Bob Hanson has been appointed director of asset technical management within the assest management group, the company's pre-owned aircraft sales organization. Donald Mills has been appointed vice president, parts support, responsible for the distribution of parts thourghout the company's global supply chain. Robert Moran has been appointed chief information officer. Michael D. Vance has been appointed director of government sales, responsible for worldwide sales of the entire aircraft product line.
British Aerospace earned 344 million pounds ($577.4 million ) before taxes and exceptional items, an increase of 24% over the same period a year ago, the company reported yesterday. "The business continues to perform well against our planning assumptions, and we are making progress in our wider objectives to participate fully in a more integrated international industry," said Sir Richard Evans, chairman.
Besides learning more about its F/A-18 Hornets, the U.S. Navy's deployment of the jets to Laage, Germany, to face German air force MiG-29s is intended to show how the U.S. aircraft would fare against the widely exported Russian fighter, said Navy Cdr. Greg Nosal, commander of squadron VFA-82.
Raytheon Systems Co., Lexington, Mass., received an $8 million contract option from Boeing for seven more infrared systems for the U.S. Marines' V-22 Osprey under the low rate initial production (LRIP) phase, Raytheon reported yesterday. The contract, from Boeing's Rotorcraft Div., Philadelphia, is the third and final lot for the LRIP program, bringing the total order to 21, including two spares. Raytheon said it began deliveries last month for the LRIP program, which has a total value of $25.6 million. An award for full production is expected next year.
The U.S. Air Force plans to spend $15.9 million over 42 months to develop a warhead capable of defeating "soft" and hardened facilities for chemical and biological warfare agents. The Agent Defeat Warhead demonstration is intended to develop a device capable of destroying facilities that develop, produce or store chemical and biological weapons, the Air Force Research Lab's munitions directorate said in a Sept. 9 Commerce Business Daily notice. The multi-phase program could lead to the manufacture of 10 warheads for operational use.
Spacecraft controllers regained control of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Wednesday after sending a series of commands directing the spacecraft to fire thrusters and turn its face and solar panels fully towards the Sun, NASA reported yesterday.
HELLER FINANCIAL, a Chicago-based company that manages a portfolio of aircraft, has acquired two new 737-300s and will take delivery in the fourth quarter, Boeing said yesterday. The airliners were acquired through Boeing's Aircraft Trading unit, which markets new and used Boeing-owned aircraft acquired through trades, lease returns and other means.
Raytheon Co. has bid an Extended Range Air-to-Air Missile for the U.K. Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile program that would address the U.S. Air Force's interest in increasing the size of the AMRAAM's rocket motor.
The system of solar batteries on Mir began working yesterday, Itar-Tass reported. The system was repaired during an "internal" spacewalk in the Spektr module Wednesday (DAILY, Sept. 17). Two of Spektr's three functional batteries have automatically oriented themselves toward the Sun. The third battery is scheduled to go on line in October, when a supply ship brings a missing control unit.
Hexcel Corp. completed its previously announced acquisition of certain assets of Clark-Schwebel Inc., a move that it said makes it "a global leader in supplying high-quality materials for the electronics and telecommunications industries." Hexcel is an advanced structural materials company; Clark-Schwebel is a producer of glass fiber fabrics used in printed circuit boards.
Russia's government has ordered the Federal Service of Russia on Regulation of Natural Monopolies in the Field of Communications to raise its rates for the use of satellites by radio and television broadcasters as a way to "attract additional sources of financing. The new rates should "compensate expenses for provision of these services and for development of orbital constellations for satellite communications and broadcasting of the Russian Federation."
Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector (ESSS) won a contract worth up to $49 million from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to develop and make the Airport Surveillance Radar-Weather Systems Processor (ASR-WSP). Initially, five ASR-WSP systems will be built and tested, followed by full production of up to 37 systems, Northrop Grumman said.
Israel Aircraft Industries reported earnings of $19.7 million during the first half of 1998. During the same period a year ago, it earned $6.9 million. Sales in the first of 1998 were $929 million, up from $771 million in the first half of 1997. Export sales reached $725 million in the first half of 1998, compared to $582 million in the same period a year ago. IAI also reported new orders worth $934 million in the first six months of the year.
DOW-UNITED TECHNOLOGIES delivered a new section of the F-22 fighter that it said will reduce weight of the component by 47% and cost by 55%. The aft boom fairings, two per aircraft, are made with resins reinforced with carbon fiber. They replace titanium components installed on the first two F-22s.
Members of the U.S. Congress and Israeli Knesset, meeting on Capitol Hill yesterday, agreed to "intensify efforts" to develop systems capable of intercepting ballistic missiles in their boost phase.
House and Senate negotiators in the fiscal 1999 defense authorization conference have reached agreement on the satellite and missile technology export issue by agreeing on compromise language that would transfer authority for export licensing of satellites from the Commerce Dept. back to the State Dept., which would include Defense Dept. review, congressional sources said yesterday.
THIOKOL PROPULSION, a division of Cordant Technologies Inc., tested a Minutemen ICBM Stage 1 rocket motor Tuesday at its Promontory, Utah, test site. The motor was the first of eight to be tested in the qualification phase of the Air Force Minuteman Propulsion Replacement Program/Technical Insertion Program. Five more static tests are planned over the next 16 months. Two flight test motors will be launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in late 1999.
The Pentagon has offered Standard Missiles to the Netherlands and Spain. In separate foreign military sales deals announced Wednesday, the Netherlands would get 24 Standard Missile-2 Block IIIA missiles for $24 million, and Spain would get 112 missiles of the same type for $105 million. The Netherlands would use the missiles on frigates, the Pentagon said. Tactical warheads will be on 16 of the missiles, while the remaining 8 will be telemetry rounds.
The first 20 years of U-2 reconnaissance aircraft operations were declassified yesterday, starting with the program's inception in 1954, covering the first operational flight on June 20, 1956, and concluding in 1974.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday said the U.S. satellite launch industry should be enhanced to offset what he said was the national security challenge posed by availability of less costly Chinese rockets. McCain said at the end of a hearing by the committee that if the U.S. is going to develop a national security policy on American satellite launches by foreign providers, "if we're really going to fix this problem," the domestic launch capability will have to be bolstered.
The U.S. has offered to upgrade six Egyptian CH-47C Chinook helicopters to the CH-47D configuration in a $203 million foreign military sales agreement, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Boeing would be the prime contractor on the deal, which doesn't call for offsets. The U.S. said the helicopters may be used in joint Egyptian-U.S. exercises, as well as for transport and logistics.
TWO COSMONAUTS carried out a brief "internal" spacewalk in the Spektr module on Mir yesterday, trying to boost the power supply for the space station. Sergei Avdeyev and Gennadi Padalka spent less than an hour connecting power cables to two of the damaged module's solar panels, according to wire service reports from Moscow. The connections had loosened since another crew made repairs during two previous walks inside Spektr.
The U.S. government yesterday issued a letter of offer to the United Arab Emirates for 491 AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and other weapons for the 80 F-16s the country plans to buy. The cost of the deal will be about $2 billion. In addition to the AMRAAMs, 12 training AMRAAMS, 267 AIM-9M Sidewinders, and 80 training Sidewinders would be sold.
