WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) – Lockheed Martin was awarded a $1.48 billion contract to build the THAAD missile defense system for Saudi Arabia, bringing the total value of the deal to $5.36 billion, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The new contract was a modification to a previously awarded agreement to produce the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor for Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said.
In November 2018, Saudi and U.S. officials signed letters of offer and acceptance formalizing terms for Saudi Arabia’s purchase of 44 THAAD launchers, missiles and related equipment.
In April Lockheed was awarded a $2.4 billion contract for THAAD interceptor missiles, some of which are slated to be delivered to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The latest contract is for interceptor support items.
Lockheed Martin, the biggest U.S. arms maker, builds and integrates the THAAD system, which is designed to shoot down short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Raytheon, another U.S. firm, builds its advanced radar.
(Reporting by David Alexander Editing by Tom Brown)
DALLAS, June 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) received a $561.8 million production contract for Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles for the U.S. Army and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers.
The two-year effort contract calls for new ATACMS rounds, as well as upgrading several previous-variant ATACMS as part of the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP III).
“The new-build ATACMS rounds under this contract will include sensor technology that provides the recently qualified Height-of-Burst capability,” said Gaylia Campbell, vice president of Precision Fires & Combat Maneuver Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “This new feature will allow Soldiers to address area targets at depth on the battlefield.”
Both the SLEP and new ATACMS rounds will be produced at Lockheed Martin’s Precision Fires Production Center of Excellence in Camden, Arkansas. To meet the increased demand for ATACMS, Lockheed Martin is expanding its Camden manufacturing facilities to include the capability to produce ATACMS and other upcoming missiles.
For more than 40 years, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control has been the leading designer and manufacturer of long-range, surface-to-surface precision strike solutions, providing highly reliable, combat-proven systems like MLRS, HIMARS, ATACMS and Guided MLRS to domestic and international customers.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 105,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
Exclusive: China’s huge Airbus order padded by old or incomplete deals – source
PARIS
(Reuters) – A landmark order from China for 300 Airbus jets signed
during a state visit last week was bolstered by repeat announcements of
dozens of existing deals and advance approval for deals that have yet to
be struck, two people familiar with the matter said.
Echoing
an umbrella order for 300 Boeing jets awarded during a visit to Beijing
by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017, the headline figure for the new
“framework order” for European jets was partly driven by political
considerations, the people said.
The
Airbus deal would have been worth some $35 billion at list prices but
the amount of new business is lower, they added. Duplicate announcements
included a deal for 10 A350 aircraft to an unnamed buyer, which
represents a repeat announcement of an order for 10 jets by Sichuan
Airlines at an air show last year.
The
disclosure takes some of the shine off an announcement widely regarded
as the economic highlight of a trip to Europe by Chinese President Xi
Jinping. Nonetheless the deal marked a return to the aircraft market by
China’s state buying agency after a pause of over a year during global
trade tensions.
The
overall figure of 300 was introduced late in the process and after Xi’s
visit was underway, although plane orders typically take months to
negotiate, one of the people said.
Airbus declined to comment on detailed orders but left open the possibility that the large total contained gaps.
The
agreement “creates the approval framework for aircraft ordered by
Chinese airlines, be it existing orders or future orders,” a spokesman
said.
TRADE TIES
Airbus
shares fell 0.7 percent on Tuesday, extending earlier losses after
Reuters reported gaps in the China deal. Airbus’ stock had risen almost
two percent after China’s mega-order, signed in Paris on March 25 in
front of Xi and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Industry
sources say major planemakers play by similar rules when selling to
China, where they face a two-tier system of negotiations with airlines
within a framework of state-backed umbrella deals that may be influenced
by geopolitics.
But
the headline figures for new orders during high-profile diplomatic
visits, which for several years hovered around 150 aircraft for both
Airbus and Boeing, have increased as trade ties between Washington and
China go through highs and lows.
In
November 2017, months before a trade war erupted with the imposition of
tariffs, China announced an order for 300 Boeing jets during a visit to
Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Analysts
expressed doubts at the time over how much of that was new business,
and said part of the announcement represented renewed government support
for deals already on Boeing’s books.
“The most recent Airbus and Boeing deals followed a similar pattern,” said a China aircraft industry specialist.
Boeing
is now seen as next in line to secure a 200-300-plane order as part of a
possible economic truce being negotiated to end the trade war, but the
recent grounding of one of its jets has cast uncertainty over the timing
of the deal.
Boeing
and Airbus compete fiercely to serve the needs of the world’s
fastest-growing airplane market, while bracing for future competition
from China’s own aerospace industry.
Analysts
say Beijing tends over time to balance U.S. and European purchases,
though recent years have seen the rise of a growing number of
independent Chinese leasing companies and an increase in autonomous
decision-making by several airlines.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Richard Lough)
