FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The F-35 Joint Program Office awarded the Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) industry team annualized contracts covering fiscal years 2021-2023 to support operations and sustainment of the global F-35 fleet, supporting mission readiness and further reducing costs.
The annual contracts fund critical sustainment activities for aircraft currently in the fleet and build enterprise capacity to support the future fleet of more than 3,000 F-35 aircraft. This includes industry sustainment experts supporting base and depot maintenance, pilot and maintainer training, and sustaining engineering for the U.S. and our allies across the globe. It also covers fleet-wide data analytics and supply chain management for part repair and replenishment to enhance overall supply availability for the fleet.
The FY2021-2023 contracts represent a planned next step in further reducing overall operations and support costs for the F-35 program, which are shared between government and industry. Lockheed Martin has reduced our cost per flight hour by 44% in the past five years, with a forecasted reduction of an additional 40% in the next five years. The cost savings in the FY21-23 annualized sustainment contracts support Lockheed Martin’s efforts to realize these goals. The savings will be achieved through improved cost and velocity in our supply chain, continued reliability improvements, and greater manpower efficiencies to provide product support solutions across the growing, global fleet. We remain committed to partnering with our customers and teammates to drive F-35 sustainment costs down.
The contracts also pave the way for a longer-term, Performance Based Logistics (PBL) agreement for the F-35 program. PBLs are an industry best practice, facilitating agile sustainment solutions for the fleet and incentivizing even further affordability and performance results.
The F-35 Joint Program Office, together with each U.S. service, international operators and the F-35 industry team, leads F-35 sustainment and the Global Support Solution. The 2021 annualized sustainment contract will cover industry sustainment activities through Dec. 31, 2021.
The Boeing logo is displayed on a screen, at the NYSE in New York
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co <BA> has decided not to compete as a prime contractor to replace the Pentagon’s aging U.S.-based Minuteman III missile system, paving the way for Northrop Grumman Corp <NOC> to win a contract worth tens of billions of dollars.
Friday marked the deadline to submit proposals to continue work on the replacement of the nearly half-century-old intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system as the military embarks on a costly modernization of its aging atomic weapons.
Boeing said in a statement that it was disappointed it was unable to submit a bid. Northrop said it had submitted its proposal. No other bidders were expected.
Boeing’s decision not to enter a bid as a prime contractor had been foreshadowed this summer in a letter from the chief executive of Boeing Defense Space and Security, Leanne Caret, to Air Force leadership, saying Northrop’s 2018 purchase of solid rocket motor maker Orbital ATK might make it difficult for Boeing to compete on cost.
Orbital is the top producer of the solid fuel rocket motors generally used in Minuteman III and similar missiles.
Upgrading the U.S. nuclear force was expected to cost more than $350 billion over the next decade as the United States works to replace its bombs, nuclear bombers, missiles and submarines. Some analysts estimated the cost of modernization at $1 trillion over 30 years.
The Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office has said the total cost to replace Minuteman III could top U.S. $85 billion.
U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters from the 58th Fighter Squadron, 33rd Fighter Wing, Eglin AFB, Fla. perform an aerial refueling mission with a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 336th Air Refueling Squadron from March ARB, Calif., May 14, 2013 off the coast of Northwest Florida. The 33rd Fighter Wing is a joint graduate flying and maintenance training wing that trains Air Force, Marine, Navy and international partner operators and maintainers of the F-35 Lightning II. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen/Released)
FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) finalized a $34 billion agreement for the production and delivery of 478 F-35s at the lowest aircraft price during the history of the Program. This contract includes all U.S., International Partners and Foreign Military Sales aircraft in Lots 12, 13 and 14.
In the agreement, the F-35 Enterprise meets and exceeds its long-stated cost reduction targets for each variant – and the F-35A unit price, including aircraft and engine, is now below $80 million in both Lot 13 and Lot 14, the F-35A unit cost represents an estimated overall 12.8 percent reduction from Lot 11 costs for the conventional landing variant, and an average of 12.7 percent savings across all three variants from Lot 11 to 14.
“Driving down cost is critical to the success of this program. I am excited that the F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin have agreed on this landmark three-lot deal. This agreement achieves an average 12.7 percent cost reduction across all three variants and gets us below $80 million for a USAF F-35A by Lot 13 – one lot earlier than planned,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, F-35 Program Executive Officer. “This $34 billion agreement is a truly historic milestone for the F-35 Enterprise.”
The agreement includes 291 aircraft for the U.S. Services, 127 for F-35 International Partners, and 60 for F-35 Foreign Military Sales customers. Price details include:
“With smart acquisition strategies, strong government-industry partnership and a relentless focus on quality and cost reduction, the F-35 Enterprise has successfully reduced procurement costs of the 5th Generation F-35 to equal or less than 4th Generation legacy aircraft,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin, F-35 Program vice president and general manager. “With the F-35A unit cost now below $80 millionin Lot 13, we were able to exceed our long-standing cost reduction commitment one year earlier than planned.”
The sub $80 million unit recurring flyaway cost for an F-35 represents an integrated acquisition price for the 5th Generation Weapon System. With embedded sensors and targeting pods, this F-35 unit price includes items that add additional procurement and sustainment costs to legacy 4th Generation aircraft.
Program Progress
With more than 450 aircraft operating from 19 bases around the globe, the F-35 is playing a critical role in today’s global security environment. More than 910 pilots and 8,350 maintainers have been trained, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 220,000 cumulative flight hours. Eight nations have F-35s operating from a base on their home soil and seven Services have declared Initial Operating Capability.
In addition to strengthening global security and partnerships, the F-35 provides economic stability to the U.S. and International Partners by creating jobs, commerce and security, and contributing to the global trade balance. The F-35 is built by thousands of men and women in America and around the world. With more than 1,400 suppliers in 46 states and Puerto Rico, the F-35 Program supports more than 220,000 direct and indirect jobs in the U.S. alone. The Program also includes more than 100 international suppliers, creating or sustaining thousands of jobs.
WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp. has won the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract, the Defense Department said on Friday, beating out favorite Amazon.com Inc.
The contracting process had long been mired in conflict of interest allegations, even drawing the attention of President Donald Trump, who has publicly taken swipes at Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos. Trump in August said his administration was reviewing Amazon’s bid after complaints from other companies.
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract is part of a broader digital modernization of the Pentagon meant to make it more technologically agile. Specifically, a goal of JEDI is to give the military better access to data and the cloud from battlefields and other remote locations.
Oracle Corp had expressed concerns about the award process for the contract, including the role of a former Amazon employee who worked on the project at the Defense Department but recused himself, then later left the Defense Department and returned to Amazon Web Services.
In a statement, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesman said the company was “surprised about this conclusion.”
The company said that a “detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings” would “clearly lead to a different conclusion,” according to the statement.
AWS is considering options for protesting the award, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Although the Pentagon boasts the world’s most potent fighting force, its information technology remains woefully inadequate, according to many officials.
Officials have complained of having outdated computer systems and being unable to access files or share information as quickly as they might be able to in the private sector.
“If I am a warfighter, I want as much data as you could possibly give me,” Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan, the director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told reporters in August describing the importance of the contract.
Some companies were concerned that a single award would give the winner an unfair advantage in follow-on work. The Pentagon has said it planned to award future cloud deals to multiple contractors.
This week, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper removed himself from reviewing the deal due to his adult son’s employment with one of the original contract applicants, IBM Corp. IBM had previously bid for the contract but had already been eliminated from the competition.
Microsoft said it was working on a comment. IBM and Oracle did not immediately return requests for comment.
In a book slated for publication Oct. 29, retired Navy commander Guy Snodgrass, who served as a speech writer to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, said Trump called Mattis and directed him to “screw Amazon” by preventing it from bidding on the JEDI contract, according to an excerpt of the book seen by Reuters ahead of its release.
“We’re not going to do that,” Mattis later told other Pentagon officials, according to the excerpt. “This will be done by the book, both legally and ethically.”
Snodgrass declined to comment pending the release of his book.
In a statement announcing Microsoft as the winner, the Pentagon underscored its view that the competition was conducted fairly and legally.
“All (offers) were treated fairly and evaluated consistently with the solicitation’s stated evaluation criteria. Prior to the award, the department conferred with the DOD Inspector General, which informed the decision to proceed,” it said.
Microsoft shares were up 3% to $144.98 in after-hours trading after the news. Amazon shares were down 0.92% to $1,745.12.
The Pentagon said it had awarded more than $11 billion across 10 separate cloud contracts over the past two years.
“As we continue to execute the DOD Cloud Strategy, additional contracts are planned for both cloud services and complementary migration and integration solutions necessary to achieve effective cloud adoption,” the Pentagon said.
(Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis and Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco Reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Sonya Hepinstall and Lincoln Feast)
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)
53rd International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport
PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. arms makers say European demand for fighter jets, missile defenses and other weapons is growing fast amid heightened concerns about Russia and Iran.
The U.S. government sent a group of unusually high-ranking officials including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to the Paris Airshow this year, where nearly 400 U.S. companies were showcasing equipment as the United States and Iran neared open confrontation in the Persian Gulf.
Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other top weapons makers said they had seen accelerating demand for U.S. weapons at the biennial air show despite escalating trade tensions between the United States and Europe.
“Two Paris air shows ago, there weren’t a lot of orders,” said Rick Edwards, who heads Lockheed’s international division. “Now … our fastest growth market for Lockheed Martin in the world is Europe.”
Many European nations have increased military spending since Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, bolstering missile defenses and upgrading or replacing ageing fighter jet fleets. NATO members agreed in 2014 to move toward spending 2% of gross domestic product on defence.
Eric Fanning, chief executive of the Aerospace Industries Association, said the NATO pledge and European concerns about Russia were fueling demand. “I do think it reflects the increasing provocations of Russia,” he said.
Industry executives and government officials say growing concern about Iran’s missile development program is another key factor. Tehran’s downing of a U.S. drone came late in the air show, but executives said it would support further demand.
“Iran is our best business development partner. Every time they do something like this, it heightens awareness of the threat,” said one senior defence industry executive, who asked not to be named.
Edwards said Lockheed’s F-35 stealth fighter, selected by Belgium, is poised to win another new order from Poland, while Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania are also working to replace Soviet-era equipment.
Edwards and other executives say they see no impact from the ongoing trade disputes between U.S. President Donald Trump and the European Union.
U.S. Army Lieutenant General Charles Hooper, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), said Europe accounted for nearly a quarter of the $55.7 billion in foreign arms sales his agency handled in fiscal 2018.
Hooper said the U.S. government was making concerted efforts to speed arms sales approvals and boost sales to help arm allies with U.S. weapons.
Ralph Acaba, president of Raytheon Co’s’s Integrated Defense Systems business, said the company was boosting automation and working to deliver the Patriot missile system and other weapons in half the five-year period previously typical.
“Europe is really big for us now, and that’s a big change in just the last few years and even the last 18 months,” he said.
In addition to wooing new Patriot customers, Raytheon is upgrading existing systems for customers like Germany, which is likely to finalize a contract worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to the company in coming months.
Thomas Breckenridge, head of international sales for Boeing’s strike, surveillance and mobility programs, is eyeing contracts wins for Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets in Germany, Switzerland and Finland.
“There’s a huge appetite in Europe for defence as a whole,” he said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Jan Harvey)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Defense has a “handshake” agreement with Lockheed Martin Co to cut 8.8 percent from the price of its latest order of F-35A fighter jet, shaving a year from the time frame in which each aircraft will cost less than $80 million, a Pentagon official said on Monday.
The Pentagon said over three years the agreement will be worth $34 billion for 478 F-35 fighter jets. It is preliminary and a final deal is expected to be sealed in August for the 12th batch of jets, one of the most expensive aircraft ever produced.
The preliminary agreement details the first year, and lays out agreed upon options for two additional years. The options are there because official purchases cannot be made until the U.S. Congress approves an annual budget for those years.
This year’s agreement will lower the cost of each F-35A, the most common version of the aircraft, to $81.35 million, Under Secretary of Defense Ellen Lord said, down from $89.2 million under a deal inked in August 2018.
Under the options covering the second and third years of the purchase, the price of each jet will drop below $80 million, Lord said. In those later years production would be around 160 jets per year.
The F-35 program has long aimed at growing the fleet to more than 3,000 jets and bringing the unit price of the F-35A below $80 million through efficiencies gained by ordering larger quantifies.
“I am proud to state that this agreement has achieved an estimated 8.8% savings from Lot 11 to Lot 12 F-35A’s, and an estimated average of 15%” reduction across all variants from Lot 11 to Lot 14, Lord said in the statement. That savings exceeded expectations in a RAND Corp study.
“The unit price for all three F-35 variants was reduced and the agreement will include an F-35A unit cost below $80 million in Lot 13, exceeding the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin’s long-standing cost reduction commitment earlier than planned,” the Lockheed Martin F-35 program general manager Greg Ulmer said in a statement.
While being a major part of Lockheed’s revenue, the F-35 has recently been holding competitions to find less expensive subcontractors to help control costs.
The new pricing could encourage more foreign customers to join the F-35 program. Lockheed executives have said that any country with an F-16 jet, the predecessor to the F-35, is a potential customer. This could put the market size at about 4000 jets, Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson recently told an investor conference.
Vice Admiral Mathias Winter, the head of the Pentagon’s F-35 office, has testified to Congress, that “future potential foreign military sales customers include Singapore, Greece, Romania, Spain and Poland.”
Foreign military sales like those of the F-35 are considered government-to-government deals where the Pentagon acts as an intermediary between the defense contractor and a foreign government.
Other U.S. allies have been eyeing a purchase of the stealthy jet including Finland, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Bill Rigby and David Gregorio)
FILE PHOTO: A Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II aircraft takes part in flying display during the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris
United Technologies, Raytheon to create $120 billion aerospace and defence giant
(Reuters) – United Technologies Corp agreed on Sunday to combine its aerospace business with U.S. contractor Raytheon Co and create a new company worth about $121 billion, in what would be the sector’s biggest ever merger.
The deal would reshape the competitive landscape by forming a conglomerate which spans commercial aviation and defense procurement. United Technologies provides primarily commercial plane makers with electronics, communications and other equipment, whereas Raytheon mainly supplies the U.S. government with military aircraft and missile equipment.
While United Technologies and Raytheon have some common customers, their business overlap is limited, an argument the companies plan to make once U.S. antitrust regulators start scrutinizing the merger.
However, the two major commercial aircraft makers, Boeing Co and Airbus SE, as well as the Pentagon, have been known to use their significant purchasing power to seek concessions from their suppliers and may not welcome a potential lessening in competition among them.
When United Technologies rebuffed an acquisition offer from Honeywell International Inc in 2016, United Technologies chief executive Greg Hayes justified the decision partly by predicting that Boeing and Airbus would never accept having a supplier that would “build the plane from tip to tail.”
United Technologies has said it is on track to separate its Carrier air conditioning and Otis elevator businesses, leaving the company focused on its aerospace business through its $23 billion acquisition of Rockwell Collins, which was completed in 2018, and the Pratt & Whitney engines business.
Chinese authorities scrutinized the acquisition of airplane parts maker Rockwell Collins closely, given the companies’ footprint in that country’s market. This resulted in the deal closing in November 2018, as opposed to the targeted third quarter.
Trade tensions between the United States and China were blamed at least partly by analysts for that delay, but a source close to the deal said the companies did not expect this to be repeated because Raytheon does not do business in China.
Under the deal announced on Sunday, Raytheon shareholders will receive 2.3348 shares in the combined company for each Raytheon share. The merger is expected to result in more than $1 billion in cost synergies by the end of the fourth year, the companies said.
United Technologies shareholders will own about 57% of the combined business, called Raytheon Technologies Corporation, which will be led by Hayes. Raytheon shareholders will own the remaining stake, and Raytheon CEO Tom Kennedy will be named executive chairman. The companies negotiated the terms over several months, according to the source, who requested anonymity discussing the confidential deliberations.
The deal has been structured so that no shareholder of either company will receive a premium. United Technologies and Raytheon have market capitalizations of $114 billion and $52 billion, respectively.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
The newly created company is expected to return between $18 billion and $20 billion of capital to shareholders in the first three years after the deal’s completion, the companies said. The new company will also assume about $26 billion in net debt, they added.
DEFENSE SPENDING RISE
Raytheon, maker of the Tomahawk and the Patriot missile systems, and other U.S. military contractors are expected to benefit from strong global demand for fighter jets and munitions as well as higher U.S. defense spending in fiscal 2020, much of it driven by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
However, Pentagon spending is projected to slow down after an initial boost under Trump. A deal with United Technologies would allow Raytheon to expand into commercial aviation.
Conversely, United Technologies could benefit from reducing its exposure to commercial aerospace clients amid concerns that the rise of international trade protectionism will suppress economic growth and weigh on the flow of goods through air traffic.
The International Air Transport Association, which represents about 290 carriers accounting for more than 80% of global air traffic, cited these concerns earlier this month, when it said the industry is expected to post a $28 billion profit in 2019, down from a December forecast of $35.5 billion.
The deal with Raytheon could put pressure on General Electric Co, which competes with United Technologies for commercial aerospace clients, to seek scale. It could also push other defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin Corp, to explore expanding their commercial businesses.
Last year, military communication equipment providers Harris Corp and L3 Technologies Inc announced an all-stock merger that, once completed, will create the sixth-largest U.S. defence contractor.
Morgan Stanley, Evercore Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc were financial advisers to United Technologies, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz was its legal adviser. Citigroup Inc was financial adviser to Raytheon, and RBC Capital Markets LLC provided a fairness opinion. Shearman & Sterling LLP was legal adviser to Raytheon.
(Reporting by Harry Brumpton and Kate Duguid in New York; Additional reporting by Mike Stone in Washington and Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang and Rosalba O’Brien)
Defence Minister says $1.2 bln is a reasonable price
Final talks to start once Bulgaria gets draft contract
Cost will be based on final Bulgarian requirements-U.S. Embassy (Adds defence minister comment, U.S. embassy to Sofia)
SOFIA, June 4 (Reuters) – NATO member Bulgaria expects the United States to offer to sell it eight new F-16 fighter jets for its air force at a discounted price of $1.2 billion, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department approved the possible sale of eight F-16 aircraft and related equipment at an estimated cost of $1.67 billion, a Pentagon agency said on Monday.
Bulgaria, which is also a member of the European Union, is looking to replace its ageing Soviet-made MiG-29s and improve compliance with NATO standards.
A deal for Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70 would be the Balkan country’s biggest military procurement since the fall of Communist rule some 30 years ago.
The defence ministry said the U.S. approval outlined the upper threshold of the cost and it expected a draft contract from Washington within two weeks.
“There is a two-week timeline in which the U.S. government will present to Bulgaria a draft Letter of Offer and Acceptance in which the expected price for the eight jets with a package of necessary related equipment will be within $1.2 billion,” the ministry said in a statement.
The expected price comes above the initial estimate for the deal at 1.8 billion levs ($1 billion) but the Bulgarian parliament has given the defence ministry a green light to go over that.
Defence Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said that the deviation from the initial budget should not be big.
“About 2 billion levs ($1.2 billion) is the upper threshold of a reasonable price,” he told reporters.
The U.S. Embassy in Sofia said that the Departments of State and Defense allow for a margin in all notifications to the U.S. Congress and that the actual cost will be based on Bulgaria’s final requirements.
Final talks on the deal will start once Sofia receives the draft contract. The cost’s reduction would most likely be achieved by scaling down some of the related equipment, local analysts say.
“At that stage…the Bulgarian government may re-scope and re-define the requirements before arriving at the ultimate cost,” the embassy said in a statement. ($1 = 1.7397 leva)
(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova Editing by Keith Weir)
FILE PHOTO: Lockheed Martin is seen at Euronaval, the world naval defence exhibition in Le Bourget near Paris, France, October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
(Reuters) – Lockheed Martin Corp reported a better-than-expected 47 percent jump in quarterly profit on Tuesday and raised its annual profit forecast, helped by strong demand for its missiles and fighter jets, sending its shares up more than 5 percent in pre-market trading.
U.S. weapons makers have been expected to benefit from stronger global demand for fighter jets and munitions and higher U.S. defence budgets in fiscal 2020 as they announce first quarter earnings this week.
Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control business, which makes missile defences like the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), was one of its best-performing units.
On April 1, the unit was awarded a THAAD interceptor missile contract worth $2.4 billion, some of which are slated to be delivered to Saudi Arabia, which could boost earnings for the current quarter.
Overall, the Bethesda, Maryland-based company said its earnings rose to $1.70 billion, or $5.99 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.16 billion, or $4.02 per share, a year earlier. That was partly helped by a $75 million dollar boost from additional tax deductions on foreign military sales.
Excluding that one-time gain, Lockheed reported $5.73 per share profit, well ahead of the $4.34 per share that Wall Street had expected, on average, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Lockheed’s overall net sales for the quarter rose 23 percent to $14.34 billion. The company’s sales backlog grew to $133.5 billion, up 3 billion over the quarter.
Operating margins at the aeronautics division, Lockheed’s biggest, fell to 10.5 percent in the first quarter from 10.8 percent a year earlier, but sales were up 27 percent to $5.5 billion on demand for the F-35 jet and some classified contracts.
The United States is considering expanding sales of Lockheed-made F-35 fighter jets to five new nations including Romania, Greece and Poland as European allies bulk up their defences in the face of a strengthening Russia, a Pentagon official told Congress in early April.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington D.C. and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Bill Rigby)
