Lebanese Army is replenishing its stock of TOW and Hellfire Missiles

Within two weeks, three orders were placed to procure TOW II and Hellfire II missiles as part of larger contracts to supply other countries. The Lebanese army already effectively use these two missiles for some years now, and were used recently in the Fajr al-Jurud operation against ISIS.

1. September 18/28 2017: Two orders for an unspecified number of TOW II missiles with completion date in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
   Contract 1
   

   Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $292,436,322 modification (PZ0055) to foreign military sales (Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Thailand, Bahrain, and Morocco) contract W31P4Q-12-C-0265 for Tube-launched Optically-tracked Wireless-guided missiles. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona; and Farmington, New Mexico, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2018. Fiscal 2010 foreign military sales funds in the amount of $292,436,322 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

   Contract 2
   

   Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $300,088,180 fixed-price-incentive domestic and foreign military sales (Lebanon, Jordon and Morocco) contract for Tube-launched Optically-tracked Wireless-guided missiles for the Army, Marine Corps and foreign military sales customers. Bids were solicited via the Internet with one received. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona; and Farmington, New Mexico, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2020. Fiscal 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2017 other procurement (Army); foreign military sales; and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds in the combined amount of $300,088,180 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-17-C-0194).

    
2. September 28, 2017: Order for an unspecified number of Hellfire II missiles with expected completion in 2020.
   

   Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, has been awarded a $103,287,296 modification (P00060) to foreign military sales (Croatia, Lebanon, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates) contract W31P4Q-15-C-0151 for Hellfire II missile production. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2015, 2016 and 2017 other procurement (Army) and other funds in the combined amount of $103,287,296 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

Contracts information quoted from https://www.defense.gov/

It is worth noting that these, and previously ordered/delivered TOW missiles are wirelessly guided to the contrary of what some military experts still describe the TWO missile as "wire-guided". Besides, while we do not know how many Hellfire missiles the LAF has used so far since the first delivery, but its arsenal of Hellfire missile seems to have been growing over the past few years thanks to multiple deliveries/contracts.

This article first appeared on LAF Digest (Unofficial)

Another major TOW 2A contract for the Lebanese Army

DSCA has officially announcement a possible Foreign Military Sale to Lebanon for TOW 2A Missiles and associated equipment, parts and logistical support for an estimated cost of $245 million.

The contact includes:

1. 1000 BGM-71E-4B-RF TOW 2A
2. 500 BGM-71-H-1-RF TOW Bunker Buster
3. 50 M220A2 TOW launchers
4. Training equipment (Probably simulators)
5.  Containers, spare and repair parts, support equipment, publications and technical documentation 

It is worth nothing that these are wireless versions of the TOW missile.
The original full publication can be found here.


The Lebanese Army has been receiving an increasing number of TOW 2 missiles since the escalations on the Eastern borders with Syria. The most recent delivery was on June 1st, more info here.


This article first appeared on LAF Digest (Unofficial)

Lebanese Army demonstrates TOW 2A and TOW 2B

The Lebanese Army conducted today a live demonstration of the recently delivered TOW 2A and TOW 2B.

(Hi-Res Photos; click to enlarge; you can get higher resolution by saving the photo)
Photo Credits: Associated Press

TOW 2A

TOW  2B

This article first appeared on LAF Digest (Unofficial)

LAF receives a new batch of TOW II Launchers and Missiles

The Lebanese Army announced on June 1st, 2015 that it has received a shipment of TOW II missiles along to their launchers (ref). The statement did not specify the quantity, but looking at the published photos we could count at least 72 missiles (2x pallets of 24 and 3x pallets of 8).

Previous posts in this blog confirmed that the LAF is expected to receive TOW II missiles in the future, so these deliveries could be related to them.

Tow Bunker Buster missiles for LAF by mid-2018

Contract W31P4Q-12-C-0265 was modified again on November 2014, this time to procure Tow Bunker Buster and TOW 2A missiles for Lebanon at a value of around $2 Millions (Ref).

This contract was previously modified in September 2014 to provide TOW 2A and TOW 2B to the Lebanese Army along to other armies by mid 2016.

More TOW-2A for Lebanese Army by mid 2016

During September 2014, US DoD awarded Raytheon Company Missile Systems an $8,881,587 modification of contract W31P4Q-12-C-0265 for TOW-2A and TOW-2B missiles. The  final recipients of these additional missiles are Lebanon, U.S Army, U.S. Marine Corps, Saudi Arabia (Land Forces), and Thailand (ref).

Estimated contract completion date is July 31, 2016.
 
Lebanon had received 100 TOW-2A missiles back in 2010 (ref), hence why we expect the new missiles to be TOW-2A also. The exact number of missiles for each recipient is not clarified.