By Troy Turner
The U.S. Air Force has awarded a Texas-based company doing business in Madison, Alabama, as International Enterprises Inc. an $89 million contract for optical upgrades on F-16 fighter aircraft.
ElbitAmerica Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, leads a large family of business units involved in a wide array of defense and civilian industry operations. Included in its many military production programs is work on developing electro-optics and precision targeting systems.
Elbit America is well recognized for its work on such systems. Employees and legislators gathered on April 25 to celebrate delivery of the 3,000th F-35 Helmet Mounted Display System from the company’s site in Merrimack, N.H.
The stealthy F-35 Lightning II fighters are among the most technologically advanced aircraft in the world, and its sensor and targeting systems are a big reason for that.
International Enterprises, located in Talladega, has previous experience working on support of the F-16 program. The Alabama company in 2021, for example, earned an $8.5 million contract for spare parts supporting the F-16 Heads-Up Display, Electrical Module Assembly. The contract served the Air Force and foreign military sales to Taiwan.
The two companies are partnered now under the Elbit umbrella in the new contract announced Sept. 20 for work to be performed in Madison in support of the F-16. The Madison-Huntsville area continues to grow on a rapid pace with defense contracts in aerospace engineering and development.
Terms of the $89 million contract call for “indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for F-16 Block 40/42 wide-angle conventional heads-up display replacement. This contract will replace the diffractive optical holographic heads-up display currently in operation on all block 40/42 aircraft with the wide-angle conventional heads-up display.”
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting agency.
Troy Turner is the editor and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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