British Aerospace has selected Gencorp Aerojet as its U.S. partner for the Broach penetrator warhead program, a move that will lead to production of some of the warheads in the U.S. if the Pentagon's Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) and Conventionally Armed Air Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) programs move beyond the development stage.
Lockheed Martin Corp. profits grew 6% to $331 million in the company's 1997 third quarter despite a 6% slide in sales, the company announced yesterday. Sales fell from $7 billion in the 1996 third quarter to $6.6 billion this year as three of the company's five segments reported lower sales. Operating profit increased slightly to $747 million.
Donna P. Shirley, manager of the Mars Exploration Program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif, received a Women in Aerospace Outstanding Achievement Award for her leadership role in NASA's successful Mars exploration program, which included the recent Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions.
Charles J. Schafer, president, is one of the founding members of the newly created Advancement Council for the College of Engineering at the University of Akron.
Eliyahu Yitzhaki has been named president and chief executive officer of Rafael USA, Inc. Eitan Yudilevich has been named general manager of the Missiles Division of Rafael Armament and Development Authority.
Some Israeli defense experts think the Arrow missile defense program will cost Israel so much that it may hurt other portions of the country's defense program, a former adviser to the Israeli government told lawmakers yesterday. "Not only is this [program] still in development stages, but the cost of equipping Israel with this weapon system will be enormous - with Israel having to bear the principal burden," said Dr. Martin Sherman, a political science professor at Tel Aviv University who was a ministerial adviser to the Shamir government in 1991-92.
Laurent Beaudoin chairman and chief executive officer and Andre Desmarais, a director, have been nominated to stand for election as directors of The Seagram Company Ltd.
Lockheed Martin has begun making airframe hardware at its Fort Worth, Tex., plant for the Japan Defense Agency's F-2 fighter. The first of 130 planned F-2 fuselages will be delivered to prime contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in the fall of 1998, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. Mitsubishi will assemble the planes at its Komaki South Plant in Nagoya, with the first scheduled to be completed in early 2000.
Calspan SRL/Veda (CSRL/Veda) signed a letter of intent to acquire the RAIL Co., a provider of research, development, test and evaluation services. The companies said yesterday that the deal continues CSRL/Veda's plan to become the leading independent supplier of aeronautics RDT&E. The acquisition, expected to be completed later this year, will increase the annual sales of the recently merged Calspan and SRL Veda, based in Washington, D.C., to more than $270 million.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) charged yesterday that the Clinton Administration was underestimating the cost of NATO enlargement and warned that the price tag could lead to cuts in force structure and postponement of modernization. "I don't know how we can afford what is being projected here without cutting force structure," Stevens told Defense Secretary William S. Cohen.
The Defense Dept. said yesterday that it completed its test of the U.S. Army's Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser against a satellite's sensor on Friday, less than a week before the target would have become unavailable. The test against the Air Force's Miniature Sensor Technology Integration (MSTI-3) satellite was successful, according to a DOD official. The Pentagon planned the test earlier this month but a technical glitch and bad weather forced a delay. The window of opportunity would have closed on Oct. 23.
Lockheed Martin, Government Electronic Systems, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $129,066,306 modification to previously awarded contract N00024- 95-C-5159 to exercise options for AEGIS Combat System (ACS) Baseline Upgrades and Critical Experiments. Work will be performed in Moorestown, N.J., and is expected to be completed by November 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity.
A House International Relations Committee-approved bill directs the Secretary of Defense to carry out a study of the architecture requirements for a theater missile defense system to protect Taiwan, and says the president should make such a system available to the country under the foreign military sales program. Approved largely by the Republican majority on the committee over mostly Democratic opposition, the bill, if it makes it through Congress, figures to run into Administration opposition. It has already run into largely Democratic resistance.
Mir Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov managed to connect two of the three functioning solar arrays on the airless Spektr module to alternative sun-tracking avionics in a six-and-a-half-hour internal spacewalk yesterday, raising expectations that the orbital station will recover more of the power lost when a runaway supply capsule smashed into Spektr June 25.
Coltec Industries, Inc., Menasco Aerosystems Div., Euless, Texas, is being awarded a not-to-exceed $5,060,650 ceiling-price order for 30 retractable nose landing gear spares in support of F-14 aircraft. Work will be performed in Euless, Texas, and is expected to be completed by December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (N00383-96-G-M127) (Order 5014).
Los Angeles, will move its corporate headquarters to El Segundo, Calif. About 340 people are expected to begin occupying four floors of a building in the first quarter of 1998. The current corporate office will be taken over by Raytheon Co. following the close of its acquisition of the Hughes defense operations.
Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $5,300,000 firm-fixed-price contract for services for technical support, equipment and software for CTS800-54 engine installation in UH-1H helicopters in support of the U.S. Army Aviation Technical Test Center (USAATTC) at Fort Rucker, Ala., and the Army National Guard. The contractor shall provide a Federal Aviation Administration certified new technology engine system, including flight test support, to be installed in two UH-1H aircraft for flight test evaluation by the USAATTC.
Carpenter Technology Corp. and Talley Industries Inc. received a request from the U.S. Justice Dept. for more information under the Hart- Scott-Rodino Act relating to Carpenter's tender offer for Talley. The companies announced yesterday that the request extends the HSR waiting period until 10 days after Carpenter complies with the request unless Justice decides to terminate the waiting period earlier. Carpenter, of Reading, Pa., plans to acquire Talley in a $312 million transaction (DAILY, Oct. 1).
Raytheon TI Systems (RTIS), Dallas, received a $15.6 million low rate initial production contract from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., for 18 Improved Bradley Acquisition Subsystems (IBAS), Raytheon announced yesterday.
Senate and House defense authorizers are leaning toward accepting a House proposal to eliminate the Pentagon's Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO), congressional sources said yesterday. The conferees will likely "come very close" to a proposal pushed by the House Intelligence Committee to eliminate DARO and transfer oversight of its projects to the Defense Intelligence Agency, a House source said. The defense authorizers have joint jurisdiction with the Intelligence Committees on the DARO item.
A memo by Deputy Defense Secretary John J. Hamre delaying implementation of a change in the Pentagon's policy on progress payments to industry by at least three months (DAILY, Oct. 7) is a step toward "an open-ended deferral" of the change, an aide to Sen. Charles Grassley (R- Iowa) charged yesterday. Grassley is Congress' leading critic of the current policy.
