Ronald D. Sugar has been named president and chief operating officer of Northrop Grumman, company Chairman and CEO Kent Kresa announced. "With our recent acquisition of Litton Industries, Northrop Grumman is now a $15 billion top-tier global enterprise with 80,000 employees," Kresa said in a company statement. "Ron's appointment provides our company with additional management depth, experience and expertise at an important time in our company's history."
GO: After a successful Sept. 21 launch readiness review, Eutelsat's Atlantic Bird 2 satellite is on track for launch on Sept. 25 from Kourou, French Guiana, atop an Ariane 4 rocket. Liftoff of Flight 144 is scheduled to take place during a 57-minute launch window opening at 7:32 p.m. local time.
DEFENSE FUNDS: The Bush Administration plans to use $2.5 billion for defense from the first installment of recently enacted $40 billion supplemental appropriations, the White House says. Of that, $1.8 billion will go to upgrade intelligence and security, enhance force protection, improve command and control and increase readiness, and the rest will go to Pentagon repairs and other recovery needs. A senior Senate aide told The DAILY he expects little of the overall supplemental to go toward military procurement or research and development.
PEOPLE POWER: In addition to procurement plus-ups, military personnel increases are a critical issue as the nation prepares for its war against terrorism, according to Bob Livingston, former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Since 1985, active duty force structure has been reduced by 700,000, he says, including the loss of 38 percent of Army personnel, 40 percent of Air Force personnel, and 35 percent of Navy personnel.
INDIAN SUKHOI: India will soon begin producing the Sukhoi Su-30 MKI, Russia's most advanced fighter. Russia is expected to deliver the fighter's designs by early 2002 so India can start indigenous production in December 2002, according to a New Delhi newspaper. The chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. - the Indian company that will produce the fighter - tells reporters that the first fighters should be completed in 2004. The deal to produce the fighter under Russian license is worth an estimated $1 billion.
The Senate agreed Sept. 21 to reverse a $1.3 billion cut in the Bush Administration's missile defense request while signaling that it wants President Bush to use some of the restored money to fight terrorism. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and ranking Republican John Warner (Va.) announced the agreement shortly before the Senate approved it as an amendment to the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill.
REBOUND: The Boeing Co. may be down but not out, according to a report from Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, the investment-banking arm of Deutsche Bank. Although Boeing revised its numbers for commercial aircraft deliveries last week as a result of decreased air travel following the Sept. 11 attacks, the impact of the downturn will likely bottom out in 2003 with the help of improved space and defense sales, says Christopher Mecray, aerospace analyst with the investment firm.
U.S. air power will likely be used to provide cover for Special Forces operations in Afghanistan rather than serve as the principal means of attack, according to two former national security advisers. Speaking Sept. 20 at a forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Carter, said the initial U.S. response must be credible and set the tone for future actions.
B-2 BOOST: The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington underscore the argument for building more B-2 stealth bombers than the 21 the Air Force already has, according to Michael Vickers, director of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic&Budgetary Assessments. The B-2's long range is valuable for missions in such remote regions as South Asia, where the U.S. can expect to face problems basing aircraft. While the B-2 is more expensive per plane than shorter-range fighter aircraft, it actually provides more firepower per dollar, Vickers says.
ATK Tactical Systems Co., of Rocket Center, W.Va., has successfully completed two static-fire tests of a developmental solid rocket motor for the U.S. Army's Line-of-Sight Antitank (LOSAT) Weapon System, the company announced Sept. 21. The test firings clear the way for qualification tests for the motor last this year, according to the company, a subsidiary of Alliant Techsystems (ATK). The company plans to produce 42 motors for missile flight qualification tests in 2002.
In the campaign against terrorism, U.S. air power should be limited to strategic missions against specific terrorist targets and not used in prolonged campaigns to coerce countries into handing over suspected terrorists, according to a defense scholar at the Brookings Institution. Speaking at a Sept. 21 forum at Brookings, senior fellow Michael O'Hanlon said air operations against countries suspected of harboring terrorists, including Afghanistan, are not likely to be successful.
GOV. RIDGE'S TASK: A restructuring of the relationship between the FAA and NORAD is just one of the many jobs facing Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge in his role as head of the new Office of Homeland Security. Ridge, named to the post Thursday by President Bush in the wake of the airborne terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, will be in charge of the vital task of making sure that the two agencies work more closely together to tighten control of U.S. airspace. As important as it is, this effort may be in danger just because so many others will be competing for attention.
The Titan Corp. of San Diego announced it will acquire information services company BTG Inc., which a Titan official said will expand Titan's reach into the military and intelligence operations market. The purchase price, which includes Titan's assumption of about $32 million of BTG debt, is $114.9 million in Titan common stock and $27 million in cash.
PARALLELS: The terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are prompting history to repeat itself, says one analyst. "I look at what's going on here as almost a direct parallel" with the beginning of the Reagan presidency, says Paul Nisbet of JSA Research, Providence, R.I.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. announced Sept. 21 it has completed the sale of its Sensor Systems Division to the Hamilton Sundstrand unit of United Technologies Corp. The $20 million sale, announced in August (DAILY, Aug. 6), has received all necessary approvals, and Orbital said the proceeds will be used mostly to improve its balance sheet and reduce overall debt. "With the completion of the Sensor Systems Division sale, Orbital has largely completed its year-long campaign to reduce debt, boost cash and improve the company's balance sheet through the sale of ...
GUARD FUNDS: The National Guard's new role in homeland defense and expanded role in international operations could mean faster modernization of the Air National Guard's F-16s. President Bush recently called to federal active duty up to 50,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists. Some of the Guardsmen called up will likely be used in any air strikes conducted overseas, according to retired Col. William Goss, legislative director for the National Guard Association of the United States.
The White House and Congress, in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, have taken actions intended to better organize government efforts to deal with the terrorist threat to the nation.
The Defense Department should implement a Defense Science Board task force's recent recommendation that DOD pay more attention to fuel efficiency in producing weapons systems, according to a newly approved amendment to the House's fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill. The task force's report concluded that substantial performance gains, including greater range, lighter weight systems and reduced combat vulnerability, could be achieved by placing more emphasis on energy efficiency (DAILY, Aug. 9).
CASE FOR UAVs: The Aug. 27 loss of a U.S. Air Force RQ-1 Predator (DAILY, Aug. 31) is an exemplary case of how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can offer tactical advantages while minimizing political risk, according to Daryl Davidson, executive director of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). "That is an absolute case in point of why to use UAVs in these situations," says Davidson. "How long has [Saddam] Hussein wanted to shoot down an aircraft?
Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) is considering seeking funding in an appropriations bill to speed up the replacement of the U.S. military's aging 707-derivative aircraft, such as KC-135s and AWACS, with new 757s and 767s, an aide told The DAILY Sept. 20.
The upcoming decision on whether to pick Boeing or Lockheed Martin as winner of the Joint Strike Fighter competition probably won't be affected by events of the past week, two observers said yesterday.
USA CONTRACT: The United Space Alliance (USA) will refurbish hydraulic actuators on the space shuttle under a $62 million contract modification announced Sept. 20. The actuators move a shuttle's rudder, speed brake, elevons and main engines during flight. Endeavour will be the first shuttle to have the work done.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. plans to establish a joint venture with Shanghai Little Eagle Science&Technology Co. (SLEC) to produce light civil helicopters for the Chinese market, the company announced Sept. 20. Stratford, Conn.-based Sikorsky signed a memorandum of understanding with SLEC to form Shanghai Sikorsky Helicopter Co., which will develop civil helicopters using technology "to be determined as part of the forthcoming discussions," according to the company.
Another senator has voiced his objections to the proposed acquisition of Newport News Shipbuilding Inc. by General Dynamics Corp. In a Sept. 17 letter to Edward "Pete" Aldridge, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said the proposed General Dynamics-Newport News merger would create an "irreversible monopoly" in both conventional and nuclear shipbuilding.
Warning that the $40 billion defense increase will mostly go towards "rebuilding what has been lost" in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.) called for increasing the defense budget to 4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), along with a massive re-evaluation of entitlement spending.
