Lockheed to Begin Producing Turkish F-16 Aircraft

The U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed a contract worth almost $800 million to produced thirty F-16 aircraft for Turkey. Reuters reports that this is an option on a $2.9 billion contract awarded in 2007 for the aircraft. Previous action on the contract was to purchase long lead materials for the aircraft, and this option begins the actual manufacturing of the fighters. The F-16 aircraft will help modernize the Turkish forces and help with NATO standardization.

UAE Continues Spending Spree

As the defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi winds down the UAE continues to announce arms deals. Reuters reports that the nation announced two deals today with more expected by the end of the week. In one contract Boeing was awarded a contract of about $85 million to provide aircraft parts and support. The other was to a joint effort by EADS, Thales and Lockheed Martin for $370 million worth of counter battery radars. Another deal with Sikorsky was also announced with no value to establish an aircraft maintenance and repair site. As we wrote earlier the UAE is heavily investing in Western arms as they upgrade their military.

UAE to Buy AMRAAM from Raytheon

Raytheon announced that they had signed a contract with the UAE to provide advanced AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for the nation’s F-16 fleet. Reuters reports that the contract is for over two hundred of the missiles. No contract value was given but it is substantial as the AMRAAM is a fairly expensive system. Deliveries are expected to begin in the 2011 time frame. Over the last five years the UAE has invested heavily in upgrading the capabilities of their armed forces. Most recently they have invested over three billion dollars into missile and air defense capability with the purchase of PATRIOT and THAAD systems from the U.S.

KC-X Competition to Restart Soon

Secretary of Defense Gates testified today to Congress as he continues his role with the new Obama administration. Reuters reports that Gates said the KC-X tanker competition would restart this spring with an expected award date in the first or second quarter of Fiscal Year 2010. If you remember the original contract was awarded to a team of Northrop Grumman and EADS but Boeing protested and the GAO upheld it. The original plan to conduct a recompete in late 2008 was postponed with a decision to wait for a new administration. One key change is that DoD will handle the proposal and source selection instead of the U.S. Air Force.

MDA Awards Raytheon Interceptor Development Contract

Reuters reports that the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded a over $400 M contract to Raytheon for development of a new interceptor to the Ground Based Missile Defense System. The contract is for a new, multiple kill vehicle payload to allow the attack of multiple targets with one interceptor. The current system installed in Alaska utilizes interceptors with one kill vehicle on them. This new system would minimize the number of interceptors required to destroy a target, especially if their are a number of decoys also as part of the attack.

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