Archive: February 25, 2023

Pentagon approves F-35 engine deliveries after vibration fix

WASHINGTON — The F-35 Joint Program Office cleared Raytheon’s Pratt & Whitney unit to resume delivering F135 engines for new Joint Strike Fighters, two months after deliveries were halted following a mishap.

Engineers with the company and other organizations developed a solution to mitigate “a rare system phenomenon involving harmonic resonance” in the engines, which is expected to clear the way for newly-built F-35s and other affected fighters to fly again, the JPO said in a statement Friday.

However, the newer fighters are not yet allowed to fly, which means a halt in F-35 deliveries is still in place.

“The government is currently working to provide instructions to the fleet and to Lockheed Martin to enable safe resumption of flight operations of impacted aircraft and new production aircraft,” the JPO said.

A source familiar with the program told Defense News flight operations could resume in one to two weeks.

A spokesperson for Raytheon, which owns Pratt & Whitney, sent an email to reporters with the JPO’s statement, but the company did not release its own statement.

Most F-35s are built in Lockheed’s main facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Before Lockheed can deliver them to the government, the fighters must be tested in acceptance flights to ensure they are working as intended.

On Dec. 15, a new F-35B undergoing a quality check flight for the Defense Contract Management Agency experienced an issue that led to its Air Force pilot to eject. The fighter first hovered, then descended and bounced on the ground. It then tipped forward until its nose and a wing touched the ground and started to spin around, at which point the pilot ejected. safely

Lockheed immediately halted acceptance flights, which had the effect of shutting down deliveries.

On Dec. 27, the JPO said engine deliveries were paused after what it called a “mutual agreement” between itself, DCMA, and Pratt & Whitney while the investigation continued.

In a Feb. 9 interview, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., told Defense News that engineers identified vibration issues in the F135 engine as the source of the problem, and that a solution to dampen those vibrations had been found.

The JPO said Friday that engine maker Pratt & Whitney, along with engineers from the JPO, Lockheed Martin, Naval Air Systems Command and the Air Force Lifecycle Management Center, had worked since December to find ways to mitigate the harmonic resonance problem in the F135 engine, and find a way to safely fly with the engines.

“The actions the government and industry team are taking will ensure incorporation of mitigation measures that will fully address/resolve this rare phenomenon in impacted F135 engines,” the JPO said.

Initial assessments in the F-35B mishap investigation found a high-pressure fuel tube had failed.

In a statement to Defense News this month, Jen Latka, vice president of the F135 program for Pratt & Whitney, said a “thorough review” had found no quality issues with that fractured fuel tube, and that a rare “harmonic resonance” problem was to blame.

The JPO grounded what it described as a small number of F-35s, which it said were at a higher risk of suffering an engine problem, after the Dec. 15 F-35B incident.

Lockheed continues to build new F-35s. Those fighters are being stored at Fort Worth until they can be flown and delivered.

As of Feb. 10, Lockheed said it had 17 completed F-35s awaiting acceptance flights.

Anti-drone radars ready for ‘mass deployment’ in Taiwan, says vendor

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The CEO of Taiwan-based company Tron Future, whose counter-drone radars are already used by the Taiwanese Army, says the systems are ready for mass deployment, eying a production rate of 100 per month for 2023 based on increased demand.

Tron Future is only four years old, but its T.Radar Pro technology has already found an extensive market both in Taiwan but also in the Middle East and South Asia. The active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar has a drone detection range up to 5 kilometers and a weight of only 15 kilograms, which is what CEO Yu-Jiu Wang says has appealed the most to customers.

“The design of the radar was born out of a need to create an air-layered defense for the protection of Taiwan against the ever-present threat of different types of Chinese drones,” Wang said in an interview here at the IDEX arms fair.

Its development followed four tenets, he explained: keeping it lightweight and small; equipping it with a 4D micro-doppler function to differentiate between multirotor drones and birds; low cost; and performance against small and low-flying targets in urban environments.

Slow arms deliveries to Taiwan blamed on US production bottlenecks

Threats from Chinese drones have increased in recent years. In January 2023, a Chinese military magazine emphasized the crucial role unmanned systems would have for targeted strikes in the event of a war across the Taiwan Strait.

Wang says that at the height of tensions, deployed radars detected as many as 100 Chinese drones conducting surveillance above Taiwan over the span of one week. Key features of the T.Radar Pro include an open architecture for an image recognition app, air traffic management as well as interfaces for hard-kill or soft-kill countermeasures. It has a power consumption of 250 Watts and a maximum signal bandwidth of 30 Megahertz.

Initially, the radars went into the service with the Taiwanese Army and were deployed above key islands, which is a challenging environment because the movement of waves in the ocean can create false targets.

Based on increased demand both at the domestic and international level, the company expects to produce 100 radars per month for the year ahead and is looking at opening a second production site in Taiwan. The T.Radar can either be sold separately or as part of Tron Future’s larger anti-drone system. The full setup also includes a drone-disabling jammer and an interceptor that the company website describes as offering “choices of explosive or non-destructive warheads dealing with different situations.” Together, the system creates defense protection dome measuring 5 kilometers in diameter, the company claims.

Wang stressed that Taiwanese forces are not looking to be the first ones to attack when facing China, as that could rapidly escalate to a full-scale war. The air-defense platform was designed with this in mind, where each different system represents a logical chain that attempts to initially avoid using a hard-kill countermeasure.

Federal unions warn cutting defense civilian personnel is sabotage

Federal employees are pushing back against a House Republican proposal to trim the defense budget by reducing the Pentagon’s civilian workforce, arguing Congress is looking in the wrong place to stanch spending.

The American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing 250,000 employees in the Defense Department, wrote a letter to leaders of the defense appropriations subcommittees in the House and Senate on Thursday, urging them against a workforce reduction through hiring deficits in the upcoming fiscal 2024 budget.

“The problem with this approach is that actual waste is not being cut while cutting the civilian workforce will hollow out the Department’s capabilities, repeating mistakes from the past,” wrote Julie Tippens, director of AFGE’s legislative department. “Spending more money on weapon systems or force structure capabilities without the appropriate civilian support for sustainment harms readiness and lethality, increases stress on the force, and incurs additional opportunity costs, detracting from modernization.”

Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., who chairs the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subpanel, first proposed reductions to the Pentagon’s civilian workforce in 2021. Calvert said in an exclusive interview with Defense News earlier this month that these reductions “would save $125 billion over five years,” though he vowed not to fire anyone.

“Like any large business, you’ve got a 5% turnover ratio per year,” Calvert said. “So if you hire 3% instead of 5%, you get a reduction over a period of time that will have a significant impact over the bottom line. Remember, our highest cost is personnel because we have a volunteer service.”

Calvert argued that the ratio of civilian employees relative to service members is historically high. The Defense Department employs more than 830,000 civilian employees on top of 1.3 million active duty service members and slightly less than 1 million National Guard and Reserve service members, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Federal Times has reached out to Calvert’s office for comment.

This fiscal year, the federal government is expected to spend about $248 billion on civilian payroll across federal agencies, and personnel expenses are the most costly overhead for the Pentagon.

However, the AFGE letter cited a 2020 article in Foreign Affairs by current Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, in which she wrote that the department failed to find $10 billion in administrative savings through civilian workforce reductions in the five-year period between FY15 and FY19 after Congress directed it do so in FY13.

Instead, Hicks explained, the reductions “rarely succeed” in saving money because they “merely shift the work being done by civilians to others, such as military personnel or defense contractors.”

Despite Hicks’ previous skepticism of the idea, the AFGE letter stated there are “indications that the Department of Defense is likely taking the path of least resistance in developing its Fiscal Year 2024 budget by in fact instituting civilian reductions” over its Future Years Defense Program — the government’s projection of force posture, resources and programs in a five-year period.

Tippens said neither Congress nor the Pentagon looked at other sources of outsized spending, like pricing models by defense contractors or enforcement of statutory requirements for a comprehensive contract-services budget.

Her letter noted the Defense Department failed to submit a legally mandated comprehensive contract-services budget, meaning congressional funding bills “show costs for the civilian workforce but omit the costs for contractors, creating massive incentives to under-execute civilian hiring projections and shift the funds to contract services.”

AFGE likens this to “a massive slush fund for service contracts.”

Meanwhile, the Defense Department — like other federal agencies — is competing for talent against a private sector that boasts unfettered salaries and flexible work schedules.

“The Department is in danger of falling behind both the private sector and global competitors, namely China,” according to a report on the health of the civilian workforce by the Defense Business Board.

Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said he is surprised the idea was floated so openly, especially since Republicans have historically bolstered defense spending. NFFE represents 110,000 unionized government workers across agencies.

“With what is happening in Ukraine and the global implications that stem from it, this is not the time to be cutting civilian personnel at the Department of Defense,” he told Federal Times. “You cannot be for a stronger defense and against maintaining the personnel necessary to achieve it.”

House Democrats are already poised to oppose Calvert’s civilian workforce reduction proposals, and it’s unclear how the Senate would react.

“Reducing the civilian workforce doesn’t reduce any of the missions that the Department of Defense has — it just means the DoD is less equipped to complete those missions safely and successfully,” Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, told Federal Times in a statement.

Slow arms deliveries to Taiwan blamed on US production bottlenecks

WASHINGTON ― The U.S. defense industry’s limited production capacity is responsible for delays in U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which now stand at almost $19 billion in value, a senior U.S. State Department official said.

“How I would characterize it is that we have provided really significant foreign military sales to Taiwan, and that there are challenges on the production side,” Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Jessica Lewis told reporters Friday.

The comments came as U.S. lawmakers from both parties returning from a Taiwan visit are pressuring the Biden administration about the lag in deliveries on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, aimed at helping deter China from invading. Beijing views Taiwan as a Chinese territory that must be brought under its control, by force if necessary.

The defense industrial base is facing “across the board” challenges that aren’t specific to Taiwan, Lewis said. Supply chain and worker constraints in the wake of the COVID pandemic are hindering the industry’s ability to meet increased demand for weapons as countries arm themselves in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Our defense industrial base right now is very focused ― and we are encouraging them to be focused ― on how to produce more of the key weapons that are needed in all of these places for across the world, to make sure that we can get for example, Taiwan ― but not just Taiwan, eastern flank countries ― what they need in time,” she said.

The Defense Department has relevant legal authorities and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks is leading efforts to address the matter, according to Lewis.

Republicans push Biden to seek more Taiwan military aid in next budget

Rep. Mike Gallagher, chairman of the new House Select Committee on China, said in a statement after his recent four-day Taiwan visit that “we should move heaven and earth to clear the nearly $19 billion backlog of Foreign Military Sales Items that have been approved but not delivered to Taiwan.”

The backlog in deliveries on U.S. foreign military sales to Taiwan includes Boeing’s Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Lockheed’s F-16 fighter aircraft and High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, as well as asymmetric capabilities such Lockheed’s Javelin and Raytheon’s Stinger missiles.

Gallagher, R-Wis., told The New York Times that Taiwan’s purchase of Harpoon missiles, which would be critical for the island nation to repel an amphibious invasion, is behind Saudi Arabia in the delivery queue but should be granted priority.

Ukraine’s consumption of U.S.-supplied materiel is outstripping the capacity of American defense firms to quickly replenish it, which is seen a negative sign as the U.S seeks to deter China. A Center for Strategic and International Studies report last month that found the U.S. defense-industrial base is unprepared for a notional battle with China over Taiwan.

Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Eric Fanning told a recent congressional hearing on the health of the defense industrial base that wavering demand stymies efforts to stockpile munitions or surge production. “To have that capability to surge requires a consistent, long-term [government funding] commitment,” Fanning said.

United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket debut pushed to May

WASHINGTON — The first flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is scheduled for May 4, a slight delay from the company’s plan to fly the launch vehicle during the first quarter of this year.

ULA CEO Tory Bruno told reporters during a Feb. 23 phone briefing the Denver, Colorado-based company expects the rocket will be ready by mid-April. However, one of the payloads it will carry — a lunar lander built by space robotics company Astrobotic Technology — can only fly during a small window of time each month because of landing conditions on the moon. Its April window falls early in the month, pushing the next launch opportunity into May.

ULA, along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is one of two companies with rockets that are certified to fly national security space missions for the U.S. Department of Defense and the intelligence community. Its Vulcan launch vehicle will replace the Atlas V, bringing more power and the ability to carry heavier payloads.

Bruno said the delay is not a significant setback and gives the company extra time to ensure the debut launch of Vulcan goes smoothly. The rocket’s first mission will feature three payloads launched to three different orbits, which Bruno said is a somewhat “stressing” task.

“We’re being careful, and we’re being thoughtful to make sure we have a successful mission,” he said. “We want very much to get this right.”

Vulcan is scheduled to carry its first DoD satellite at the end of this year, but it must first complete two certification flights. The early May mission will count as the first and a second flight carrying Sierra Nevada’s DreamChaser spaceplane is scheduled for later this year.

Bruno said he doesn’t expect the first flight delay to impact the company’s national security certification, though he noted ULA will need a few months between its first and second launch to review Vulcan’s performance and fine tune where necessary.

“We’re going to want to study our first flight very, very thoroughly,” he said.

With Vulcan’s completion, ULA is eyeing a greater share of the commercial launch market. Bruno said that by the end of 2025, the company expects to be flying missions every two weeks. Along with its share of national security space launches, the company has won contracts in the last two years from Amazon to fly 47 launches for its Project Kuiper program, a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites that will expand broadband access in underserved regions.

Along with its greater power and heavier payload capacity, Vulcan will also bring reusability into ULA’s portfolio. Bruno said he expects the company to begin demonstrating reusability of the rocket’s propulsion system “within a handful of years.”

“I don’t want to say exactly when because it’s part of the contract we have with one of our customers at this time, and we’re not releasing the details of that,” Bruno said. “But it will take a couple of years to actually be reusing the engines.”

A graphical comparison of Russian, Ukrainian forces a year into war

WASHINGTON — One year after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war has left at least 8,006 civilians dead, the United Nations’ leading human rights organization reported on Feb. 21.

Additionally, 13,287 civilians were injured over the past 12 months, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights found. Explosive weapons — including artillery shells, airstrikes, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles — caused about 90.3% of civilian casualties, the office added.

As Ukraine continues to bolster its forces with Western arms, Moscow is using unorthodox methods to depreciate Kyiv’s military prowess. On Feb. 24, 2022, Defense News published information on the weapons inventories of Russia and Ukraine, based on data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance+ database. The following is an updated version, with footnotes at the bottom of this article.

Data as of November 2022.Armored Fighting Vehicles are armored combat vehicles with a combat weight of at least 6 metric tons.Surface-to-Surface Missile Launchers are launch vehicles for transporting and firing surface-to-surface ballistic and cruise missiles.Artillery is made up of weapons — such as guns, howitzers, multiple-rocket launchers and mortars — with a caliber greater than 100mm for artillery pieces and 80mm and above for mortars, capable of engaging ground targets with indirect fire.Air Defense includes guns, directed-energy weapons and surface-to-air missile launchers designed to engage fixed-wing, rotary-wing and uninhabited aircraft. Systems primarily intended to intercept missiles rather than aircraft are excluded.

Malaysia picks South Korea’s FA-50 light combat jet over Indian bid

MELBOURNE, Australia — Korea Aerospace Industries has won a competition to supply light attack aircraft to Malaysia, the company announced, marking its latest export for the line of trainer/light attack jets.

The South Korean company said the contract, worth $920 million, will see it deliver 18 FA-50 jets to the Southeast Asian country, with the first due for delivery in 2026.

The FA-50 beat the Tejas light combat aircraft, made by India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., for the Malaysian requirement. The country had shortlisted the two types out of an initial field that included the JF-17, made by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, and the Russian-made MiG-35.

Malaysia is seeking to bolster its air combat and training capabilities as it seeks to replace its fleet of BAE Systems-made Hawk trainers and light combat aircraft, which has suffered from a high attrition rate in recent years.

The country also wants to replace 16 MiG-29 interceptors it retired in 2017 due to inadequate funding for sustainment. But a planned multirole combat aircraft program to replace the aircraft also stalled due to budget constraints.

Malaysia previously said it required 36 jets, meaning it will continue looking for an additional 18 aircraft.

The FA-50 is a combat-capable derivative of the T-50 Golden Eagle trainer, and the win in Malaysia will bring the number of Southeast Asian countries flying the T-50 and its derivatives to four. Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand also operate the aircraft type.

South Korea uses the T-50, TA-50 and FA-50. The latter two are combat-capable and can be fitted with up to seven external stores hardpoints that can carry air-to-air and precision-guided air-to-surface weapons.

The combat-capable versions are also integrated with American-made or Israeli-built radars, with KAI seeking to integrate newer and more capable radars in future block upgrades.

Iraq also operates a version of the FA-50 it calls the T-50IQ, while Poland has selected 48 FA-50s as part of a large military package with South Korea. The European nation sought to replace its Soviet-era MiG-29 and Su-22 jets in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

US vows to send more drones, aid to Ukraine on war’s anniversary

WASHINGTON ― The Pentagon announced Friday morning it would send more drones to Ukraine as part of a new $2 billion package to help in the country’s fight against Russia on the first anniversary of the invasion.

The new $2 billion in aid includes more ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, more ammunition for 155mm artillery and more munitions for unspecified laser-guided rocket systems. It also includes unspecified counter-drone and electronic warfare detection equipment.

The Pentagon plans to contract for the gear under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the Biden administration to buy weapons from industry rather than draw from U.S. weapon supplies.

The funds would go toward the purchase of a new weapon for Ukraine: the Altius 600, a small drone with a range of 276 miles and endurance of more than 4 hours. The manufacturer, Anduril subsidiary Area-I, has said the system can operate as a loitering munition.

The other drones included are the fixed-wing, vertical takeoff and landing AeroVironment Jump 20 ― a surveillance drone that can fly for 14 hours and has a range of 185 kilometers ― and a system called K8, from CyberLux, a company that makes quadcopters.

Delayed kamikaze drone for Ukraine on track for next month: Pentagon

The U.S. Army last year selected the Jump 20 unmanned aircraft system to be the first future tactical UAS as part of an effort to replace the runway-dependent Shadow drone.

The U.S. has declined to send Ukraine more sophisticated longer-range drones, such as the Grey Eagle and Reaper, which would give Ukraine a longer-distance strike capability. Some officials are concerned about Russia gaining access to such advanced technology if one were shot down.

Both Russia and Ukraine are reportedly using small, commercially available drones for surveillance and in some cases, to attack military targets.

In a statement to mark the one-year anniversary of the war, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that under the Biden administration, the U.S. has committed more than $32 billion in ”game-changing” security assistance to Ukraine. America’s allies, he said, have committed $20 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.

“Difficult times may lie ahead, but let us remain clear-eyed about what is at stake in Ukraine,” Austin said. “And let us remain united in purpose and in action—and steadfast in our commitment to ensure that a world of rules and rights is not replaced by one of tyranny and turmoil.”

Tanks might not reach Ukraine this year, US Army secretary says

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is weighing how to get M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, but they may not even arrive until next year, the service’s secretary said Thursday.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced in January he would send 31 General Dynamics Land Systems-made tanks to Ukraine, reversing course after Germany cleared the way for Europe to send its own main battle tanks.

While the capability is meant to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses against its Russian invaders for an anticipated onslaught this spring, Abrams tanks will likely not reach the country before then.

“We’re looking at what’s the fastest way we can get the tanks to the Ukrainians,” Christine Wormuth told reporters at a Thursday breakfast. “It’s not going to be a matter of weeks.”

“None of the options that we’re exploring are weeks or two months,” she continued. “There are longer timelines involved, but I think there are options that are less than two years, less than a year-and-a-half.”

It’s still to be determined, according to Wormuth, whether tanks could arrive by the end of the year.

“There are a variety of different ways” to produce the tanks, she said, from building them “from scratch” like the U.S. is doing for Poland, to drawing from U.S. inventory, many of which are refurbished older tanks.

The US has spent billions on equipment and training in Europe to deter Russia. Is it enough?

Wormuth noted that it’s not just delivering the Abrams tanks, but also support equipment like recovery vehicles, ammunition and a training package. “There’s a lot of details still that need to be worked out,” she said.

The Army will present the options to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who will then share them with Biden, who will make the final decision, according to Wormuth.

Last year, Poland and the U.S. reached an agreement for the country to acquire 250 upgraded M1A2 Abrams tanks to be delivered in the 2025-2026 time frame, and last month Poland’s defense minister signed another deal to buy a second batch totaling an additional 116. Poland is the first European ally to buy Abrams tanks.

“There are other [Foreign Military Sales] cases with other countries,” Wormuth said.

Other Abrams tank operators include Australia, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Taiwan, which began receiving its tanks in the summer of 2022.

GM Defense sizes up market for electric tactical rides at IDEX

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — An increasing number of countries are beginning to look at transforming their fleets of tactical ground vehicles through hybrid-electric drive technologies, and vendors are getting ready for the demand.

Why would a military want to go hybrid or fully electric? Steve duMont, President of GM Defense, explains that the transition would greatly enhance armies’ logistical and tactical capabilities.

“From an operational standpoint, light tactical hybrid vehicles offer the advantages of having low thermal and acoustic signatures, greater operational range and mission duration, charging power as well as enhanced off-road capacity through instantaneous, high-end torque. Most importantly, it provides silent drive and watch, critical capabilities to lower the chances of your opponent spotting you,” he said during an interview at the IDEX arms fair here.

Since its creation in 2017, the General Motors’ subsidiary has set out to capture the attention of the U.S. military, and now the United Arab Emirates, by presenting solutions to electrify ground vehicles. The hybrid-electric platforms it offers act as a bridge to all-electric vehicles. The U.S. Army has previously said that it was aiming to acquire “full electric” complex-weapon systems in the light and medium category for 2030-2035.

One of the main roadblocks to electrification is the requirement of having a charging infrastructure, which can be tricky in austere areas. Another impediment is the extent to which advanced militaries have already invested in petroleum-based structures, ranging from oil distribution and refinement to the movement of ships or trucks and storage spaces such as fuel farms.

Traditional military procedures tend to call for the resupply of diesel and gasoline, as not many modern militaries have experience with electrified vehicles and the technologies needed to charge them on the battlefield. However, companies today offer fast-charging, advanced solutions such as hydrogen-based power generation that enable soldiers to refuel their vehicles at a quicker pace.

At IDEX, GM Defense showcased its Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) Heavy Gun Carrier variant and the next-generation Light Tactical Wheeled Vehicle prototype based on the Chevrolet Silverado as well as its Ultium battery platform. Engineers are now building and testing ISV configurations to meet multiple mission requirements including command-and-control, electronic warfare, counter-drone, reconnaissance and casualty evacuation.

The company previously won its first contract to provide U.S. forces with a nine-passenger ISV in 2020, which was based on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 midsize truck architecture and featured 90% commercial-off-the-shelf parts. Following this, it integrated a commercially available high-volume production battery into its expeditionary ISV, transforming it into a five-passenger, all-electric military concept vehicle in less than 13 weeks.

DuMont emphasized that one of the priorities for the company is leveraging and maximizing commercial baselines. He said that commercial architectures play a crucial role in defense markets, enabling lower costs and easier maintenance.

The firm is rapidly expanding. During the conference, it signed its first cooperation agreement with the UAE government entity Tawazun Council as a first step towards a potential procurement. Company representatives said that the region had been on their radar for some time and eventually could pave the way for the co-development of some products that would include the localization of their systems at some level.

In addition, DuMont told Defense News that Ukraine had reached out with a request for information regarding the company’s technologies.