USN Rear Adm. (lower half) David F. Baucom, who has been selected for promotion to rear admiral, is expected to be named director of strategy, policy, programs and logistics for U.S. Transportation Command, Scott AFB, Ill. He is commander of Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, based in Philadelphia.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the defense sector has been at a standstill in 2013 in the over-$100 million category. There have been several noteworthy commercial acquisitions announced by companies with defense operations: Rockwell Collins said last month it is buying Arinc from Carlyle, and Alliant Techsystems is purchasing Caliber Co. from Norwest Equity Partners and Bushnell from MidOcean Partners. But heading into September, the number of defense deals with prices in excess of $100 million is easy to add up: zero.
Yannick Kerriou (see photo) has been promoted to assistant manager from director of training of FlightSafety International's Paris-Le Bourget Learning Center.
Raymond Duquette (see photo) has been appointed president/general manager of CAE USA, Tampa, Fla. He succeeds John Lenyo. Duquette was vice president-global business development and sales for CAE Inc. and had been vice president-sales, marketing and business development for CAE USA.
A three-man U.S.-Russian crew is back on Earth after a successful 5.5-month expedition to the International Space Station. Weary but in good shape, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, Expedition 36 ISS commander Pavel Vinogradov and fellow cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin were assisted from their capsule by helicopter-borne Russian recovery teams within minutes of touching down under parachute at 10:58 p.m. EDT Sept. 10 (8:58 a.m. Sept. 11 local time).
Chris Harano has been promoted to CEO from president of Leading Edge Aviation Services, Costa Mesa, Calif. He succeeds Mike Manclark, who will become non-executive chairman. Harano previously was president of InsulTech. Daniel Zeddy has been named CFO.
“Data Driven” (AW&ST Sept. 2, p. 36) notes that The Active Pilot Monitoring Workshop (APM) was challenged to find a method that can help pilots become better monitors.
Daniel Gelston has become vice president of Cobham Tactical Communications and Surveillance, Herndon, Va. He was vice president and business unit lead for Sotera Defense Solutions and had been counterterrorism director at BAE Systems.
Scientists will spend 100 days studying the Moon's tenuous atmosphere after this spectacular launch from Wallops Island, Va., on a solid-fuel Minotaur V rocket—photographed from the top of New York's Rockefeller Center, 200 mi. away. Built by NASA's Ames Research Center, the 884-lb. Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) gave its handlers a few tense hours right after its Sept. 6 liftoff when fault-protection limits shut down its reaction wheels. Controllers disabled them to restart the wheels, and later fixed a star-tracker misalignment.
USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) James E. Bradley (Westmoreland, Kan. )
A recent Commander's Intent commentary (AW&ST Sept. 2, p. 13) talked about the U.S. playing electronic-warfare (EW) catch-up. This reinforces my experience that the U.S. Air Force electronic-warfare systems always “get the hind teat” and end up playing catch-up when they are needed to counter a threat. The U.S. Navy seems better at keeping up with the state of the art.
Sarah Feinberg has been appointed chief of staff to U.S. Transportation Department bySecretary Anthony Foxx. She was a special assistant to the president and senior adviser to then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and had been director of communications and business strategy at Bloomberg.
In “Feast of Fixes” (AW&ST Aug. 19, p. 28), higher winds and sea states to test the Joint Strike Fighter on carrier decks sounds good. But this will also be a test of loading procedures.
When the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) launched its Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm) program in 2009, the threat to U.S. Navy warships from China's ballistic and supersonic anti-ship missiles looked serious. It still does, but now that the stealthy Lrasm has begun flight tests, mixed messages from the Pentagon have led Congress to cut back on funding for procurement.
Former Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver heads out the door with a candid admission that there will not be enough money to launch the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in 2017, as planned.
BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce have crafted an exclusive partnership to propose the Hawk trainer equipped with the Adour Mk951 engine for the U.S. Air Force's forthcoming competition for 350 aircraft to replace T-38s. The Mk951 incorporates the use of a full-authority, digital-engine control unit and offers 6,500 lb. of thrust. BAE's team is likely to compete against a Lockheed Martin/Korea Aerospace Industries group offering the T-50 and a General Dynamics/Alenia combination with the M-346.
