CLOSER TIES: China's national space administration and the European Space Agency have signed an intergovernmental agreement for space cooperation. The deal will facilitate cooperation between ESA and China in several areas, including space science, Earth observation, telecommunications, navigation and microgravity research, ESA says. ESA and China already collaborate on some space missions, including the Dragon remote-sensing program, and ESA "looks forward to further cooperation with China and closer collaboration in ESA's space programs."
David C. Hurley has been named to the board of directors. Hurley is vice chairman of PrivatAir, a corporate aviation services company in Geneva, Switzerland.
THAAD CONTRACT: Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, expects to be awarded a U.S. government contract by the end of 2006 for an initial buy of production-version equipment, according to Tom McGrath, the company's THAAD program manager. The U.S. Army and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency are still determining how much equipment will be bought over the life of the program, McGrath says. McGrath also says that THAAD probably will be integrated with MDA's larger battle management system in 18 months to two years.
James Bell, Heidi Hammel and George Yancopoulos have been named to the board of directors. Bell is a professor of astronomy at Cornell University. Hammel is a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. Yancopoulos is president and chief scientific officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
BULGARIA'S DEFENSE: A 2006 draft budget would allocate BGN 1.1 billion (USD $663 million) to begin modernizing Bulgaria's military and meet the full NATO membership standard of 2.6 percent of the country's gross domestic product, Bulgaria's defense ministry says. The budget plan was announced by Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev before the National Assembly. Stanishev denies that the finance and defense ministries disagreed about the plan.
Moog Inc. of East Aurora, N.Y., has completed its purchase of Orrville, Ohio-based Flo-Tork Inc. for $24 million, Moog said Nov. 22. Moog designs and manufactures precision control components for military and commercial aircraft, satellites, space vehicles, and missiles. Flo-Tork designs and builds hydraulic and pneumatic rotary actuators and specialized cylinders for the military and commercial industry.
Koor Industries Ltd. said Nov. 22 that its net income and revenue climbed for both the third quarter and first nine months of 2005. The Rosh Ha'Ayin, Israel-based investment holding company, which focuses on telecommunications, defense electronics and other areas, reported third-quarter 2005 net income of $5.2 million, compared with $3 million for the same period in 2004. Revenue jumped from $128.5 million in the third quarter of 2004 to $162.4 million in 2005.
UPDATE: The U.S. Navy's Fleet Forces Command is working on an update to the Fleet Response Plan based on the Navy's experiences during the first two years of the strategy. This update, known as Fleet Response Plan-Enhanced, is supposed to further define the original plan, modify terminology for readiness states to better reflect their meaning, tie in elements such as the best way to use the service's people, and expand the focus of the plan beyond carrier strike groups to the entire Navy.
Michael Martin is stepping down as president of subsidiary Aerojet-General Corp. Martin will remain an officer and vice president of GenCorp. J. Scott Neish will replace Martin and become an officer of GenCorp effective Dec. 1. Neish is currently Aerojet's executive vice president.
Lockheed Martin will open a new outer wing production line at its Marietta, Ga., facility to support service life extension work for P-3 and CP-140 aircraft around the world, the company said Nov. 22. Interest in extending the life of the aircraft has increased since the P-3 Structural Life Assessment Program, a full-scale fatigue test, has shown that the aircraft is accumulating fatigue damage faster than had previously been believed. The CP-140 is a Canadian version of the Lockheed Martin-built P-3.
BUYING MILTECH: Aerospace component company Ducommun of Los Angeles said it will buy Huntsville, Ala.-based Miltec Corp., a missile and aerospace engineering company. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close within 30 days, were not disclosed.
Small U.S. contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan could get a break on their security costs if an amendment sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) makes it into law as part of the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill.
Maj. Gen. William Russ (USA Ret.) has been appointed vice president of Washington operations for the company's Intelligence and Information Systems business in Arlington, Va.
QDR REPORT: The U.S. Defense Department is expected to complete a draft report on the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) in mid-December, according to a DOD spokesman. Top Pentagon officials met Nov. 21 to provide input for the QDR, which has spent much of the year assessing the military's force structure and strategy (DAILY, Nov. 22).
SpaceDev has signed a contract with SpaceX to buy launch services on its Falcon 1 launch vehicle, the Poway, Calif.-based company said Nov. 22. Falcon 1 is to carry multiple microsatellites and nanosatellites from SpaceDev and other suppliers, with a first launch tentatively scheduled for May 2008. Falcon 1's first launch is scheduled for Nov. 25, when it is to carry the U.S. Air Force Academy's FalconSat-2 from the Kawjalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands (DAILY, Nov. 22).
Germany's government has agreed to sell two Dolphin-class submarines to Israel at a discounted price, Germany's Deutsche Welle radio reported Nov. 21. Germany will pay for one-third of the EUR 1 billion (USD $1.17 billion) subs, which will be built in Kiel. Cost concerns within the German government had delayed the sale. Germany donated two other Dolphin subs to Israel's navy in the early 1990s following the Persian Gulf War and later sold a third sub to the navy at a reduced price.
In observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish on Nov. 24 and 25. The next issue will be dated Nov. 28.
EARNINGS UP: Defense training and simulation systems maker BVR Systems (1998) Ltd. said its third-quarter 2005 revenue increased to $5.9 million, from $3.7 million in 2004, and quarterly net earnings soared from $52,000 to $581,000 from 2004 to 2005. Nine-month revenue jumped from $9.1 million to $14.7 million. Net earnings were $429,000, compared with a 2004 loss of $1.2 million.
Orbit International said its Electronics Segment has received new program contracts worth more than $650,000, which the Hauppage, N.Y.-based company expects to lead to more work in the future. Orbit will supply auxiliary keypads for the Towed Artillery Digitization (TAD) Digital Fire Control Systems to General Dynamics Canada under a $150,000 preproduction order. The TAD provides onboard ballistic computation, navigation and self-location for the M777 Lightweight Towed Howitzer, Orbit said.
Loral Space & Communications said Nov. 22 that it has finished its reorganization and emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The satellite maker's chairman and CEO, Bernard L. Schwartz, said Loral has spent the past two and a half years "creating a stronger, leaner and more efficient Loral. We have won new awards and customers, and we continue to seek and capture opportunities in many new and traditional markets."
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program kicked off a new flight-test program Nov. 22 by successfully launching an interceptor missile from White Sands Missile Range, N.M., according to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
