AlliedSignal said Friday that it will vacate a plant in Statford, Conn., by mid-1997 following congressional acceptance of a government decision to close the U.S. Army-owned facility. The company said Friday that production of both military and commercial aircraft engines will continue at the Stratford plant through 1996, but that the workforce of 1,200 will begin to be reduced in the third quarter of that year. Production will be moved to other AlliedSignal facilities, with Phoenix operations being the company's "first choice."
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Space Bob Davis says he signed out a memo to Pentagon Comptroller John Hamre on Sept. 22 ordering the establishment of a "joint financial budgetary oversight mechanism" to oversee NRO finances. "It's clear now, there's agreement, that the OSD comptroller and the intelligence community management staff will begin providing joint financial budgetary oversight of the NRO," Davis tells a Washington audience.
The former chief United Nations inspector for Iraq says more intelligence, not less, is needed to deal with the proliferation concerns of the post-Cold War world. David Kay warns a Washington audience that many nations will try "dual use" approaches in areas such as nuclear development. The programs are advertised as civilian-and in fact do meet civilian needs-but "suddenly pop up as a military threat," he says.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced settlements with seven defendants it accused of insider trading related to Martin Marietta Corp.'s unsuccessful bid to acquire Grumman Corp. last year.
DIRECTV, Hughes' DBS venture, has filed its first suit against a commercial establishment-a Pittsburgh bar-for displaying its programming under a less- costly residential subscription. Hughes filed the suit in federal court in Pittsburgh.
Lockheed Martin's Sanders unit said the Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures (ATIRCM) engineering and manufacturing development program contract it has received from the U.S. Army could be worth up to $150 million. The Nashua, N.H., company last was awarded the first increment of the $97.6 million contract last week (DAILY, Sept. 28, p. 483). It said that more than $50 million in options could raise the value to $150.4 million.
Raytheon Aerospace, Madison, Wis., said it will absorb the Aircraft and Logistics Programs of Serv-Air, a unit of E-Systems, which was acquired by Raytheon in May. Under the plan, the Greenville, Tex.-based Air and Logistics Programs operation, which conducts maintenance, modification and repair on numerous types of military and commercial aircraft, will become part of Raytheon Aerospace by the end of the year.
Europe's new Ariane V booster won't fly until late April at the earliest, a three-month slip from its planned Jan. 17 first flight. Problems with the cryogenic main stage, including an oxygen leak and a design flaw in the high pressure oil distribution system for the Vulcain engine, had to repaired, forcing the schedule slip. A verification test of the repairs to the main stage is scheduled early this month at the Ariane launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana.
Lockheed Martin has delivered the first two production reconnaissance systems for the F-16 fighter to the Virginia Air National Guard. The deliveries, at company facilities in Fort Worth, Tex., on Sept. 28, marked a milestone in shifting the U.S. Air Force's manned tactical reconnaissance mission from the RF-4C to the F-16, Lockheed Martin said.
GLOBALSTAR L.P., the Loral-led low-Earth orbit mobile communications satellite venture, announced that a company has been formed to offer Globalstar services in Thailand. Tentatively named Globalstar Thailand, the company was formed by Thaisat Ltd., a Thai telecommunications company, and Hyundai/Dacom, a Korean consortium comprised of Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Dacom Corp. and Hyundai Corp.
The U.S. Marine Corps' V-22 tiltrotor aircraft "is coming into the system," but "its coming in too slowly for our requirements," says Lt. Gen. Harold W. Blot, the Marine Corps' top aviation official. "We're going to do everything that's in our power to speed that up," he tells industry representatives during a meeting in Quantico, Va. He says he'd like to buy the planes at a rate of 36 per year, "if we can afford to do that."
Commercial air cargo will continue to grow at levels surpassing passenger traffic, McDonnell Douglas said in its latest cargo forecast. It said that with global economic growth projected at 3.5% a year, worldwide air cargo, including scheduled and non-scheduled traffic, will expand by 7.3% a year through 2013 compared to 5.7% for passenger traffic. Recent trade accords such as NAFTA and GATT should further stimulate future trade, it said.
MAGNAVOX ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS CO. has chosen Borland International Inc.'s Interbase 4 server for the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS), according to Borland, which is based in Scotts Valley, Calif. It quoted John Williams, director of AFATDS program at Magnavox, as saying that his company chose Borland's system because it meets the decision- making requirements of battlefield commanders. Borland is based in Scotts Valley, Calif.
ALLIED RESEARCH CORP., Vienna, Va., said its Barnes&Reinecke unit will upgrade self-propelled howitzers of the Spanish Army. A $5.1 million U.S. Foreign Military Sales contract for the effort brings to $7.3 million the amount the company has received this year to upgrade Spanish Army artillery. The upgrade will permit the howitzers, to be designated M1095A5E Espana, to have an effective firing range of more than 30 kilometers, and will give them protection against nuclear, biological and chemical contaminants.
Raytheon's E-Systems has received a $5.3 million award from Lockheed Martin to supply control actuation systems for the Hellfire II missile. The contract is the latest production increment release from Lockheed Martin under a sole source, long term agreement with E-Systems involving advanced Hellfire II and Longbow missile control systems, E-Systems said yesterday. The work is being performed by E-Systems' Montek Div., which is based in Salt Lake City.
GEORGE K. WEBSTER, 53, has been confirmed as president and chief executive officer of Miltope Corp., the company said yesterday. Miltope, based in Hope Hull, Ala., said Webster was elected to these positions in an acting capacity in April by the board of directors.
Essex Corp., Columbia, Md., is participating in the design of an Integrated Optical Processor (IOP) for airborne surveillance and command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) processing under a $180,000 subcontract from Computing Devices International, a division of Ceridian Corp.
Litton's Applied Technology Div. has won two U.S. Air Force contracts for continued production of AN/ALR-56M airborne threat warning systems. The first award is $15.8 million for 87 systems and the second is $6.7 million for more than 24 additional systems, the company said yesterday. Work on the units will be performed at the Litton division's facility in Grants Pass, Ore.
NASA managers slipped the planned launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia on a 16-day microgravity science mission until Oct. 5 at the earliest after a hydrogen leak forced them to scrub a launch attempt yesterday.
Comsat World Systems announced that MCI International has expanded a contract for transoceanic satellite capacity to meet growing demand to and from countries such as Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam. The contract is an expansion of a seven year contract Comsat and MCI reached in 1994 and follows MCI's first-time telecommunications agreements with the three communist nations. The announcement follows a $100 million lease agreement Comsat signed earlier this year with News Corp.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. yesterday received a $46.5 million U.S. Navy contract for 10 wing center sections and the associated costs of the wings for the EA-6B aircraft. The work will be carried out in Bethpage, N.Y., and St. Augustine, Fla. The contract was awarded by Naval Air Systems Command.
THE TITAN CORP., San Diego, has received a $10 million, long-term contract from Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) to provide a satellite-based telecommunications network in Indonesia.
Tight budgets and the needs of atmospheric science are driving a push in the U.S. to develop advanced remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) that can fly well into the stratosphere and stay there for days.
The U.S. Navy can increase the stealthiness of the F/A-18E/F strike fighter but has to decide whether it's necessary to do so, according to a McDonnell Douglas official. "There is growth in the E/F airplane to continue this [signature reduction] if, indeed, the threat demands that we go lower in signature," said Mike Sears, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace's vice president and general manager for the Hornet program.
Tax credits for research and development are generally effective, but they have little bearing on most firms' R&D strategies, according to a report released yesterday by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. The Research and Experimentation (R&E) Tax Credit stimulates an additional dollar of R&D for every dollar of lost tax revenue, but it plays a small factor in the overall R&D picture of the U.S., said the report, "The Effectiveness of Research and Experimentation Tax Credits."
