The Pentagon's decision Saturday to cut McDonnell Douglas and give the green light to Boeing and Lockheed Martin to proceed to the next phase of the Joint Strike Fighter program has altered the investment assumptions many on Wall Street had had for the three companies.
Russian space officials have concluded that the Mars 96 probe separated from its Block D2 kick stage as planned, but fell into the Pacific after a few orbits Saturday because the kick stage had not boosted it into its proper intermediate orbit before the separation.
Following selection Saturday of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. to move into concept demonstration phase of the Joint Strike Fighter program, questions loom for the losing team of McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace
Some smaller aerospace and defense companies took hits during the quarter thanks to a mix of restructuring and other special charges, according to statements released in past weeks. Aydin Corp., Horsham, Pa., began restructuring, selling its San Jose, Calif., facility and consolidating product lines.
A delay in the Dec. 17 intercept test of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense system will set back U.S. Army plans to test 40 other THAAD missiles, sources said. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization confirmed Friday that it delayed the intercept test, slated to take place at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., because of a problem with the missile's inertial measurement unit (DAILY, Nov. 15).
COLTEC AEROSPACE, Charlotte, N.C., received an order for th e first 12 shipsets of production main landing gear systems from McDonnell Douglas for the F/A-18E/F aircraft. The systems will be made at Coltec's Menasco Aerosystems plant, Fort Worth, Tex. Coltec previously was named to make fuel pumps for the GE F414 engine for the F/A-18E/F.
Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. executives were jubilant after winning contracts for the Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstration phase - but immediately looked to the future, and winning the competition for the next phase in 2001.
Saturday's failure of the Mars 96 planetary probe has raised questions about the Proton upper stage also slated to carry Western communications satellites and key International Space Station elements to orbit, with a Russian team studying whether the stage or the spacecraft itself caused the problem. In Washington, the former head of the Soviet interplanetary space program blamed the mishap on the same lack of adequate funding from Russia's central government that plagues the Russian portion of the International Space Station.
V-ONE CORP., Rockville, Md., formed a business alliance with LOCKHEED MARTIN FEDERAL SYSTEMS, Gaithersburg, Md., to provide integrated information security solutions to commercial and federal government markets, the company said.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS, Mesa, Ariz., will begin installing flat- panel multipurpose displays made by ALLIEDSIGNAL, Teterboro, N.J. , in AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopters. Flight testing is scheduled for early 1997, and the first production MPDs will be installed in March 1998.
Lockheed Martin is closing eight facilities and cutting 1,600 jobs to finish absorbing its buy last year of most of Loral Corp., steps management thinks will wind up adding another $300 million in annual steady-state savings by 1999.
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. and Boeing Co. yesterday unveiled their joint venture Bell Boeing 609, a six-to-nine passenger civil tiltrotor aircraft based on the U.S. military's V-22, now in low rate initial production. "Everything finally came together," Webb Joiner, chairman of Bell, told The DAILY following a press conference on the new project at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. "We have the right product at the right time."
EXIDE ELECTRONICS GROUP INC., Raleigh, N.C., said it received a partial version of a bid protest letter filed with the General Accounting Office in connection with a requirements contract awarded by the U.S. Air Force. The protest was filed Oct. 4, but only portions of the protest have been released. The protest seeks to award the contract to the protesting party or have bids resolicited under a different evaluation scheme. Exide said it expects a decision in late December or early January 1997.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS' Marine Systems Group won a $2.1 million contract to produce Forward Combined Degaussing and Acoustic Range (FACDAR) systems for a Southeast Asian country, which it declined to identify. Additions could eventually raise the contract's worth to as much as $3.7 million, the company said.
Hughes Aircraft Co. is merging its Radar and Communications Systems Segment and the Electro-Optical Systems Segment to create a new Sensors and Communications Systems Segment, the company reported yesterday. Effective Jan. 1, 1997, the two units - both located in El Segundo, Calif. - will come together under Kenneth C. Dahlberg as president. Dahlberg now heads the Radar and Communications Systems Segment.
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP., Marietta, Ga., yesterday won a $26.5 million Naval Sea Systems Command contract to modify a P-3 aircraft as a Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) test platform.
