The US Navy has awarded a $240m contract to Wyle to provide programme management, engineering, technical and associated services to the navy’s F/A-18 and E/A-18G programme office.

Under the five-year contract, the company will support all stages of the navy’s acquisition process including the programme and financial and acquisition management, and will provide a wide range of engineering and technical services.

The services include support for development, production, post-production and sustainment for domestic and foreign military sales customers of all variants of the F/A-18 and potential sale of the EA-18G variant.

In addition, Wyle will support the planning and execution of F/A-18 and EA-18G flight plans, perform day-to-day operations, analyse them and recommend acquisition actions to accomplish overall programme objectives.

The company will also perform data collection and analyses to help hardware / software suppliers and field activities with the programme management.

The F/A-18 aircraft is an all-weather fighter-attack used as a fighter escort, fleet air defence, force projection, interdiction and air support.

The EA-18G is the navy’s next-generation electronic attack aircraft intended for electronic warfare, which will replace the navy’s aging EA-6B aircraft.