The company that can acquire part of Czech Republic airplane maker Aero Vodochody will have the inside track on winning the country's competition for a new fighter, and also gain a lead on other Eastern European sales, according to Larry Clarkson, president of Boeing Co.'s new acquisition unit, Boeing Enterprise.
The U.S. exported nearly $26 billion more in aerospace products than it imported in 1996 - a 23% gain over 1995 which reversed a three-year slide in the U.S. aerospace trade surplus. Overall, the U.S. aerospace industry posted a $25.97 billion trade surplus, with a $19.23 billion civil products surplus and another $6.74 billion surplus in military goods. Total U.S. aerospace exports came to $39.61 billion in 1996, against imports of $13.64 billion.
Northrop Grumman Corp. promoted three executives at its Electronic Sensors and Systems Div. in Baltimore, the company announced yesterday. It said that: - Robert P. Iorizzo, who has been head of Space Systems since 1992, has been promoted to vice president and general manager of Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence and Naval Systems at ESSD. He replaces Milton F. Borkowski, who is leaving the company. Iorizzo joined Northrop Grumman in 1962.
The U.S. Air Force says it plans to spend no more than $28 million for the High Band Signals Intelligence Subsystem (HBSS) demonstration unit, part of the Joint Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Avionics Family (JSAF).
AMERICAN DEFENSE PREPAREDNESS ASSOCIATION (ADPA) and NATIONAL SECURITY INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION (NSIA) completed their merger. The new entity, representing more than 900 companies and 28,000 individuals, will be called ADPA/NSIA. Arthur E. Johnson, president of Lockheed Martin Systems Integration Group, is the first chairman. Lt. Gen. Lawrence F. Skibbie (USA-ret.), president of the former ADPA, is president. Gen. Thomas C. Richards (USAF-ret.), president of the former NSIA, opted to retire to facilitate the merger. He will return to private business.
The U.S. Marine Corps doesn't share the view of some of the other military services that information dominance will win future wars, Lt. Gen. Paul K. Van Riper, commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, told the House National Security Committee's procurement and research and development panels yesterday. Van Riper, in prepared testimony, criticized a recent statement by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman, although he didn't specifically mention Fogleman in his text.
INTELSAT has ordered two advanced telecommunication satellites from Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) in a deal that could be worth as much as $600 million if options for additional satellites are taken, SS/L reported yesterday. Based on SS/L's standard three-axis bus, the Follow-on Series II (FOS II) satellites will carry 44 C-band transponders and 12 Ku-band transponders and corresponding increases in power. Scheduled for launch in the summer and late fall of 2000, the satellites will be positioned to extend Intelsat service in the Indian Ocean region.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said yesterday the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is asking whether the U.S. wants to remain a superpower, and will offer recommendations more sweeping than previously hinted. Testifying before the House International Relations Committee on the Clinton Administration's fiscal 1998 security assistance request, Cohen made it clear that he thought the QDR recommendations would generate "the most controversy" for the Defense Dept. and the country.
FAA will require retrofitting rudder components of 737 aircraft but said the actions, required by two notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs), "do not represent any conclusions regarding the cause of the two unresolved 737 accidents" in Colorado Springs and Pittsburgh.
SCI SYSTEMS INC., Huntsville, Ala., has applied to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares should begin trading in early April under the symbol SCI, with approximately 30 million shares outstanding.
Boeing Co. will supply Delta Air Lines with airliners for the next 20 years in an exclusive $6.7 billion deal that includes 106 firm orders through 2006, Delta announced yesterday. The agreement follows a similar pact between Boeing and American Airlines announced last November, but Ron Woodard, president of Boeing Commercial, said he "cannot call two events a trend." The American deal depends on approval by the airline's pilots.
NASA officials defended the agency's $1.4 billion Mission To Planet Earth (MTPE) program against partisan sniping on Capitol Hill Wednesday, arguing they have been responsive to past congressional and other criticism by cutting costs while fashioning a more comprehensive scientific study of how the earth environment works.
The U.S. Marine Corps' KC-130F tankers are aging faster than initially expected, raising serious doubts about their sustainability until their scheduled retirement early next century. The KC-130 depot has just reported back that "they are seeing effects of fatigue and corrosion in the wings," even though the aircraft were scheduled to fly until around 2005 or '10, Brig. Gen. Robert Magnus, Marine assistant deputy chief of staff for aviation, told The DAILY in an interview yesterday.
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS Defense Systems&Electronics unit, Dallas, began pre- positioning for deployment of the "uncooled" Driver's Vision Enhancer (DVE) in January. Deployment of the DVE will begin with the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), Ft. Stewart, Ga. The $7.8 million contract calls for delivery of 400 units through the third quarter of 1997.
The U.S. Air Force bought far more training devices that it needed to support its fleet of B-2 stealth bombers, according to the Pentagon Inspector General. "By the time the Air Force reduced the quantity of B-2 air vehicles" to 21, the IG says in a newly released report, "the training devices to support 132 air vehicles had already been produced."
LITTON INDUSTRIES' Data Systems Div., Woodland Hills, Calif., won a $58 million cost plus award fee contract from the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., Litton announced. The contract is part of a joint U.S.-Canadian program to upgrade 30-year-old technology in Fielded Threshold Systems at Region/Sector Air Operations Centers (R/SAOC) that are operated by NORAD. In Canada, Litton is working with Computing Devices, a unit of CDI Corp.
CUBIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS, San Diego, won three contracts worth $21.9 million from the U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman for work on the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS). The USAF Electronic Systems Center awarded it a $16.6 million contract to build Ground Data Terminals, and a $690,000 contract to build stowage cases. Northrop Grumman awarded $4.6 million in initial funding as part of a $13.4 million contract to build Air Data Terminals and associated spares. Delivery is scheduled for the fall of 1998.
The $40,000 price quoted by Applied Astronautics Corp. for a suborbital research flight covered only a reusable engine in the 5,000- 20,000 lbst range (DAILY, Feb. 25). Full service research flights with the reusable vehicle will range in price from $350,000 to $400,000, while full- service flights with non-reusable vehicles will cost $500,000 to $550,000, depending on the lead time option selected. The company will offer a 15% discount for multiple bookings on the reusable vehicle.
Savings projected by the Pentagon of 20% to 40% on the outsourcing of depot maintenance and other support activities "were rarely validated" and "generally were less than projected" when audited, a General Accounting Office official said yesterday. David R. Warren, director of Defense Management Issues for GAO, disputed the savings, based on estimates cited by the Commission on Roles and Missions (CORM) and the Defense Science Board (DSB).
The U.S. Air Force would increase a $2.2 billion "wish list" by two programs and add money to four already on the list if it gets a $3 billion fiscal year 1998 plus-up. The service, which has asked $75 billion for FY '98, laid out the plan in response to a request from Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He wanted to know how it would spend an extra $1 billion, $2 billion and $3 billion.
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION subcontracts are being awarded by program partners around the world as the scheduled planned first element launch approaches. TSI TelSys Inc. of Columbia, Md., has a $700,000 order from McDonnell Douglas for computer hardware to support high-speed data acquisition on Station. Canada's Spar Space Systems has signed a $4 million contract with Japan's Toshiba for video lights to be mounted on the robot arm Toshiba is building for the Japanese Experiment Module exposed facility.
The U.S. Air Force doesn't have serial numbers on some fracture- critical and landing gear parts of the McDonnell Douglas C-17, and this could increase the cost and management burden of maintenance on the airlifter, according to a new study by the Pentagon Inspector General.
TRW SPACE&ELECTRONICS GROUP has delivered two advanced instruments to NASA's Langley Research Center for the first Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite, the AM-1. The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments - scanning broadband radiometers that operate in different scan modes - will study the influence of clouds on the earth's temperature by measuring reflected solar and emitted thermal radiation from the surface.
