Lockheed Martin Awarded $213 Million for 20 New F-16C/Ds in FMS
10:01 GMT, March 4, 2010 defpro.com | Yesterday, Lockheed Martin announced that the US government has given the go-ahead for production of 20 new F-16 fighter aircraft to be delivered to the Egypt Air Force. As part of a foreign military sale (FMS) contract valued at $213 million (€156 million), Lockheed Martin will build 16 F-16C and four F-16D fighter aircraft in the advanced Block 52 configuration which are scheduled to be delivered to Egypt by 2013.
In light of this significant contract, John Larson, Vice President Lockheed Martin F-16 programmes, said: “This is a great day for Lockheed Martin and a testament to the enduring partnership and commitment we have made to the government of Egypt. We remain committed to providing our customer with a proven, advanced 4th Generation multi-role fighter.”
As defpro.com reported in October 2009, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) informed the US Congress of a possible FMS to Egypt of 24 F-16s, including associated weapons and equipment (see: http://www.defpro.com/news/details/10560/). According to the DSCA, the announced FMS contract had an estimated total value of $3.2 billion.
A strong military customer of the US
Being in the process of modernising its aircraft fleet and extending its strike capabilities, the new Egyptian F-16s will complement a current fleet of 216 fighters of this aircraft type and replace some of its older aircraft. The F-16s are the most state-of-the-art asset in the Egyptian Air Force’s inventory. Egypt was the first Arab country to purchase F-16s through a FMS programme called ‘Peace Vector’. Since the initial purchase of 42 aircraft in 1980, Egypt has repeatedly received additional F-16s in the A, B, C and D configurations, some of which have been licence-manufactured by TUSAS, now Turkish Aircraft Industries (TAI).
An earlier report, published at defpro.com, stated that the request by the Egyptian government for additional F-16s had already been accepted by the US in June 2009 (see http://www.defpro.com/news/details/8328/). According to the report, this long-standing request for state-of-the-art military equipment, including F-16s, Apache helicopters, mobile air defence systems and JDAM bombs, had been denied repeatedly by the Bush administration due to Egypt's record on human rights and democracy.
In December 2009, the DSCA announced a number of possible FMS contracts with Egypt worth some $1.19 billion (€830.94 million). The requests by the Egyptian government comprised the sale of Hellfire II air-to-surface missiles, Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles, upgrade kits for its General Electric F-110-GE-100 aircraft engines powering the Egyptian F-16s, as well as Fast Missile Crafts (FMC).
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment