Deal Updates and Progress
2012
Optional short yearly wrap-up.
April 3/12: EW. ITT Exelis announces that $54 million has finalized a contract to provide Pakistan with some of its AIDEWS electronic warfare pods (vid. March 19/08, June 26/08, July 5/11, and July 20/11 entries). The 2008 contract had been for $78.2 million, and the July 2011 contract added $49.1 million, creating a current total of $181.3 million, plus over $9 million to integrate them with their F-16s AN/ALQ-231 central electronic warfare systems.
The ALQ-211 based Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare System (AIDEWS) integrates digital radar warning receivers and advanced jamming countermeasures systems against radar-based threats, including modern surface-to-air and air-to-air weapon systems. It can be carried on a pod, as Pakistan is doing, or internally as the AN/ALQ-211v4.
Feb 6/12: New deliveries done. The PAF receives its 18th and final new F-16 Block 52, and its its first 2 Mid-Life Upgrade F-16s, at PAF Shahbaz airbase. The last new F-16 was an F-16D that had remained in the US for testing & trials. F-16.net.
2011
Optional short yearly wrap-up.
July 30/11: J-10s. The PAF will be flying a squadron of Chinese J-10B fighters alongside its F-16s, as a gift from China. The official offer was reportedly presented to the Pakistan Armys Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Waheed Arshad, during a week-long visit to Beijing.
The Chinese have also pledged 50 co-developed JF-17 Thunder fighters in recent months, but the J-10Bs are different because they offer total performance on par with, or even superior to, the PAFs new F-16C/D Block 52 fighter standard. Pakistan Kakhuda Hafiz | Economic Times of India | Defense Update | DefenseWorld.
July 29/11: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, TX receives a $42.3 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for 10 additional Pakistan F-16 A/B Block 15 Aircraft Enhanced Modernization Program kits. The ASC/WWMK at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH manages the contract on behalf of its foreign Military Sale client (FA8615-07-C-6032, PO 0038).
July 26/11: Fragile alliance. At the US House Foreign Affairs Committees hearings on Reassessing American Grand Strategy in South Asia, John J. Tkacik, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Researchs Former Chief of China Analysis, submits The Enemy of Hegemony is My Friend: Pakistans de facto Alliance with China [PDF]. Key excerpt:
China has always been Pakistans most important strategic ally,2 and the intensity of Pakistans relationship with the United States has always been a subset of Pakistans all-consuming strategic calculus about India
. For the United States to achieve a true strategic partnership with Pakistan, it must share Pakistans posture toward India. It follows, then, that subduing India also demands acquiescing in Chinas ultimate hegemony in Asia. In reassessing Americas grand strategy in South Asia, the United States must first reassess its global grand strategy. If America can live with an Asia under Chinese hegemony, and with a crippled India, then America can have Pakistans enthusiastic partnership against the Taliban. Decisions like this are, as they say, above my pay grade.
July 22/11: Training. L-3 Communications Link Simulation and Training division in Arlington, TX receives a $20.6 million firm-fixed-price contract for 1 aircrew training system (ATS) to support Pakistan air force F-16 pilot training. Work will be performed at Arlington, Texas, overseen by ASC/WNSK at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, on behalf of their Pakistani FMS client. Both simulators, scheduled for delivery in 2013, will be installed and networked at the PAFs Shahbaz Air Base.
The ATS consists of 2 upgraded F-16 ATS devices with an 18 panel simusphere for 360 degree viewing: a new F-16A Block 15/52 ATS; and a less flexible new F-16C Block 52 ATS. The contract also includes 21 months contractor logistics support (12 months on-site and 9 months on-call); common ATS Block 15 and Block 52 software load; high fidelity cockpit; 360 horizontal X250; version MMC 7000 hardware and software; geo-specific database of Pakistan with high resolution features; full simulation of the APG-68v9 radar with digital radar land mass simulation; full weapons simulation incl. Maverick missile, targeting pod, JHMCS helmet mounted sights; threat environment A-G and spot jamming simulation; emergency procedures and malfunctions simulation; and an instructor-operator station to make pilots lives difficult in pre-planned ways. Fort Worth Star-Telegram | Pakistans The Nation.
July 20/11: EW. Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp. in Atlanta, GA receiveds a $9.2 million cost-plus-fixed-fee Foreign Military Sales contract to integrate ITTs AN/ALQ-211v9 AIDEW pod and software into Pakistans existing AN/ALQ-213 [PDF] countermeasures set from Terma. The ALQ-213 CMS electronic warfare suite provides centralized control/resources management of the F-16s defensive suites, so the pod and CMS controller need to work together.
Work will be performed in Atlanta, GA, and is expected to be complete by July 2014. The ESG/PKS DTIC at Offutt AFB, NB, manages the contract on behalf of its FMS client (HC1047-05-D-4000).
July 19/11: The US GAO releases report #GAO-11-786R: Pakistan Assistance: Relatively Little of the $3 Billion in Requested Assistance is Subject to States Certification of Pakistans Progress on Nonproliferation and Counterterrorism Issues.
July 9/11: After the USA finds and kills Osama Bin Laden, Pakistans intelligence agency murders a journalist and expels American military trainers. In response, the USA delays and may cancel about $800 million in military aid and equipment, or about 40% of its annual total.
US officials say that the F-16s are unaffected. Instead, the blockage involves about $300 million to reimburse Pakistan for some of the costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border, hundreds of millions of dollars in training assistance and military hardware like rifles, ammunition, body armor and bomb-disposal gear that were part of the expelled training effort, and items like radios, night-vision goggles and helicopter spare parts, where Pakistan has denied visas to the American personnel needed to operate the equipment. Less double-dealing with terrorists would reportedly free up this aid, but Pakistans response is that theyll rely on China to make up the gap. ABC News | CBS News | NY Times.
July 5/11: EW. ITT Systems Corp. in Clifton, NJ receives a not to exceed $49.1 million firm-fixed-price contract for the ALQ-211v9 AIDEW Pod, which was picked as the electronic countermeasures choice for Pakistans new F-16C/D Block 52s, and is also on the list for its upgraded F-16s. This award fits the new fighter order, and includes 18 pods, 4 pod shells, 2 antenna coupler sets, 2 lab test benches, associated data, and systems software and support equipment.
Work will be performed at Clifton, N.J. This contract is a Foreign Military Sales requirement for Pakistan, managed by the WR-ALC/GRWKBat Robins Air Force Base, GA (FA8540-11-C-0012). See also June 26/08 entry.
May 1/11: Osama Bin Laden is killed in a US Navy SEAL raid, which happens without notifying Pakistan. As a result, Osama is actually present in Abbotabad when the SEALs arrive, living comfortably about a mile from Pakistans top military college.
March 1/11: Aviation Week reports that Pakistan is in negotiations with the U.S. to get more Lockheed Martin F-16s over and above the 63 currently in service (18 F-16C/D Block 52, 45 F-16A/B Blocck 15/OCU that will be upgraded). No numbers have been specified, by Pakistani officials see it as part of a dual-track strategy that will also include more spending on domestic projects like the JF-17 Thunder, to improve Pakistans own manufacturing capacity.
At present, PAF Air Chief Marshall Rao Qamar Suleman says that 4 F-16A/Bs went to the USA for technical verification inspections and upgrade kit development, and the 1st 3 F-16A/Bs are now undergoing the upgrade at Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). All of Pakistans F-16s are expected to be upgraded by 2013-2014. At present, no systems exist that would bridge the F-16 and JF-17 fleets, but Air Chief Marshall Suleman says that Pakistan intends to eventually field a supplementary datalink, which would work alongside the Link 16 systems carried by the F-16s.
The comments come as the Pakistani military is also discussing a deal to buy Chinese submarines as a supplement to their French Agosta-class boats, as an intended prelude to joint submarine development. These plans are all being made against a backdrop of a serious domestic insurgency and widespread flooding damage, which have combined to create over 1 million internal refugees, and threaten the governments medium term ability to maintain control of the country. Even as the state is very obviously fraying in other ways.
Jan 20/11: DB-110. Goodrich Corporation of Chelmsford, MA receives a $71.9 million contract for 5 DB-110 Pods, 2 datalink upgrades to existing pods, 2 fixed ground stations, 1 mobile ground station, and 4 ground station datalink receiver kits, plus initial spares, technical manuals, minimal initial engineering support for final in-country installation, integration, testing and a study for a potential fusion center. This supports Pakistani F-16 aircraft. At this time, $17.3 million has been committed by the ASC/WINK at Wright-Patterson Air Force, OH on behalf of their Foreign Military Sale client (FA8620-11-C-3006).
The DB-110 reconnaissance pod offers day and night capabilities, and has been ordered by a number of F-16 customers, including Egypt, Greece, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, and the UAE. DB-110s were not mentioned in the DSCA upgrade requests, but they are clearly part of that effort now. Reports indicate that installations began in June 2010; this is apparently a follow-on order. A Jan 12/11 US FedBizOpps solicitation for associated imagery analysis training is a useful reminder that buying the pods is not enough to field a useful capability. See also Aviation Week re: DB-110.
