Electronic products maker LaBarge Inc. of St. Louis set company records for net sales and net earnings increases for the second quarter and first six months of fiscal year 2005, the company said Jan. 27.
Orbital Sciences Corp. said it has completed designing, building and testing the Telkom-2 C-band satellite it is supplying to Indonesia's state-owned PT Telkomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (PT Telkom). The satellite is based on the company's STAR-2 platform and carries 24 C-band transponders. Dulles, Va.-based Orbital also designed, built and tested the communications payload and will furnish a complete ground station.
NASA plans to launch a satellite in 2008 that will make the first map of the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space, the agency announced Jan. 27. The $134 million Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission was competitively chosen for launch under NASA's Small Explorer program. It will carry two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the solar system boundary, known as the "termination shock." The Voyager 1 probe is thought to be near this area, approximately 100 astronomical units (9.3 billion miles) from the sun.
Ball Corp. of Broomfield, Colo., posted record net earnings and sales in 2004, the company said Jan. 27. The firm reported 2004 net earnings of $295.6 million, or $2.60 per share, on sales of $5.44 billion, the company said. Ball Corp.'s previous highs, set in 2003, were net earnings of $229.9 million, or $2.01 per share, on sales of $4.98 billion.
Northstar Aerospace Inc. won an $8 million U.S. Army contract to provide repair, overhaul and spare parts for the AH-64 Apache helicopter on the heels of delivering its 150th new-build transmission assembly for the attack helicopter, the company said Jan. 26. The transmission assembly delivery wraps up a contract awarded to Northstar in 2001. The majority of the new work will be completed at Northstar's Chicago facility with support from the company's plants in Milton and Windsor, Ontario, and Phoenix, Ariz.
Smiths Aerospace recently delivered mission display system hardware and software to the Boeing Co. for the U.S. Air Force's C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP), the company said Jan. 26. The equipment - collectively known as the mission display processor - is the main computing environment for the AMP, Smiths said. The processor will host software, from Boeing, Smiths and others, for flight management, radio control applications and other functions.
COCKPITS: Kaman Aerospace Corp. will manufacture 84 cockpits for models of Sikorsky's UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, the company said Jan. 27. The $27.7 million contract calls for cockpits for UH-60L, MH-60S, UH-60M and S-70A helicopters and will allow Sikorsky to "free floor space" for other operations in Connecticut, a Sikorsky official said in the Kaman announcement.
A demonstrator of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Hunter II unmanned aerial vehicle has completed the first phase of its flight-testing, the company said Jan. 27. The company-funded flights took place from Dec. 27 to Jan. 12 at Cochise College Air Field in Douglas, Ariz., and demonstrated the Hunter II's endurance, communications and air-to-ground surveillance capabilities, Northrop Grumman said.
The U.S. Navy's EA-18G program has met or exceeded expectations in the initial part of its ongoing development phase, a program official said Jan. 27. Greg Drohat, the Navy's deputy program manager for the electronic attack jet, said the EA-18G's preliminary design review (PDR) in October was "very successful" and uncovered "no significant design issues." Software development and other design activities are on schedule, and the aircraft is a comfortable 200-plus pounds below its 33,096-pound weight ceiling.
The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) will begin beta testing its information standards in the coming months and ensuring compatibility with the network-centric architectures already being developed by the military services.
STILL THE SAME: All House Armed Services Committee subcommittee chairmen and ranking minority positions should remain the same. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), HASC chairman, on Jan. 27 formally announced that all six sitting GOP subcommittee chairmen retained their posts. Democrats will complete their ranking positions next week, but no changes are expected, according to a spokeswoman. The HASC has changed the name of its Total Force subcommittee to Military Personnel, which "clarifies its focus," the committee said. Democrats welcomed Reps.
MUSICAL CHAIRS: Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), formerly chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, appears increasingly likely to take over chairmanship of its defense appropriations subcommittee, according to the office of a potential rival. A spokeswoman for Rep. David Hobson (R-Ohio) acknowledged that Young is likely to succeed Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.). "Mr. Young is apparently a lock for the defense subcommittee," said Sara Perkins, adding that seniority alone gave Young an advantage.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is evaluating the design changes made to the motor and nozzle of the solid rocket booster for its H-IIA heavy launch vehicle after a recent static firing test, JAXA said last week. The evaluation is to be completed by the end of the month and a final launch date for the next H-IIA will be made after that, although JAXA is shooting for a Feb. 24 launch.
The Eurely and iNavSat consortiums submitted their final proposals to manage the deployment of Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system Jan. 25, the groups announced. Eurely includes Alcatel Space, Finmeccanica, Vinci, SFR, CapGemini and Hispasat. The iNavSat consortium is made up of EADS Space, Inmarsat Ventures and Thales. Selection of the winning bidder is expected in February.
Lockheed Martin's 2004 net earnings reached $1.3 billion, compared with $1.1 billion in 2003, the company reported Jan. 27. Revenue in the fourth quarter of 2004 was $372 million, compared with $344 million during the fourth quarter of 2003, an 8% increase.
The U.S. Army's networked Stryker Brigade Combat Teams are exemplifying the benefits of network-centric operations both during exercises and actual deployments in Iraq, according to John Garstka, assistant director for concepts and operations at the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation.
TOP TEN LIST: The Department of Defense's top five contractors stayed the same from 2003 to 2004, according to a new list released Jan. 27 which tracks the companies receiving the largest dollar volume of contracts during fiscal 2004. Lockheed Martin Corp. kept the No. 1 spot, at $20.7 billion in contracts, followed by Boeing Co. with $17.1 billion, Northrop Grumman Corp. with $11.9 billion, General Dynamics Corp. with $9.6 billion and Raytheon Co. at No. 5 with $8.5 billion. Halliburton changed places with United Technologies Corp., with Halliburton moving from No.
NASA and contractor Alliant Techsystems (ATK) have completed stacking the twin solid rocket boosters (SRBs) for the space shuttle's first post-Columbia launch, scheduled for May at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Shuttle Discovery will fly the mission, STS-114, which is to visit the International Space Station and test new safety procedures and equipment developed by NASA in response to Columbia's loss.
BAE Systems will design, develop and demonstrate technologies that support the Radio Frequency Guided Munitions (RFGM) program under a $6.6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the company said Jan. 27.
The Defense Department has completed an update to its National Military Strategy (NMS) document and plans to send it to Congress soon, according to a defense official. Navy Capt. Jeff Hesterman, chief of the strategy division in the Joint Staff's Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate, said that Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently signed off on the updated NMS.
Lt. Gen. Joseph "Keith" Kellogg (USA-Ret.) has been appointed executive vice president of the company's Research and Technology Systems business group. Kellogg most recently was senior vice president of homeland security solutions for Oracle Corp.
Defense spending should be "on the table" and under equal consideration for freezing or cutbacks to help get the federal budget deficit reigned in, Rep. John M. Spratt (D-S.C.), said Jan. 25. "Everything should be on the table, everything," Spratt, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told The DAILY. The congressman also is the second-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
Donald Green has resigned from the board of directors. Henry Pankratz will replace Green on the board. Pankratz is president of CavanCore Capital, Toronto, a private investment and corporate advisory firm. Bob Monette has been named director, international military sales/marketing for the company's subsidiary, Atlantis Systems International Inc. Karl Morgan has been appointed director, commercial sales/marketing for ASI.
