Here are the programs that made the biggest news over the past week:
AIM-9X scores another international buy — The AIM-9X Sidewinder program scored its latest win on the international market, as Norway has officially requested 200 AIM-9X Block II missiles at a cost of $345 million, and the State Department has approved it, we reported last week. Earlier this month, Indonesia requested 30 missiles for $47 million. The new Block II Sidewinders improve on the fuze and mission computers of the missile. Read more AIM-9X analysis >>>
Did MEADS just win big in Germany? — Long since shut out from the U.S. market after the Army dropped the program, the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) may still have some life abroad, with the German defense ministry electing to purchase MEADS as a successor to the Patriot missile system — at least, according to a Reuters report based off of a German publication. Germany was one of the original partners in developing the system along with the United States and Italy before Washington bowed out in 2012 over budget concerns, angering the other partners. If the deal is confirmed, it would be a huge boon for manufacturer Lockheed Martin as it would be worth $4.5 billion. Read more MEADS analysis >>>
First F-35B operational flights soon — It’s been a long, hard road for the Marine Corps’ short-take-off, vertical-landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but the program is about to hit a major milestone: the first operational test period (OTP) for the F-35B aboard an amphibious ship, according to a Yuma Sun report. An F-35B squadron based in Yuma, Ariz., will fly out to South Carolina and head to the USS Wasp, and it will earn the distinction of being the first time an operational unit will fly from an amphib, revisiting a ship they have flown from before. Unlike the previous times, however, it will be going on actual missions. Read more F-35 analysis >>>