Sequa Corp., New York, saw sales grow 7% to $373.3 million in the first three months of 1997, primarily due to the continuing recovery of its Chromalloy Gas Turbine operation. Sequa bounced back from a $3.8 million loss in the first three months of 1996 to post a $1.8 million profit in the 1997 first quarter. Aerospace segment sales climbed from $189 million a year ago to $211.4 million, spurred by the demand for jet engine component repair services
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS said it named William A. Weisinger to the post of chief engineer, ICBM prime integration team. The Minneapolis company said Weisinger will be responsible for all engineering activities related to the company's pursuit of the U.S. Air Force's ICBM prime contract integration program, which will extend the service life of the U.S. land-based ICBM force. Before joining Alliant, Weisinger was with the Rocketdyne Div. of Boeing North American. In 1996, he was chosen to lead the Rocketdyne International Space Station system engineering team.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen yesterday set up a task force to expand defense reform beyond what the Quadrennial Defense Review will propose when it's officially unveiled Monday. "One thing I have found we were not adequately able to address has to do with the Office of the Secretary of Defense," Cohen told reporters at a specially convened Pentagon briefing to announce the task force's formation. The task force will try to reduce the size of the OSD staff, the defense agencies, DOD field activities and military departments.
Russian Space Forces launched a classified Cosmos-series satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, apparently to replenish the space segment of Russia's early warning system, and scheduled launches today and next Tuesday of classified payloads that appear to be intelligence platforms. A four-stage Molniya-M rocket with the Cosmos 2342 satellite aboard lifted off at 4:34 a.m. Moscow Daylight Time (8:34 p.m. Tuesday EDT) and inserted the satellite into an eccentric orbit with an apogee of about 40,000 kilometers and a perigee of a few hundred kilometers.
A team led by Raytheon Co., Bedford, Mass., won a five year, $500 million contract for the Command and Control Product Lines (CCPL) Program from the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center (ESC), Hanscom AFB, Mass., Raytheon announced. The team is composed of Raytheon Electronic Systems, Raytheon E- Systems, Science Applications International Corp., Computer Sciences Corp., GDE Systems, Arca Systems and Systems Technology Associates. Raytheon was chosen over teams led by Hughes and TRW (DAILY, Feb. 28).
Thomson's Training&Simulation unit cornered three-quarters of the world market for full flight simulators last year, the company said. It said it won 15 out of 21 orders placed in 1996 for the devices, most of which were ordered by customers in the Far East. Thomson is Europe's leading simulation company.
NATO and Russia yesterday agreed on a "partnership" that probably will allow NATO to extend membership invitations to former Warsaw Pact countries. Javier Solana, NATO secretary general, and Russian foreign minister Yevgeni Primakov concluded two days of talks in Moscow with "decisive progress...on key issues of the NATO/Russia document, including its military aspects," according to NATO. President Clinton said the agreement "forms a practical
Lufthansa Technik has retrofitted the first 747-200 with FANS (Future Air Navigation System) technology, and is marketing the retrofit to other airlines operating 747s. The digital systems were fully integrated into the 747's analog cockpit, a process that took LHT six weeks. The company said that more direct routing using FANS can save $500,000 per aircraft per year, depending on the airline and aircraft.
PACIFIC AEROSPACE&ELECTRONICS INC., Wenatchee, Wash., has acquired all the assets of Northwest Technical Industries Inc. (NTI), Sequim, Wash., for about $2 million in common stock. NTI will operate as part of Pacific's electronics group. Northwest founder Alan W. Hare will remain as NTI's vice president, operations.
Cuts in the National Reconnaissance Office's budget in response to the discovery of several billion dollars in forward funding may have gone too far, Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski told reporters yesterday. The NRO in 1995 was found to have accumulated $3.8 billion, prompting Congress to strip at least $1.2 billion from its accounts. The accounts were raided again to pay for Bosnia operations in 1996, and NRO is once more being proposed as a source of funds to help offset the 1997 supplemental budget request.
TRIMBLE NAVIGATION, Sunnyvale, Calif., sold 63 Cargo Utility GPS Receivers (CUGRs) worth about $1 million to the U.S. Air Force to equip UH-1 Twin Hueys. This was the first exercise of options to a CUGR contract from the Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM). The basic contract totaled more than $12 million and included two one-year options. CECOM could buy as many as 3,600 receivers over the lifetime of the contract.
The Pentagon is putting the finishing touches on a department-wide policy of using past performance as a criterion in awarding contracts, and one of its first applications could be in the choice of a lead systems integrator on the National Missile Defense system.
Aero International (Regional), a joint venture formed by Aerospatiale, Alenia Aerospazio/Finmeccanica and British Aerospace, sold six new aircraft, the company announced. The deal - for four ATR 72-200s, an ATR 42-300 and an RJ 100, all worth about $100 million - brings the total of new ATR aircraft sold since the beginning of the year to 26.
Executive Jet Inc., Montvale, N.J., ordered 20 new Raytheon Aircraft Hawker 800XPs, valued at about $210 million, Raytheon announced yesterday. Raytheon said it was the largest business jet order for Hawkers in the aircraft's history. Executive has options for 10 more Hawkers and also bought a Hawker 1000. The jets will be used for Executive's NetJets fractional aircraft ownership operation, which allows companies to buy shares in business jets.
LOCKHEED MARTIN has been awarded a $52.4 million contract to help eliminate Russian solid propellant rocket motor cases and missile canisters, the Pentagon said yesterday. The effort is part of the Nunn-Lugar program and will involve dismantling parts of Russia's force of SS-24 and SS-25 ICBMs and SS-N-20 SLBMs. The announcement coincided with a visit to the Pentagon by Russia's defense minister, Igor Rodionov.
DRS TECHNOLOGIES INC., Parsippany, N.J., won contracts worth about $9.3 million from Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, Eagan, Minn., to produce AN/UYQ-70 Advanced Display System tactical workstations for the U.S. Navy. This was an option to an existing contract awarded in July 1994, and brings the total released to DRS to $52 million.
GDE SYSTEMS INC., San Diego, acquired the Visual Information Technology (VITec) division of Connectware Inc., Dallas. VITec, located in Reston, Va., Dallas and San Diego, has been established as GDE's commercial visual information products and services division. VITec reported 1996 sales of $3.8 million.
TRIUMPH GROUP INC., Wayne, Pa., acquired The J.D. Chapdelaine Co., which specialized in the repair, overhaul and exchange of electro-mechanical aircraft instruments. Chapdelaine is based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Austin, Tex. Triumph bought the assets of the company for an undisclosed amount of cash and notes.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS will begin production of the commercial version of the C- 17 even without a firm order, a company spokesman confirmed yesterday. Customers are expected for the MD-17, and going ahead will give MDC flexibility, the spokesman said. If a contract is signed, he said, the aircraft will be available early. He said the company is preparing to ramp up C-17 production from eight per year to 15, and commercial production will keep the workforce stable.
FISCAL 1999 TO 2002 national security budget authority and outlay ceilings haven't been settled by negotiators for the Clinton Administration and the Republican congressional leadership, but the congressional budget committees are preparing to mark up their budget resolutions for fiscal 1998 to 2002. The House Budget Committee is to mark up today and the Senate Budget Committee is planning to hold its markup tomorrow, sources said.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday that the Quadrennial Defense Review should sacrifice the Joint Strike Fighter because all three tactical aircraft modernization programs can't be supported. Assessing the QDR, outlines of which have been disclosed in advance of its formal release, McCain told reporters at a breakfast meeting in Washington that because the U.S. can't buy the F-22, the F/A-18E/F and the JSF in the numbers projected, he would do away with JSF, "although it has always been our goal to have jointness."
The Air Force has rejected an unsolicited proposal from Boeing Company to enhance the B-52H bomber with a modern, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) engine because it would be too costly, even though it offers improved capability, Noel Longuemare, the Pentagon's deputy acquisition chief, informed Senate appropriators.
TRACOR APPLIED SCIENCES INC., Rockville, Md., won a five-year, $8.5 million contract from the Fleet Industrial Supply Center, San Diego, to provide scientific, engineering and technical services for ship signature control systems development.
