furthermore, the types and quantities of multi-role fighters and weapons specified in the notification do not represent the final content of the Finnish procurement package; instead, the list published by the DSCA indicates those items and quantities that the US administration is prepared to sell at this stage of the procurement process.” Finland also addressed the price of the packages, which exceed the $12 billion budget set by the country for the total cost of the program. “In the FMS procedure, the quantities and prices proposed for approval are generally set higher than what the purchasing country has indicated in its own request. The purpose of this formality is to avoid the need to submit a new and time-consuming Congressional Notification in the event that the purchasing country makes changes to the procurement package,” it said. The winner of the HX competition will produce up to 64 fighters to replace Finland's Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornets, which are expected to be retired by 2030. Instead of issuing a requirement for a particular number of aircraft with set capabilities, Finland is allowing the vendors to create packages of aircraft and weapons that best meet the Air Force's operational needs — and the nation's budget. Despite financial setbacks to the country caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Finland's Defence Ministry in August proposed a massive 54 percent spending boost to the defense budget to $5.8 billion in 2021 (4.87 billion Euros), with much of the increase caused by the HX competition. Corrected on 10/9/20 at 3:23 p.m. EST to reflect the correct budget numbers. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/10/09/finland-gets-the-green-light-to-buy-the-f-35-or-super-hornetand-billions-of-dollars-in-weapons/
22 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Sécurité
By Calvin Biesecker The Defense Department's agency charged with providing logistics support to warfighters is seeking information from vendors capable of providing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that can deliver food and water to people in remote areas following a disaster. The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in an information request lists key capabilities and requirements for its UAS needs as part of a forthcoming acquisition for the services in the East and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. “This is in support of Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support's Subsistence Contingency Operations and Natural Disaster relief efforts,” the DLA says in a Jan. 10 Request for Information on the government's FedBizOpps site. In addition to supporting warfighters with their supply needs, DLA also provides support to the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which supports disaster response to U.S. states and territories. Support for FEMA is “becoming more routine,” a DLA spokesman told Defense Daily on Thursday. The DLA announcement doesn't specify a specific event or series of disasters that is driving the need for remote delivery of food and water by UAS but it does follow a series of dramatic storms and wildfires over the past 16 months. In particular, Hurricane Maria, which hit the U.S. Virgin Islands on Sept. 19, 2017, and Puerto Rico the day after. Maria impacted 100 percent of the populations of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are both U.S. territories located a 1,000 or more miles from Florida. The devastation in Puerto Rico made deliveries of relief supplies difficult. “Hurricane Maria severely damaged or destroyed a significant portion of both territories' already fragile critical infrastructure,” FEMA said in a July 12, 2018 after-action report on the 2017 hurricane season. “Maria left Puerto Rico's 3.7 million residents without electricity. The resulting emergency response represents the longest sustained air mission of food and water delivery in Federal Emergency Management Agency history.” Rather than acquire the systems outright, DLA wants a contactor that can provide the delivery services through a “turnkey deployment” based on a performance-based concept of operations developed as part of a research effort. Capabilities must be in place within one to two days of an event, the agency says. It also says the drones must be non-developmental and be able to operate beyond visual line of sight in austere conditions. Payloads on the UAS will weigh between 250 and 500 pounds and “typically” consist of cases of bottled water, Meals-Ready-to Eat, and other related operational items that will be released remotely without damage to the supplies. For the deployments, the drones must be able to operate from maritime vessels to land, land to sea vessel, and land to land. DLA says that sea-based operations “will be coordinated with the U.S. Coast Guard.” In the late summer of 2017, before Maria hit, Texas was hit by Hurricane Harvey, which was followed by Hurricane Irma, which slammed into Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Harvey affected 30 percent of the population in Texas and Irma affected 85 percent of the combined populations of Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Around the same time the three storms hit the U.S. and its territories, another hurricane interfered with maritime operations in the Caribbean Sea and FEMA also supported California's response to “some of the most devastating wildfires to ever impact the state,” the after-action report said. The DLA wants responses to its Request for Information by Jan. 25. The agency said the timing of the release of the Request for Proposals is unknown as is the ultimate amount of the eventual procurement pending the completion of market research. https://www.rotorandwing.com/2019/01/18/defense-agency-wants-acquire-uas-services-use-disaster-relief/