Who’s Buying F-35s And How Many?

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The US and eight other nations are partnering with Lockheed Martin to develop the F-35 for use by their air forces. And recently, even more countries have expressed an interest in acquiring the fighter jet. The Motley Fool offers a rundown of which countries are buying F-35s and how many they want.

The F-35 seems to be performing adequately on deployment to Europe, The National Interest reports. The purpose of the deployment is to introduce European NATO allies to the aircraft and its capabilities and to help deter Russia.

The US is trying to push through a multi-billion dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit, albawaba reports. The arms sales contracts are likely to include a Terminal Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system; a C2BMC software system; and a package with satellite capabilities.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, chairwomen of the House Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities, wants to know how the Pentagon can spend $30 billion a year on IT and yet barely make a dent in modernizing decades-old information networks and systems, Defense Systems reports. The New York state Republican congresswoman also wants to know what will it take to turn things around.

The first Triton squadron, housed at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, will start training sailors this summer on operating the MC-4C Triton for the early operational capability for deploying the baseline configuration of the aircraft in 2018, C4ISRNET reports.

The effort to develop common avionics that could be used across the military services got a boost with an agreement between a joint DoD agency and a government-industry consortium that is working to define open avionics standards for military aircraft, Defense Systems reports.

Yonhap News Agency reports the US is eyeing a military connection between Iran and North Korea after Tehran attempted to test-fire a missile from a submarine last week.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is calling for closer military ties with China as a way to reduce Manila’s dependence on the US and expand ties with other regional powers, South China Morning Post reports.

New security technology is being developed to reduce data vulnerability to hostile intruders seeking access to US military computer networks, reports Defense Systems. US Special Forces, Air Force Special Operators and other military services are exploring new technology that can encrypt, disperse, and reassemble sensitive content using next generation algorithms.

Syrian Kurdish fighters are newly armed with US-made combat equipment — night-vision goggles, rifles, and advanced optics — in their fight against ISIS, Military Times reports. But the Pentagon is barred from providing those items. The equipment was likely funneled to the fighters through “other means by other sources,” a defense official says.

DefSec James Mattis says the US will closely examine Russia’s plan to establish “de-escalation” zones in Syria, reports Voice of America. Russia, Turkey, and Iran agreed to a Moscow-proposed deal to establish the zones in an effort to end the six-year conflict.

The Marine Corps is looking to boost its high-tech force, and a controversial way to do that has re-emerged, Marine Times reports. Last summer it was suggested that the USMC look for those who have cyber security skills and offer them “lateral entry” into the military — a chance to skip boot camp and put on a uniform as a mid-career rank.

Contracts:

BAE Systems Information & ESI Inc., San Diego, California, has been awarded a $12,808,280 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract for knowledge-based space testbed architecture. Contractor will develop an innovative space evaluation and analysis testbed to support the development, integration, evaluation and analysis of a set of advanced space enterprise command and control tools and capability technologies. Work will be performed at San Diego, California; Reston, Virginia; and Burlington, Massachusetts, and is expected to be complete by Jan 7, 2021. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with 12 offers received. Fiscal 2016 and 2017 research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the amount of $2,475,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, New York, is the contracting activity (FA8750-17-C-0065).