LAUNCH AID: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will pay fishermen for the right to launch rockets all year at its Tanegashima and Uchinoura space centers. The agreement — to take effect the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2011 — will put an end to the rule that limited launches to 190 days a year from June to September and from November to February. Launches have been banned at other times, such as when fish are plentiful, because safety considerations prevent fishermen from going out in their boats when a launch is imminent.
SALES SLUMP: Leaner U.S. defense budgets are beginning to bite the Pentagon’s leading contractors. Second-quarter revenues were down 8% at Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security unit compared with the same period a year ago and 2% at Raytheon. A 12% sales decline in General Dynamics’ Combat Systems unit due to lower sales of combat vehicles led to flat revenues at that company. Small sales gains were posted by L-3 Communications (up 1%), Lockheed Martin (3%) and Northrop Grumman (3%), but even those were a far cry from the double-digit gains seen during the 2000s.
CHINESE MAPPING: China will launch its first high-resolution, stereoscopic, civilian mapping satellite in the second half of 2011 while working on a follow-on series. A Long March 4B rocket will carry the ZY-3 satellite into orbit from the Taiyuan launch center. The State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping says the spacecraft will be used to help prevent disasters and reduce their effects, conserve water, and support agriculture, forestry and urban planning, among other functions. ZY stands for “ziyuan,” meaning “resources.”
BORDER WOES: Raytheon’s second quarter earnings were waylaid by the July 22 termination of an “eBorders” contract by the U.K. border agency. The loss reduced the company’s net sales by $316 million and led to a 57% profit decline. Had the contract not been terminated, Raytheon’s quarterly profit would have risen 8%. “From a strictly operational perspective, Raytheon’s second quarter results reflected good managerial control and operational focus,” says Jefferies & Co. analyst Howard Rubel.
LONDON — EADS is not expected to make a much-anticipated acquisition in the coming months, CFO Hans-Peter Ring signals. The European conglomerate has long been mulling a deal to bolster its defense, security or services portfolio, with the U.S. the preferred region where a deal would take place. EADS CEO Louis Gallois says the board, which was once concerned about such an outlay, is now behind the move. And with net cash of €8.9 billion ($11.6 billion), the European aerospace and defense company has the resources for a transaction.
BENGALURU, India — BAE Systems and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) are exploring the possibility of marketing the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer globally in the next couple of years. Andrew Gallagher, BAE Systems India managing director and chief executive officer, told AVIATION WEEK that the aircraft has the potential to be marketed to more countries because of its brand value as a “very successful trainer.
A C-17 Globemaster III crashed near the runway on Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, July 28 while practicing low-altitude maneuvers for an air show scheduled for this weekend. The accident killed three Alaska Air National Guardsmen and a fourth active duty.
Boeing’s Insitu subsidiary has won the long-running competition to supply the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps with a small tactical unmanned aircraft system (STUAS). The company’s Integrator was selected over the AAI Aerosonde Mk4.7, General Dynamics/Elbit Storm and Raytheon KillerBee-4.
A Boeing A160T Hummingbird unmanned helicopter crashed on July 28 at the company’s Victorville, Calif., test site. Boeing says the aircraft autorotated to the ground 1.5 mi. from its planned landing point and rolled onto its side. The mishap occurred at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time inside the airport traffic area at Victorville. The aircraft, serial A007, is owned by the U.S. Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) and was being used for tests of the A160T’s optimum-speed rotor.
HOUSTON — The six-person U.S. and Russian crew aboard the International Space Station was almost forced to seek shelter in two Soyuz life boat capsules on July 29, as a piece of debris from China’s 2007 anti-satellite weapon test threatened to pass close to the orbiting science laboratory at mid-afternoon. The object, which NASA’s Mission Control has followed closely for the past week, threatened to pass within a 30 x 30-mi. wide, one-mile deep “hazard zone” surrounding the station at 1:47 p.m. EDT.
PARIS — Safran reported operating income of €428 million ($559.3 million) in the first half, up 23% on the year before, on revenues of €5.9 billion. Operating income was €428 million, up 23% on the year before, and free cash €188 million, despite €170 million in French defense ministry payment delays because of a continuing procurement information technology system glitch.
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A new cooperative data tool will help keep geostationary commercial communications satellites from colliding or causing signal interference, a service its initiators hope to extend to government spacecraft and satellites in low Earth orbit as well.
PARIS — Thales posted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of €204 million ($266.7 million) and a net of €138 million, suggesting the company has turned the corner after poor bidding and project management nearly drove it into the red a year ago. Revenues were up slightly to €5.96 billion but orders sank another 12%, to €5.14 billion.
A blue-ribbon panel of national security experts is warning Congress that even more defense spending may be necessary in coming years to properly posture the United States ahead of Pacific-realm threats to its interests and allies.
TEL AVIV and JERUSALEM — As Israeli planners look ahead to potential warfare this century, they are struggling to understand the unexplored battlefields of the cyber-world, posturing by world powers with strategic weapons and renegade leadership, and rapid technological advances that obviate older military capabilities. In turn, with a military founded on victory and flexibility, Israeli analysts are now concerned that past experience has become an obstacle to responding to new threats and the changing definitions of war and success.
JSF BASING: USAF headquarters has announced preferred alternatives for operational and training F-35 Joint Strike Fighter bases. Preferred alternatives are Hill AFB, Utah, and Burlington Air Guard Station, Vt., for operations and Luke AFB, Ariz., for training. The current scope of this basing action entails 250-300 F-35s. “This is not a final basing decision,” said Kathleen Ferguson, deputy assistant secretary for installations, in a July 29 USAF announcement.
HOUSTON — A key piece of rendezvous navigation technology developed for NASA’s Orion Project is set for testing in March 2011, as the STS-134 crew departs the International Space Station aboard Endeavour on what is currently scheduled to be the final shuttle mission.
CAPE CANAVERAL — While Congress mulls conflicting blueprints for NASA’s human space program, 1,394 space shuttle workers in Florida, Texas and Alabama got notice this week of what their future looks like — no job. Following through on an initiative announced earlier this month, prime shuttle contractor United Space Alliance (USA) notified 902 employees in Florida, 478 workers in Texas and 14 in Alabama that Sept. 30 will be their last day of work.
NEW DELHI — India may strike a deal with Sweden to purchase 155mm towed howitzers for its army, AVIATION WEEK has learned. Controversy and delays have swirled around India’s effort to buy the guns. Trials were delayed a year as vendor ST Kinetics came under an ethics cloud. The company has been vying with BAE Land Systems to build the guns (Aerospace DAILY, June 29, 2009). “It is time to bite the bullet,” an Indian official says. “The army needs the guns and we cannot wait for another three to four years for the decision to be made.”
BENGALURU, India — BAE Systems and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) have agreed on a deal that will lead to the production of 57 more Hawk advanced jet trainers (AJTs) in India. The £500 million ($782 million) contract comes as British Prime Minister David Cameron is visiting India. The deal, announced July 28 at HAL’s Bangalore Complex facility, will see BAE Systems provide parts and services to HAL to build the Hawk trainers for the Indian air force and navy.
