Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Goodrich Corp. posted a strong $50 million third quarter profit on Oct. 26, up 47 percent from last year thanks to higher sales in all of its divisions including military and space, and executives raised projections for next year. The results topped analysts' average estimate for the quarter as revenue rose 10 percent, to nearly $1.2 billion.

IN PRODUCTION: Raytheon Co. has started full-rate production of the MK54 anti-submarine torpedo, the company said Oct. 26. Raytheon will deliver 51 MK54s and support services to the U.S. Navy under the consolidated procurement contract for fiscal year 2004. Including options, the five-year contract value may exceed $500 million.

Competing teams led by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman continue to await the delayed downselect decision in the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program, which team leaders hope will occur by the end of this year or early next year.

The EA version of Aermacchi's SF-260, its primary trainer aircraft, has performed its first flight for the Italian air force, the company said Oct. 25. The flight lasted more than 70 minutes and allowed for functional checks of the engine, flight controls and airborne systems, the Finmeccanica Group-owned company said. The EA configuration includes a new avionics suite and improved cockpit ergonomics and maintainability.

United Defense, in its effort to provide the U.S. Army with soldier survivability technology, is developing a system to enhance situational awareness for manned ground vehicles and transparent armor, company spokesman Herb Muktarian told The DAILY. Eagle Vision is an enhanced situational awareness system to provide 360-degree visibility on the battlefield around a manned ground vehicle.

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory (CSDL) of Cambridge, Mass., has been awarded a $100.3 million contract to provide tactical engineering support for the United States' and United Kingdom's MK-6 guidance system and guidance system test equipment for the Trident II missile system, the company said Oct. 25. To support the effort, CSDL will issue four subcontracts:

The German parliament is expected to approve the design and development (D&D) phase of the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) in December, clearing the last in a series of political hurdles for the new D&D effort, an industry official said Oct. 26.

Raytheon Co. said it delivered its 250,000th Paveway laser-guided bomb in ceremonies on Oct. 26. Deliveries of Raytheon-built Paveways began in 1968. Lockheed Martin has delivered 25,000 units. The company has been producing Paveways since early 2002, after getting approval to build the kits to compete with longtime supplier Raytheon (DAILY, March 1, 2001). Government officials have said that having two production lines saves money and keeps quality high.

The steering problem that first began affecting NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit on Oct. 1 continues to puzzle mission controllers, occurring intermittently as the team attempts to drive the rover from rock to rock.

Lockheed Martin Corp. reported on Oct. 26 that its third-quarter net earnings of $307 million were up 41 percent from the same period last year, driven partly by updating work on C-5 Galaxy transports, sales of C-130J transports and work on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-22 Raptor programs. The company reported net sales of $8.4 billion for the period, up 4 percent over third-quarter 2003 sales.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is restructuring the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program to allow flight-testing to begin earlier than planned, the agency head said Oct. 26. Under the revamped program, the first flight-test would occur in 2007, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering, MDA's director, who gave a speech to the George Marshall Institute. Flight-testing had been expected to start at least a year or two later than that.

The launch of NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft has been delayed for at least two days because of a glitch that could have affected navigation accuracy, NASA said Oct. 26. The Multiple Paths, Beyond-Line-of-Sight Communications Satellite, with which DART was to rendezvous, had a temporary loss of Global Positioning System reception that could have affected the accuracy of the operation, NASA said.

The U.S. Army is considering an early fielding of Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 2006, according to company officials. In 2003 the Future Combat Systems (FCS) lead systems integrator team of Boeing and Science Applications International Corp. chose the RQ-8B Fire Scout as the FCS Class IV UAV, the largest UAV in the program. Northrop Grumman is contracted to deliver seven Fire Scout vehicles to the Army for fielding as part of FCS in 2008, in anticipation of initial operational capability (IOC) in 2011.

The U.S. Army, having completed its Future Combat Systems (FCS) design concept and integrated baseline review in the past three months, is developing the program's network software, FCS officials said Oct. 26.

Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke returned to Earth on Oct. 23 after a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS), landing safely in Kazakhstan at 7:36 p.m. CDT.

BOEING DIVIDEND: The Boeing Co. will pay a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per share, the company's board of directors declared Oct. 25. The dividend is payable Dec. 3 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Nov. 12.

CLOSING THE GAP: Boeing is seeking international sales to fill a six-month gap in the production of the AH-64 Apache helicopter that is set to occur from March to September 2007, according to Al Winn, the company's vice president for Apache programs. "We do not want to shut the line down," Winn said at a press briefing held during the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting in Washington on Oct. 25. The gap is shrinking, Winn said, and the company has until the middle of next year to fill it completely.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was expected to receive an update Oct. 25 on efforts to develop and field the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system as a national shield against long-range ballistic missiles, officials said. Officials providing the briefing were slated to include Army Maj. Gen. John Holly, who heads the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) office that has been developing GMD, and Army Lt. Gen. Larry Dodgen, whose Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) oversees forces that will operate the system.

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has acquired Virginia-based high-technology information services company Presearch Inc., SAIC announced Oct. 25. SAIC is a research and engineering company providing information technology and systems integration. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

John Deere and robotics company iRobot have produced an intelligent unmanned ground vehicle named the Military R-Gator, which could perform dangerous missions, the companies said Oct. 25. The companies plan to begin pilot production of the R-Gator, which uses commercial, off-the-shelf technology, by mid-2005. Full production could begin by 2006, the companies said. The R-Gator is based on John Deere's M-Gator military utility vehicle platform, which is outfitted with iRobot's control and navigation and obstacle avoidance systems.

Following an extensive analysis, the Army has doubled the amount of time between major inspections of the AH-64 Apache helicopter, increasing it from 250 flight hours to 500 hours. This move was made possible by more than two and a half years of analysis of Apache maintenance and reliability records, which showed that Apache crews often were spending time inspecting components needlessly, according to Apache program manager Col. Ralph Palotta (USA).

NEW ENGINE: France's Turbomeca has developed the TM 1800, an engine designed for sea propulsion, electricity generation and other uses, the company said Oct. 25. The TM 1800, under development since late 2000, combines the advantages of diesel engines and gas turbines, the company said.