Picking up where Alan Greenspan left off, Deputy Defense Secretary John J. Hamre has delivered his own ``irrational exuberance'' lecture to Wall Street. The Pentagon's No. 2 took aim last week at what he called the stock market's shortsighted ``pummeling'' of venerable U.S. defense companies, to the detriment of a healthy defense industrial base (see p. 30).
Trans World Airlines will launch its regional jet operations next summer under a 10-year agreement with Chautauqua Airlines of Indianapolis. Chautauqua will operate at least 15 Embraer ERJ-145s in TWA livery by the fourth quarter. TWA has an option for using 15 additional ERJ-145s. The service will supplement TWA connection services now offered by Trans States at St. Louis and New York, which will be expanded to Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.
The good news for those seeking faster Internet hookups is that satellite constellations are in the works that should enable end-to-end broadband communications just about anywhere in the world. The bad news is the first high-speed services probably won't be rolling out until 2003.
Thomson-CSF will form a South Korea-based joint subsidiary early next year to acquire a 50% stake in the military business of Samsung Electronics. As they continue to fight recession through restructuring, South Korea's conglomerates are increasingly seeking foreign capital. For the French firm, South Korea represents a rare opportunity to invest in a country where military procurement is increasing. Samsung's annual military electronic sales are estimated at $1 billion.
Marine Corps officials are in the process of reconstituting the AV-8B Harrier fleet after its readiness was seriously degraded earlier this year because of accidents and problems caused by the overall aging of the short takeoff and vertical landing attack aircraft. Harrier troubles peaked in August when the Marines experienced an all-time low 4% mission-capable rate with its West Coast-based aircraft and 23% with East Coast-based aircraft.
The union representing the 10,500 passenger service agents at US Airways has reached a tentative contract agreement with the airline in a five-year pact. The settlement will increase top pay to $20.90 per hour by June under a pay parity provision that ensures the agents will lead the industry in compensation. Hourly pay is estimated to reach $22 by the end of the contract in 2004, according to the Communications Workers of America.
The cockpit voice recorder from Payne Stewart's Learjet 35 may yield clues to what happened in the accident that claimed the lives of the golfer and five others. The controller circuit board was damaged but repairs were made allowing NTSB investigators to listen to noises recorded during the last 30 min. of flight before the crash near Mina, S.D. No voices were recorded, but the noises are being analyzed.
Turkey may be forced to cut its ambitious $150-billion defense modernization plan by as much as half as a result of the economic aftershock of the massive earthquake that rocked the country on Aug. 17. It left an estimated 20,000 dead and led to at least $10 billion in damage. The economic repercussions of the natural disaster have raised questions about the fate of Turkish procurement plans.
Russia will remain a Eurasian military power well into the next century, but the defense ministry's goal of fully upgrading the nation's forces by 2025 may take longer than that, according to National Defense University. In its latest strategic assessment, the authoritative NDU says the Kremlin will have a tough time holding defense spending to no more than 3.5% of annual gross domestic product, while absorbing the high cost of modernizing and streamlining its sprawling military infrastructure.
Hermann Altmann, chief engineer for Northrop Grumman's Ryan Aeronautical Center in San Diego, has won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aircraft Design Award for 1999. He was cited for leadership on the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle program.
In an initiative set to provide an urgently needed regulatory framework for air/rail code-share operations, the U.S. Transportation Dept. and the French transport ministry have concluded a bilateral accord--the first of its kind--to enable airlines to sell intermodal tickets. The agreement breaks new ground in establishing opportunities for cooperation between airlines, railroads and other surface transportation providers, according to the Transportation Dept.
Efforts by the Army's new chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, to make his service more responsive and maneuverable are seen as valiant, but coming at an inopportune time. ``There couldn't be a worse time to launch in such a new direction,'' says Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre, who in the same breath lauds Shinseki's vision. The reason the timing is bad? ``There isn't enough money,'' Hamre says. Part of the problem is that the Pentagon is far along in drafting its Fiscal 2001 budget, so it will be difficult to make changes at this point.
Eurofighter partner companies British Aerospace, DASA, Alenia and CASA have created a dedicated export sales organization to market the aircraft outside of the four participating nations. Cesare Gianni, corporate vice president at Alenia, will head the organization to be called Eurofighter International. It will take over ongoing marketing efforts in Norway, Greece and South Korea.
The U.S. Marines may adopt the F/A-18G Growler radar and communications jamming aircraft as a temporary replacement for its EA-6B Prowlers that must be retired by 2015, says Gen. James Jones, the Corps' new commandant.
NetJets Middle East has selected the Sextant Jetsat Satcom Aero-I satellite communications system to equip its Dassault Aviation Falcon 2000 business twinjets.
British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems have created an organizational structure which will come into force once their merger is completed at the end of the month. Sir Richard Evans will head the new entity as chairman with John Weston as chief executive, George Rose as group financial director and Sir Charles Masefield as group marketing director. There will be two chief operating officers. Peter Gershon will have responsibility for managing programs and customer support, overseeing 11 managing directors for individual program areas.
Tension between the financial and political requirements of the Joint Strike Fighter program are mounting. A senior Air Force official says there is contingency planning for outcomes other than the original concept of a winner-take-all fighter competition. Few military and aerospace industry leaders believe Congress will allow the Pentagon to award the total JSF program--projected to involve as many as 6,000 aircraft--to a single contractor.
With poor earnings announcements from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin causing the companies to take a beating on Wall Street, the Pentagon has realized it faces a potential crisis that could lead it to lose critical components of its industrial base.
Marshall Space Flight Center's new Space Optics Manufacturing Center includes a facility for evaluation and calibration of large space optics with cryogenic testing to simulate the harsh environment of space (see photo). Marshall is sponsoring private sector work to create ultra-lightweight optics for the Next-Generation Space Telescope. Mirrors being developed--which would be 10 times lighter in weight than the Hubble space telescope mirror but have equal light-collecting area--are scheduled for test in the Marshall cryogenic optical test facility this winter.
Troubled Lockheed Martin is implementing a much more rigorous financial reporting system, which is likely to be pivotal in the company's long-term recovery. Chief Financial Officer Robert Stevens this month added to his staff a vice president who will be responsible for providing--``in a non-advocate way''--independent analyses of cost and other critical data generated by the company's four core businesses. That person will be expected to alert Stevens to any issues that require prompt attention.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE SPACE COMMAND will have teams standing by on Nov. 16-18 to check for the health of GPS and other military satellites, and to resolve any problems caused by what could be the 33-year-peak Leonid Meteor Storm. Each November the Earth passes through the debris cloud from comet Tempel-Tuttle, which appears to be coming from the constellation Leo, hence the name Leonid for the shower. Scientists expect the Earth to encounter 200-5,000 meteors per hour, up from the 10-15 normally seen this time of year.
Henry Paulino has been promoted to general manager from operations manager of Signature Flight Support's New York LaGuardia Airport fixed-base operation.
Simeon H. Austin (see photo) has been named director of low-observable programs and technology for Pratt&Whitney's military engines business, West Palm Beach, Fla. He was retired as director of the U.S. Navy's low-observable and counter low-observable policy and technology.
The first of three X-43 test vehicles has been delivered to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in preparation for flight next May. The 12-ft.-long Hyper-X test vehicle was built by Micro Craft of Tullahoma, Tenn. Three flights are planned--two at Mach 7 and one at Mach 10--within the Western Test Range off the coast of Southern California.
