F/A-18F Super Hornet, one model of F/A 18 Super Hornets slated for production and delivery to Kuwait via Foreign Military Sales. (Photo via DOD)On the last business day in March this year, DOD ended the month with a huge spike in announcements of major foreign military sales (FMS). In total, the 13 contract awards and modifications totaled over $2.2 billion, for work from 8 contractors.
The highest value contract awarded that day went to Boeing for “long-lead non-recurring engineering required to develop a baseline configuration for the production and delivery of 22 F/A-18E and 6 F/A-18F Super Hornets,” along with long-lead radar warning receivers and aircraft armament equipment, for the government of Kuwait. With period of performance lasting until September 2022, the contract was awarded with a ceiling of over $1.16 billion.
Boeing was also awarded a $30.7 million contract for “post-production support services for the Taiwan Armed Forces AH-64E aircraft fleet.”
Lockheed Martin was awarded two large contract modifications to a contract first awarded in December 2016. The original contract, with a ceiling of $1.5 billion, was awarded as an FMS contract for PATRIOT missile advanced capability production to countries including: Republic of Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates. On March 30th, DOD awarded an FMS contract modification worth $278.8 million for Cost-Reduction Initiative missiles and associated ground support equipment to Saudi Arabia, and a modification worth over $251 million for associated PATRIOT Advanced Capability-3 services to Saudi Arabia and Romania.
Smaller contracts included almost $15.2 million contract to Longbow LLC for specific post-production support services to Republic of Korea’s Army AH-64E Guardian Apache helicopters, and an $11.4 million option for a “full-rate production RQ-21A Blackjack” unmanned aircraft system from Insitu Inc, for delivery to Poland.
This comes in the midst of a push by the current administration to loosen some regulations on foreign military sales and spur more purchases from partners and allies. Only days before the March 30th announcements, Raytheon announced Poland’s acceptance of a letter of offer and acceptance (LOA) for a PATRIOT system reportedly worth $4.75 billion. EZGovOpps expects a growth in foreign military sales contracts to continue.
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