The British Ministry of Defense won't be patient with defense contractors that don't deliver hardware as promised, U.K. Defense Secretary George Robertson said yesterday. "I've made it clear I'm going to be a pretty intolerant customer for those who don't deliver" on time or on cost, Robertson told reporters in Washington. He is on a regularly scheduled visit to the United States and was slated to meet yesterday with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen.
NASA's plan to commercialize the International Space Station goes beyond renting space on the orbiting facility for industrial research, and raises the possibility of corporate sponsors promoting non-aerospace products used in space or simply carried there and back to add keepsake value. Other commercial possibilities raised in the plan include use of commercial broadband satellites to relay Station science data to Earth, and the private development of Station facilities.
Coltec's Chandler Evans controls unit won a deal to fit full authority digital engine controls (FADECs) on U.S. Army and Royal Singapore Air Force Boeing CH-47 helicopters that could wind up being worth some $100 million.
Aeroflex Inc., Plainview, N.Y., signed a letter of intent to acquire the integrated circuit operations of UTMC Microelectronic Systems from United Technologies' Hamilton Standard unit for $46 million. The transaction is expected to close by early January 1999. Established in 1980, UTMC, Colorado Springs, Colo., supplies radiation-hardened integrated circuits for satellite communications.
SWITZERLAND is buying an Israeli communications intelligence system for the Swiss Army. An $80 million contract with Israel Aircraft Industries' Elta Electronics was signed Wednesday, IAI said. The system has already bee tested in Switzerland.
Airframers are headed into another round of downturns for commercial aircraft orders, but investment bankers and analysts agree the dip this time around should be shallower than the prolonged airliner recession of the early 1990s, and the industry is better placed to come through it without too much damage.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Kreisler Manufacturing will supply titanium anti-vortex tubes for Pratt&Whitney's PW4000 turbofan under a new $499,000 order from the Connecticut enginemaker. New orders for the month totaled $1.4 million, good news for the company after retreating customers forced Kreisler to re-think its operation and cost structure.
Zarya, the first orbital element of the International Space Station, was scheduled to be launched aboard a Russian Proton at 1:40 a.m. EST today, Nov. 20, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. To read the latest on this historic event, see our website at www.awgnews.com after 8 a.m. EST.
Royal Air Force responsibility for air transportation of the Queen and the British royal family, established in the 1930s, seems likely to end in its current form, since the Ministry of Defense has issued commercial tenders for the role. British Airways and Virgin Group have already expressed "serious interest" in the prestigious job.
Zel Technologies LLC, Hampton, Va., acquired SpaceTec Inc., a defense and information technology company also in Hampton, ZelTech reported. Details of the private transaction were not disclosed. SpaceTec will become a division of ZelTech, with Joseph Casas, founder and chief executive officer of SpaceTec, becoming president of the division and vice president of Space Operations for ZelTech. The division will continue to operate out of its current offices.
Aydin Corp., Horsham, Pa., sold its Displays Div. to Video Display Corp. for $6.4 million plus the assumption of certain liabilities. The proceeds were used to pay off Aydin's remaining obligations to Lockheed Martin in relation to an arbitration award. Aydin said it did not expect the sale to have any financial impact on the fourth quarter, as the division was accounted for as a discontinued operation in the third quarter results.
The Pratt&Whitney TF33-PW-102 engines that power the U.S. Air Force's Joint STARS aircraft are getting modest blade and vane upgrades to boost thrust and surveillance area without going to a full re-engining. Commercial blades and vanes, installed at the Oklahoma Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Okla., should give each engine another 1,250 pounds of thrust, and extend the Joint STARS aircraft's operating altitude to 41,000 feet, giving the surveillance plane the chance to look at more battlefield.
South Africa, which chose Saab and British Aerospace to supply the Gripen and the Hawk as its new fighter and trainer, respectively (DAILY, Nov. 19), also picked GKN Westland of the U.K. to supply Lynx helicopters and Italy's Agusta for A109 helicopters. The aircraft are part of Pretoria's long-standing $5.2 billion National Defense Force modernization program, which also includes four corvettes and three submarines from Germany.
Lars Josefsson, president and chief executive officer of Sweden's Celsius, warned that "the consequences will be severe for the activities of Business Area Defense of the Celsius Group" if budget cuts under consideration by the government go into effect. "The controversy over the economic situation of Swedish Defense Forces that came to light in October can in an irrevocable way lead to short-sighted decisions that can seriously damage Sweden's defense industries in the future," Josefsson said in a statement.
SUNDSTRAND AEROSPACE, Rockford, Ill., a business segment of Sundstrand Corp., acquired Shannon Aircraft Motor Works of Shannon, Ireland, Sundstrand reported yesterday. Shannon repairs and overhauls aircraft engine and generator components and also has repair facilities in Agen, France, and Toronto. The business will be part of Aerospace Repair Services in the Customer Service Business unit.
The U.K. will trim its Territorial Army (TA) to 41,200 troops, down from a current strength of 54,000, and the TA will be fully funded "for the first time in a number of years," said George Robertson, U.K. Secretary of State for Defense. The restructured TA will include 15 battalions, four yeomanry regiments and two squadrons of TA yeomanry incorporated into the regular Nuclear, Biological and Chemical organization. Robertson said the TA will train as part of the regular army and use the same equipment.
Pratt&Whitney has tested an advanced high performance liquid hydrogen turbopump for upper-stage applications under the U.S. Air Force's Integrated High Performance Rocket Propulsion Technology (IHPRPT) program. In the Nov. 15 test, the turbopump was run for five seconds to demonstrate transient operations. In testing scheduled to continue through December the pump will be run for longer and longer durations over its full operating range, Pratt&Whitney said.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed to cut the development cost of its twin Mars '98 missions roughly in half by applying lessons learned from earlier low-cost space probes and adopting streamlined management techniques that freed its engineers to "go engineer," according to the project manager who spearheaded the effort.
IRIDIUM LLC has activated its global paging and messaging network, which uses the same constellation of 66 low Earth orbit satellites that carries the mobile telephone service activated on Nov. 1. With Iridium World Page service, customers can use pagers to receive alphanumeric messages as long as 200 characters and 20-digit numeric messages worldwide. Iridium said tests of the messaging system have gone "extremely well." The pagers have a battery life of 30 days, and are designed to receive messages inside buildings, aircraft and ships at sea, Iridium said.
Tuesday's Leonid meteor storm apparently left Earth's satellite fleet unscathed, although an orbital debris expert said yesterday it could be some time before operators know for certain that their spacecraft didn't suffer subtle effects from the fast-moving dust specks.
The government of South Africa yesterday formally announced that the combined Gripen and Hawk bid by Sweden's Saab and British Aerospace has won the country's competition for a new fighter and lead-in trainer. The choice was reported late last month (DAILY, Oct. 30), but the South African government didn't confirm it until yesterday. Pretoria is expected to buy 38 Gripens and 24 Hawks.
The British Royal Navy yesterday successfully conducted its first live warhead test firing of a Tomahawk land-attack missile that should allow the service to declare initial operational capability of the weapon in the next few weeks. The cruise missile was fired from the submarine HMS Splendid in the Pacific Ocean, according to the U.S. Navy's Tomahawk program office. The missile engaged a target on the San Clemente Island test facility off the coast of California.
Curtiss-Wright Corp. said it will consolidate the manufacturing operations of its aerospace actuation business in Fairfield, N.J., with its facility in Shelby, N.C. Fairfield now produces actuation systems for military programs, and Shelby makes systems for commercial programs. CW said it expects the consolidation to improve manufacturing efficiencies and reduce cost structure.
Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), officially elected to the House Speaker post yesterday, again vowed to push for a stronger national defense agenda in the new Congress. In a speech following the GOP leadership elections, Livingston said he will push for "freedom from threats of foreign tyrants through a strong and viable defense system ... including deployment of an effective anti-missile system."
