Boeing and Israel have signed a deal to upgrade the latter's AH-64A Apaches to Longbow standard on a commercial basis rather than using the Foreign Military Sales system. Magellan Aerospace of Canada has won a C$13.8 million ($9.3 million)order from Northrop Grumman for structural components for the Boeing F/A-18C/D centre fuselage refit programme. General Electric has been awarded a $385 million contract for 73 F414-404 engines to power Boeing F/A-18E/Fs. The contract includes a $440 million option for a further 92 engines. The UK Royal Air Force has awarded a £63 million ($88 million) contract to EADS (Germany) for a four-year Mid Life Fatigue Programme for a structural life extension to the Panavia Tornado F3. The aircraft will be disassembled in the UK and the centre fuselages shipped to Augsburg for fitting with new structures. The RAF has placed a £39 million ($55 million) contract with Matra BAe Dynamics, Cubic and the MLM division of Israel Aircraft Industries for a rangeless debriefing system based around MLM's Ehud. Service entry is set for early 2003. Lockheed Martin has been selected by Boeing to provide new electronic support measures subsystems for the B-52H under the Situational Awareness Defensive Improvement programme, potentially worth over $50 million. AeroThrust of Miami has received a $110 million contract to maintain Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines powering US Navy/Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas C-9s and US Air Force C-9s, Boeing C-22s and T-43s. Litton subsidiary PRC has won a five-year contract, initially worth $25 million, to develop and operate the US Air Force's Joint Battlespace Infosphere Distributed Testbed. This will be used for rapid prototyping and operational assessment of systems. Saudi Arabia has proposed a $1.6 billion continuation of USAF and contractor support for Saudi air force Boeing F-15 fighters.
Source: Flight International
