Litton Industries Inc. completed its acquisition of TASC Inc. from Primark Corp. for $432 million in cash, Litton announced yesterday. Litton will operate TASC, which provides information technology and services to the national intelligence sector, as a stand-alone unit within its Information Systems Group (DAILY, Dec. 9, 1997). TASC had 1997 revenues of about $440 million. Litton named R. Evans Hineman as president of TASC. He had been executive VP and director of TASC's Systems Div.
Vickers Aerospace Marine Defense Group is looking to grow through a combination of expansion into new business areas and new products, according to Larry Deininger, group vice president. Deininger told Aviation Week newsletter and magazine editors in Washington that the group, based in Maumee, Ohio, is ahead of schedule in the third year of a five-year plan designed to double sales in aerospace fluid power distribution. It has won 81% of the hydraulic pump and motor work on all new buys of Boeing and Airbus planes sold in 1997, officials said.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN has submitted its bid for the U.K. Airborne Standoff Radar (ASTOR) program. The company's bid, like Lockheed Martin's, is based on the Gulfstream V. The third competitor, Raytheon, is proposing to install its system on a Canadair Global Express. Northrop Grumman will be in charge of the ground surveillance sensor suite. Team member British Aerospace is responsible for aircraft integration, logistics support, defensive aids, and satellite communications. Computing Devices will design the ground station and information architecture.
To keep its Joint Strike Fighter within cost goals established by the Pentagon, Boeing wants its initial design to come in well under the cost goal to hedge against increases later in the program.
Comsat Corp. endorsed Intelsat's decision to spin off six Intelsat satellites into a separate, publicly traded company called "New Skies Satellites." Comsat President and CEO Betty Alewine said the move "is a huge win for fair competition and shareholder value. The creation of New Skies protects and enhances Comsat's investment in Intelsat, meets U.S. and international competition policy objectives and expands competition in the satellite industry."
Ranking Senate Armed Services Democrat Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.) said he is considering legislating a delay in the U.S. Air Force's planned production schedule for the F-22 fighter to take into account risks in the program. Levin told The DAILY in an interview that he wants to make sure that the Air Force "takes risks into consideration." He said he is considering a number of proposals.
Assistant U.S. Navy Secretary for Research, Development and Acquisition John Douglass said yesterday that funding for low-rate production of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet could be cleared by the end of this week. Production funds were frozen by Defense Secretary William Cohen pending resolution of a wing-drop problem.
The Pentagon should increase the number of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles it plans to buy, according to the Long-Range Air Power panel that reviewed whether or not to buy more B-2 stealth bombers. A summary of the report says the panel "believes that the planned buy of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile should be substantially increased and the JASSM should be a high priority for integration on each of the bomber types." The panel was headed by former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Larry D. Welch.
The U.S. Navy is showing interest in a British Aerospace digital terrain reference navigation system after a F/A-18 flew into the side of a canyon in Oman last September. The system is already being installed on U.S. Air Force F-16s and is on all U.K. Royal Air Force fighters, Kelly Dameron, national sales manager-navigation for BAe Systems and Equipment, said at luncheon in Washington on Monday.
President Clinton on Tuesday certified to Congress that "no additional B-2 bombers should be procured during this fiscal year." The certification is required under the fiscal 1998 defense appropriations act. He said the $331 million appropriated for B-2 bombers in FY 1998 should be used for modification, repair and further upgrades.
MiG Moscow Aviation Production Assn. (MiG MAPO) will suspend operation from April 1 until Aug. 31 in a move some inside the company believe is linked to an upcoming privatization. MiG MAPO is a core company of MiG Military Industrial Complex (MiG VPK), established in January 1996 and including 11 companies involved in development and production of MiG aircraft and Kamov helicopters.
A campaign by the German government to hike European Union funding for aerospace research got a boost last week after a meeting in Bonn between Edith Cresson, head of research for the European Commission, and Jurgen Ruettgers, Germany's research minister.
Rogerson Kratos, Pasadena, Calif., finished a multi-million dollar renovation and enhancement of its design and manufacturing facilities. The company, which supplies advanced avionics systems and instrumentation displays, said it installed two chambers for highly accelerated life testing and stress screening. A third chamber is planned for later this year. Improvements also were made in the PC network, CAD/CAM systems and computerized manufacturing systems. Production facilities also have been completely rebuilt.
Lucas Aerospace, Utica, N.Y., won a contract from Bell Helicopter Textron, Fort Worth, Tex., to supply the main input drive shaft assembly for the AH-1Z Upgrade Attack Helicopter and the UH-1Y Upgrade Utility Helicopter. Bell is under contract to the U.S. Marine Corps for the EMD phase of the program. It is expected to re-manufacture 280 helicopters.
Lockheed Martin and Europe's Sema Group PLC agreed to combine capabilities and resources for logistics support of the Joint Strike Fighter, Lockheed Martin announced yesterday. It said specific details concerning work content are being developed at Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, Fort Worth, Tex. Sema also will work with Lockheed Martin Information Systems, Orlando, Fla., in other information technology related defense and commercial opportunities.
A senior U.S. Air Force acquisition official yesterday presented alternatives for a national missile defense (NMD) architecture, pushing systems like an interceptor based on the Minuteman ICBM and an upgraded Milstar satellite system, as well as flight tests that the NMD Joint Program Office has not yet approved.
Raytheon Co. said it has been given to go-ahead by the FAA to proceed to operational capabilities testing of its Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radar (MSSR) for the Air Traffic Control Beacon Interrogator (ATCBI-6) Replacement program.
William Owens, president and chief operating officer of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), will resign as of June 1, the high tech San Diego company said yesterday.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin has refused to buy Soviet- era Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers from Ukraine. The decision, announced last week, came after the two parties failed to agree on a price after four years of negotiation. Yeltsin's press service essentially denounced recent statements of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Col. Gen. Anatoly Kornukov, who wanted to keep the issue of purchasing a few strategic bombers from Ukraine alive.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing ranked first and second, respectively, as the employers of choice of graduating engineering students, according to a new a survey.
NASA managers have seen early "signals" Russia intends to continue working on its share of the International Space Station despite President Boris Yeltsin's top-level shakeup, but they concede that if Russia fails to meet its Station commitments the cost to take up the slack "could run up into the billions very quickly." That kind of money isn't likely to be available in the present budget environment on Capitol Hill, a key member of the House Appropriations Committee warned yesterday as NASA presented its budget request for fiscal year 1999 to the panel.
The House Monday night approved a $147 million authorization boost of fiscal 1998 funds to accelerate missile defense programs to counter an increased ballistic missile threat, primarily from Iran. Each item in the bill, Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) told the House, "has been scrubbed" by Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre and "stamped with his approval as a sensible use of funds."
Northrop Grumman has won the U.S. Navy's competition for a major EA- 6B Prowler upgrade that will be fielded starting in fiscal 2004 and provide a more effective suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) capability. The Navy last week awarded a Northrop Grumman-led team a $144.2 million for engineering and manufacturing development of the Improved Capability-III (ICAP III) program. Northrop Grumman, which will act as the integrator, defeated a team of Raytheon, Tracor and Pacer Infotec.
