Lockheed will provide Strategic Weapon System Trident fleet support, Trident Shipboard Integration Increment 8 and 16 and also Columbia class and Dreadnought class navigation subsystem development efforts.
According to the US State Department in a contract notice:
“The Lockheed Martin Corp., Rotary and Mission Systems, Mitchell Field, New York, is awarded a $68,603,033 cost plus incentive fee and cost plus fixed fee contract modification (P00005) to previously awarded and announced contract N00030-20-C-0045 for the U.S. and United Kingdom to provide Strategic Weapon System Trident fleet support, Trident II SSP Shipboard Integration (SSI) Increment 8, SSI Increment 16, Columbia class and U.K. Dreadnought class navigation subsystem development efforts. Work will be performed in Mitchel Field, New York (47%); Huntington Beach, California (36%); Clearwater, Florida (9%); Cambridge, Massachusetts (6%); and Hingham, Massachusetts (2%), with an expected completion date of Nov. 30, 2022.
Subject to the availability of funding, fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $42,869,626; fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $4,247,698; and United Kingdom funds in the amount of $21,485,709, will be obligated at time of award. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a sole-source acquisition in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) and (4). Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.”
The UK will be paying $21.5m for this contract.
Dreadnought, QE carriers, Type 26 and 31, then that could be it in terms of heavy UK military spending. The rest will have slim picking, sad but what other priorities are there or options for that matter?
We are in the age of drones now.
There are hundreds of equipment and systems programmes Maurice. They don’t all cost billions.
We all know the budget screw is going to be turned, possibly like never before, and as such, only key programmes will be protected, which could result in significant programme cancellations. At the end of the day my aforementioned (above) equipment will have to survive the coming storm.
Do you ever post anything that is not laden with doom?
Yes, we know there will be cuts. There have been for the last 30 years and before that too.
I for one prefer to look to the positives, wait and see, and hope they will not be as bad as the doom merchants predict on a constant basis.
It’s not doom Daniele, just becoming increasingly aware of the budget issues that will be a real test of fiscal courage, in the coming months and years. I’d love to be optimistic about the future of the UK’s defences, however, when experts predict huge cuts to the US military due to COVID, it’s very hard to see how the MOD will get away with only modest cuts. As I have said in other messages, I believe the UK Government will probably have no choice but to spend heavily on the RN in their goal to increase global reach objectives. Hence the retention of our key vessels as I outlined above.
Hi Maurice. I was coming back here to apologise, as I thought after that my reply came across as rather cutting…. So glad you didn’t take it the wrong way. Sorry! I can lament as well as anyone.
Back to your original point on priorities. From listening to CGS the army I think will still be concentrating on their Strike Brigades. I think Tanks too will survive, but in smaller numbers. There will be lots of unmanned stuff coming to supplement smaller numbers of manned armoured vehicles, to provide some missing mass.
Boxer will survive, Warrior not so sure.
Apart from losing infantry battalions I cannot see where else the army can reduce. There needs to be more artillery, which should be cheaper, and indeed there is talk of more long range fires.
CGS is also talking of renewed emphasis on SF and intelligence, which is a bit typical of MoD/HMG reinventing the wheel, as it has been ever thus for years that UKSF is a priority. And I myself always stress the importance of our world class intelligence agencies here.
I always call for more cheaper kit to get a better balance between mass and capability, so I hope if there are reductions they are more along the line of programme cancellations and replacement with cheaper versions, rather than number reductions, which in many areas are so low that the savings would be minimal.
The elephant in the room as always is nukes. Would you accept their demise to maintain a bigger military?
Oh yes, on the RN, I agree. It should take priority with a maintained RFA and RM. I cannot see how it can be any other way, as you say, for global reach.
Interestingly, HMG describe the QEC as defence assets rather than purely RN assets.
No apology is necessary as I can be a bit doom laden. The current climate does little to reignite the pre-virus optimism though, hopefully, we will see the sunlit up lands once again and may even consider a third carrier?
I believe we have to accept there will be casualties but I hope the MOD will still continue with Army and Airforce projects though, possibly, purchase less kit? It’s better to have capability even if it is with less numbers, than none at all.
Cheers.
Yes. It’s known as salami slicing, but I’m afraid I too prefer having a capability rather than none, even if it means less.
We are at minimal numbers already though in many areas, so I will be surprised if HMG removes entire capabilities. Its why they kept cutting escorts and Fast Jet Squadrons, we once had plenty of them, in comparison to other assets. That piggy bank is gone.
There may be cuts, but if so it will be nothing to do with current finances.
Assuming the current level of tax to the Exchequer it will take nearly 3,000 years to pay off the U.K. National Debt. However paying it off needn’t actually be a priority in that;-
There will be issues with any shrinkage of GDP, which then reduces the £££‘S the MOD is allocated to stay within the NATO 2% target.
There will also be new demands for cash to inject into the economy to stimulate growth and reduce unemployment. Hopefully some of this may be in the defence sector and in equipping the armed forces.
Fan of Lockheed. Boeing, not so much.
When I was based on Ascension Island during my 6 month stint , the Yanks would test their trident missiles off the coast. When they did, they would bring in a load of planes such as Hawkeye and always test the missiles at nighttime our end. ( they would launch them from off the coast of Florida) i and a few others would pop up to the BBC bar at Two boats and from their outside veranda which overlooked a lot of Island watch the missiles come down over the sea ( minus warheads of course) we would joke the next time we saw such, we would need a damn good sun block. Oh they all had MIRA
Damn should proof read , my last was meant to say the warheads would separate and spread out on the way down like a Standards fireworks rocket, but without the bang.