Production of the AN/ALQ-135 has ended for US aircraft, but updated systems were in production for South Korea’s F-15Ks through about 2013 (Singapore turned to Israel for its F-15SG’s EW suite). The F-15 has been among the most successful US fighter programs, and the sale to South Korea was hugely important for its future. The F-15K/SG rejuvenated the aircraft, with new systems, weapons, and sensors. Also, both countries have al-ready bought more planes, as a 40 or 12 aircraft force is not a sustainable minimum for the long run.

Teal Group’s Military Electronics Briefing has added new forecasts for the biggest naval EW (electronic warfare) programs of the next ten years, including the multi-prime contractor AN/SLQ-32 & SEWIP (Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program) programs – in several “Blocks”, Raytheon’s SSDS (Ship Self Defense System), and Lockheed Martin’s Nulka and AN/ALQ-248 Advanced Off-Board Electronic Warfare (AOEW) decoy systems. When including all versions of the SLQ-32 and SEWIP, those programs alone will be worth $6.4 billion in Teal’s forecast. The MEB has also added a new, speculative Future US Air Force RF ECM Pods forecast.

The following is an excerpt from a recently released Teal Group study analyzing regional aerospace industry competitiveness across the U.S. For the full report please click here.

AEROSPACE COMPETITIVE ECONOMICS STUDY

Based on the research conducted for this study, the states of Washington, Ohio, North Carolina, Kansas and Colorado offer the most competitive business environments for the manufacture of aerospace equipment. These states ranked high in a number of the evaluation categories and corresponding metrics.

Washington scored extremely well across all categories and was a top ten finisher in all but one. It ranked first in two categories: Economy and Industry, while finishing second in Labor & Education and Costs.  It was ranked number five in Risk to Operations, Research & Innovation and Taxes & Incentives. Infrastructure was the only category where Washington fell outside the top ten.

Ohio had the second highest overall rank, with significant separation between it and the state of Washington.  Demonstrating the substantial gap between first and second, Ohio finished in the top ten in only two categories, Labor & Education and Industry. It did finish in the second ten in a number of categories, thereby reinforcing its overall strong showing.  These categories included: Economy, Risk to Operations, Infrastructure, Costs, and Taxes & Incentives.

The development of a new generation heavy ICBM to replace the old 15A18M (SS-18 Satan) began with a design study codenamed "NIR Argumentatsiya" at NPO Mashinostroyenie in 2007 that studied the possibility of designing a weapon on the basis of existing submarine-launched ballistic missile. The study proposed the use of the liquid fuel engines from the R-29RMU2 (SS-N-23 Skiff) and the warhead package of the failed R-39UTTKh Bark (SSNX-28).