Britain Begins Construction Of New Aircraft Carriers

January 15, 2010 by Matthew Potter · 2 Comments
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Countries, England, Events, Military Aviation, Scotland, Services, VT Group, logistics, production program 

Despite the budget problems facing Great Britain due to the costs of operations in Afghanistan and the current recession the Labor Government of Gordon Brown continues to move out on some major programs. A few days ago it was to begin construction of the new centralized contractor provided training facility in Wales. Yesterday the first sub-contracts to begin construction of the two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy were announced.

These total over $600 million and went to a five different companies across the country. The building of the two ships will be the biggest defense program in England for several years and are critical to the economy of Scotland. Some of the contracts are just not for parts of the ships but also for the infrastructure to support construction including transport of the sections by river to the main assembly point in Rosyth. The two Queen Elizabeth class ships will form the core of the Royal Navy for a good deal of the Twenty-First Century and will operate the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters being developed by Lockheed Martin.

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Australia To Expand And Restructure Military

May 4, 2009 by Matthew Potter · 1 Comment
Filed under: Australia, Business Line, Countries, Events, Military Aviation, Restructuring, development program, production program 

The current government of Australia under Prime Minister Rudd has announced major plans to restructure the country’s military for the Twenty-First Century. A white paper describing the proposed changes was released late last week. The focus will be on expanding the ground forces, re-equipping the Navy and general modernization.

The government is also looking at this increased investment in the military as a sort of stimulus for the Australian economy during the current downturn in the world’s finances. As much of the work possible will be done in Australia and for the Navy especially there are plans for significant new construction of submarines and ships.

The core of the plan is to add twelve new submarines and new destroyers and multi-role patrol craft. There will also be new helicopters for the Navy to replace the SH-2 fiasco. The Air Force modernization will be built around 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF). The ground forces will see a slight growth with new vehicles.

The way this is structured shows that Australia is looking at defending themselves with the submarines and aircraft. The ground forces will allow intervention in regional conflicts if necessary. The submarines as well will provide the core offensive capability if required. The White Paper makes it clear that China will be the dominant Asian power for the next several years and Australia must adjust their capabilities for this.

While Australia has spent more since 9/11 and used their forces in Afghanistan the major modernization programs were carried over from the Nineties. This is the first stop and relook at the country’s needs and rebaseline of capabilities.

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US announces Israeli JSF buy

September 30, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Department of Defense, FMS, Israel, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, production program 

The US Department of Defense announced that Israel has agreed to buy 25 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) and support. The contract is worth about $15 B. While eight partner countries will also fly the JSF, Israel becomes the first FMS customer. The JSF will be a short take-off and landing aircraft to replace F-16 and AV-8 aircraft.

See the story at Rueters.com.

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