The State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sales (FMS) of three E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft and related equipment to France for about $2 billion and separately approved selling $3 billion worth of fuel to Israel.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress of the E-2D sale on July 6.
France’s requested sale covered the three E-2Ds as well as 10 T-56-427A engines (six installed and four spares), three AN/APY-9 radar assemblies, four AN/ALQ-217 electronic support measure systems (three installed and one spare), three AN/AYK-27 Integrated Navigation Channels and Display Systems, five Link-16 (MIDS-JTRS) Communications Systems (three installed and two spares), 10 Embedded GPS/INS (EGI) Devices (six installed and four spares), four AN/APX-122(A) and AN/APX-123(A) Identification, Friend or Foe systems (three installed and one spare) and one Joint Mission Planning System.
Beyond assorted government and contractor logistics and overall support services, the contract also includes Common Systems Integration Laboratories with/Test Equipment. One is in Melbourne, Fla., and the other in France.
The primary contractor will be aircraft builder Northrop Grumman [NOC].
DSCA said France will use the aircraft as a sustainable follow-on capability to the current legacy E-2C Hawkeye aircraft to improve France’s ability to meet current and future threats.
“The E-2D aircraft will continue and expand French naval aviation capabilities and maintain interoperability with U.S. naval forces,” the agency added.
This sale comes after two other large Hawkeye sales for Northrop Grumman over the past year.
In April, the Navy award the company a $404 million contract modification to buy two more E-2Ds, one each in full rate production Lots 8 and 9 (Defense Daily, April 2).
Last September, the Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a $1.36 billion contract mod to build and deliver nine specially configured E-2Ds for Japan (Defense Daily, Sept. 27, 2019)
The Japan sale came after the State Department first approved a $3.1 billion FMS for nine Advanced Hawkeyes to Japan in 2018 (Defense Daily, Sept. 10, 2018).
Separately, the State Department approved a possible FMS of about 990 million gallons of various fuels to Israel for $3 billion.
The Israeli sale includes JP-8 aviation fuel, diesel fuel and unleaded gasoline. Specific American vendors will be chosen in the future via a competitive bid process through the Defense Logistics Agency Energy for supply sources.
DSCA said the JP-8 fuel will allow Israel to maintain operational aircraft while the diesel and unleaded gasoline will be used by ground vehicles.
The agency said assisting Israel to maintain a strong self-defense capability is vital to U.S. national interests and “the proposed sale will improve Israel’s ability to meet current and future threats in order to defend its borders.”