Aerospace companies responding to a recent survey of hundreds of U.S. companies by Connecticut consultants The Futures Group uniformly believe rivals have used competitive business intelligence against them.
THE ROYAL AIR FORCE's first next-generation C-130, a C-130J-30, will roll out today at Lockheed Martin's Aeronautical Systems facility in Marietta, Ga., followed by another rollout on Friday of the first standard-length C- 130J for the U.S. Air Force, the company said yesterday. Both are slated for immediate flight test to support initial deliveries in the fourth quarter next year. The RAF-specified version is 15 feet longer than the standard -J.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. John M. Shalikashvili yesterday defended plans to send 20,000 troops to monitor the cease fire in Bosnia and at the same time to upgrade the military capability of Bosnian government forces. Perry told the Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. peacekeeping forces would have to be "well armed" because they might face attacks from paramilitary forces. "We minimize that risk by being strongly prepared," he said.
Rockwell International has renamed its telecommunications business segment, based in Newport Beach, Calif., Rockwell Semiconductor Systems to reflect the increased importance of semiconductor technology in the company's product lines.
ARIANESPACE has reset the launch of the Astra 1E European television satellite for tonight between 8:38 and 9:56 p.m. EDT. The launch was originally scheduled for Oct. 14 but was delayed because of a faulty interface unit (DAILY, Oct. 16, page 87).
DirecTV both helped and hurt Hughes Electronics in the third fiscal quarter, with fresh subscribers swelling revenues even as continued expansion of the new service ate into operating margins.
The Commerce Department last year approved roughly one billion dollars worth of sensitive nuclear dual-use exports to China despite Beijing's strategic military buildup and its ongoing nuclear, missile and chemical exports, the assistant director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control has testified.
NASA scientists are achieving significant cost savings in many robotic spacecraft programs by applying the faster-better-cheaper approach championed by Administrator Daniel S. Goldin to the unsung field of mission operations and data analysis (MO&DA), striving for greater efficiency in collecting and analyzing data to stretch tight science funds.
AEROJET has scheduled a test firing of a Russian NK-33 engine for Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. EDT at its facility in Sacramento, Calif. The tests are aimed at validating the original acceptance tests of the LOX/kerosene first-stage engine, which was originally developed for the former Soviet Union's N-1 moon booster program. Aerojet is pitching the engine to Lockheed Martin for incorporation into that company's entry in the U.S. Air Force's competition for an evolved expendable launch vehicle.
Kollmorgen Corp. reported increases in net income and sales for the third quarter and first nine months of 1995. The Waltham, Mass., producer of high- performance motors, controls and electro-optical systems said net income for the third quarter came to $1.5 million, or $0.10 per share, up from $175,000 or $.04 per share in the same period of last year. Sales hit $54.7 million, up 18% from the $46.4 million recorded for the third quarter of 1994.
Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems, Albuquerque, N.M., disclosed this week that it will use commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment currently being supplied for the C-130J communication/navigation/identification (CNI) management system in its proposed navigation system for the Air Force C-141 StarLifter.
The U.S. Army has unmanned aerial vehicles in its vision of the modern battlefield, or Force XXI, but it may not buy both the short and close range variants of the Joint Tactical UAV, Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis J. Reimer said yesterday.
BFGoodrich, which used a growth-by-acquisition strategy to produce a decade of earnings growth in a depressed aerospace industry, turned in another strong third-quarter performance yesterday but this time without an acquisition boosting profits. BFG's Aerospace segment earned $40.4 million on $286.7 million in sales in the period - a 43% profit improvement on just under 16% better sales. Once a small niche in a specialty chemicals company, Aerospace accounted for 47% of BFG's total third-quarter sales of $606 million, and a like share of the profits.
NASA's commercial reusable launch vehicle (RLV) concept is "testing the acceptable limits of financial and technical risk" that the private sector is willing to take and the degree of market guarantees the government can provide, an Electronic Industries Association (EIA) forecast concludes.
Lockheed Martin will try again today to launch an Atlas II booster carrying a Navy UHF follow-on (UHF F/O F-6) from Cape Canaveral Air Station, after high winds postponed a launch attempt early yesterday. With the delay in the commercial Navy launch yesterday, the next attempt to launch the Space Shuttle Columbia on a 16-day microgravity science mission slipped until Friday, because the Air Force needs two days to reconfigure the range for a Shuttle launch.
Bahrain yesterday showed reluctance to accept any immediate deployment of U.S. Air Force aircraft to augment U.S. Navy planes due to be shifted away from the Persian Gulf area later this week with the departure of the carrier USS Independence. A Bahraini foreign ministry official said the island nation would consult "friendly states" in the region before admitting the U.S. warplanes. Bahrain is a member of the pro-Western Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), along with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar.
McDonnell Douglas envisions a production run of around 10,000 units for the Army's Objective Crew Served Weapon (OCSW) system currently in phase 2 development for the Joint Services Small Arms Program Office. The company's McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems Div., Mesa, Ariz., is a member of the OCSW team, headed by Olin Ordnance, Downey, Calif.
The U.S. Army has yet to establish a formal requirement for the Enhanced Fiber Optic Guided Missile (EFOG-M) weapon system and has not adequately determined its projected cost and effectiveness relative to alternative weapons, the General Accounting Office (GAO) said yesterday as it released its review of the Army's developmental program. EFOG-M is currently in the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) phase preparatory to a two-year user evaluation as part of the Rapid Force Projection Initiative (RFPI).
Russian soldiers participating in a NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Bosnia could be equipped with ground terminals that would allow them to receive real-time information from U.S. space assets, according to the supreme allied commander Europe. U.S. Army Gen. George Joulwan said yesterday he wants to equip multi- national forces overseeing a Bosnian peace agreement with ground terminals that would allow them to receive data from satellites.
The U.S. Army is likely to try its first intercept with the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in its next test firing, a Lockheed Martin official said yesterday. "We had a very good test Friday," said William Loomis, vice president, Lockheed Martin Defensive Missile Systems. "We gathered a lot of the seeker data." Speaking at the Association of the U.S. Army convention in Washington, Loomis explained that obtaining the seeker data was required for THAAD testing to move to an intercept attempt.
JOHN RHEA has rejoined Aerospace Daily as Pentagon reporter. He succeeds Stacey Evers, who joined the Washington staff of Jane's Defense Weekly. Rhea originally joined The Daily as NASA reporter in 1963, shortly after the newsletter was established, and later was Pentagon reporter. He also worked for Electronic News as defense and aerospace editor, computer editor and San Francisco bureau chief. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and lives in Vienna, Va. He is at Pentagon 2E-756, and his phone number is 202/383-2362 or 703/697-7537. Fax is 703/486-1176.
The international distributive interactive simulation market could top $1 billion, according to Nick Ali, Loral Fairchild's vice president and general manager for simulation programs. "We believe there is demand for this type of simulation technology across the world," Ali said yesterday in Washington. Potential customers include countries in the Asia, Europe and the Middle East, he said.
LORAL VOUGHT SYSTEMS, Dallas, received $108 million in Foreign Military Sales contracts to produce Multiple Launch Rocket Systems for Israel and Japan. Under a $103.5 million FMS award, Loral said it will produce 42 MLRS launchers and more than 1,500 rockets for Israel. The contract brings the total number of launchers ordered by Israel to 48, and the total number of rockets to more than 2,200. In addition, Israel last year purchased 720 Reduced Range Practice Rockets (RRPRs).
PHOTOTELESIS/TI, a division of Texas Instruments in San Antonio, Tex., will supply Lightweight Video Reconnaissance Systems (LVRS) to U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command under a $1.5 million contract awarded Sept. 27. The Dept. of Defense, in announcing the award, said "LVRS consists of a man-portable out-station and a vehicle-installed base station capable of exchanging still frame images using the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) to enhance the reconnaissance capability of the front line ground combat unit."
