Orbital Sciences Corp.'s second quarter revenues rose 11 percent to $197 million in 2006 compared to $177.4 million in 2005, while the company's operating income rose 13 percent to $16.6 million, compared to $14.7 million last year.
FARNBOROUGH - Squeezed, shrunk and kept guessing about military plans and procurement, U.S. defense and aerospace urgently need a "new deal" from Washington, says Robert H. Trice, Lockheed Martin's senior vice president of business development. Trice, speaking this week at the Farnborough Air Show outside London, displayed stacks of statistics and phalanxes of percentages showing that the perception of aerospace being a prohibitively expensive drain on taxpayers is just plain wrong.
FARNBOROUGH - Sikorsky Aircraft will develop two new Black Hawk helicopter derivatives for foreign customers called the International Black Hawk and the Armed Battlehawk. "We know that with a move to a fly-by-wire model Black Hawk it becomes a bit more expensive, so we decided to take a proven Black Hawk helicopter platform, modify it and make it more affordable to the international community," Sikorsky President Jeffrey Pino said this week at the Farnborough Air Show outside London.
FARNBOROUGH - The Russian Roskosmos space agency has canceled its tender for development of a next-generation reusable piloted spacecraft, dubbed Clipper-MKA, opting instead to develop the program jointly with the European Space Agency (ESA). Roskosmos also appointed one of the bidders - Energia Corp. - as the prime contractor. Three Russian companies participated in the state tender: NPO Molniya, Khrunichev Center and Energia Corp. Energia offered a 14.5-ton winged spacecraft designed to carry up to six crewmembers.
The U.S. Air Force's combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter program is now scheduled for a Sept. 6 Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) review, officials connected with the program say. Initially, the Air Force was scheduled to award a contract in February 2006 for the program, which could cost about $13 billion to buy the proposed 141 aircraft and a total of $25 billion including operations and maintenance through about 2030, according to industry officials. The first block of planes is expected to go operational in 2012.
UH-1Y WORK: Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $137.4 million contract to provide the U.S. Navy with seven UH-1Y aircraft, one UH-1Y full flight simulator, and four composite maintenance trainers, the Defense Department said July 20. The work will be done in Hurst and Amarillo, Texas. It is expected to be finished by September 2008. The contract was awarded by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md.
Reusable rockets capable of as many as 200 firings are a step closer to reality with the first U.S. test of a full-flow staged-combustion (FFSC) cryogenic engine to achieve steady-state "mainstage" operation generating full power. The Integrated Powerhead Demonstration (IPD) ground-test engine burns liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in pre-burners to drive its turbomachinery, generating more power there than staged combustion cycle engines. That allows lower turbine temperatures for longer life in repeated firing on a reusable system.
Senate appropriators approved multiyear funding for the F-22A Raptor but rejected incremental funding for the next lot of fighters in the fiscal 2007 defense spending bill sent out July 20 for full Senate consideration. The $453.5 billion Senate appropriations bill, more than $5 billion less than approved by the House last month, adds $1.4 billion to the Bush administration's $1.98 billion request for F-22 procurement.
The leadership of the House International Relations Committee blasted the U.S. State Department's handling of the proposed $5 billion sale of F-16 fighters and weapons to Pakistan during a hearing July 20, complaining that they were not notified early enough to address concerns over Pakistan's ability to prevent sensitive technology from leaking to countries such as China.
The Pentagon needs to present White House policymakers with more options for a conventionally-armed long range strike weapon than are now available, an international security expert said July 19.
FARNBOROUGH - The U.S. military is about to launch the next phase in its unmanned combat air systems (UCAS) planning with the release of a new requirement for a Navy UCAS. The program will put Boeing and Northrop Grumman in head-to-head competition for what should be a winner-take-all contract. "We are within weeks of a new contract structure in which the Navy will take the lead," Boeing's George Muellner, president of Advanced Systems, said this week at the Farnborough Air Show near London.
RAPTOR HEARING: The Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee, led by acquisition critic Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), will host a hearing July 25 over multiyear contract authority for the F-22A Raptor. McCain promised a hearing last month when the Senate overrode his and other SASC-leader opposition to approving multiyear (DAILY, June 23). Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Comptroller General David Walker will testify along with several analysts and critics.
The U.S. Navy's unique High-Speed Vessel 2, called the Swift, may be used as part of belated but accelerating evacuation efforts in Lebanon, defense officials said July 19. "Committed to the operation, but not yet directly involved in the operation, is the [USS] Iwo Jima, Whidbey Island, Trenton and HSV-Swift," a senior official said. "They are committed; we will see if they are needed or not."
Goldcare, Boeing's life cycle maintenance program for the 787, has signed its first supplier and maintenance partners. But it may not see a first buyer from among the 29 customers that have placed 407 orders and commitments for another 6-12 months. Hamilton Sundstrand and Smiths Aerospace are the first 787 suppliers to agree to be after-market service providers. SR Technics will be the first maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center.
The industry teams vying for the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) $2 billion SBINet program to monitor the U.S. northern and southern borders are anticipating a prime contract award in September, before the fiscal year is out.
FARNBOROUGH - The GE Rolls-Royce F136 engine is right on schedule. The only problem is there may be no more money for it by Oct. 1 except the $70 million to $80 million the U.S. government is committed to pay to shut it down. If the Defense Department has its way, the program will be shut down. This is not because there is anything wrong with the engine. However, defense budget reviews found there are greater priorities than a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.
Global Military Aircraft Systems (GMAS), the joint venture of L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Alenia Aeronautica and Boeing Integrated Defense Systems that is bidding the C-27J for the U.S. Army and Air Force's Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA), said it has chosen Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla., for production and final assembly of the aircraft.
Congressional cuts in defense spending - while perhaps not as deep as lawmakers have proclaimed - may impact the Air Force's ability to buy new aerial refueling tankers, according to one Senate proponent for such an acquisition.
In a seeming effort to soften or otherwise alter the Defense Department's annual "China Military Report," Chinese military officials are sharing some defense budget figures with the Pentagon, a senior Defense official confirmed July 18. Defense officials from the two countries are talking about setting up meetings between the "China Military Report" writers and the Chinese writers of the white papers issued by the country on its military spending, the U.S. Defense official said.
Although Boeing so far has been unable to entice any of the services into drafting a requirement for its Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) helicopter, the aircraft is proving useful as a test tool for other technology development programs both inside and outside Boeing, the company says.
Senate defense appropriators have kept legislative language in their fiscal 2007 spending bill that would continue a ban on foreign sales of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22A Raptor, setting up a conference fight with the House, which approved foreign sales last month.
