The strategy adopted by some European aerospace defense companies in recent years of buying shares of former state-owned aerospace companies to obtain lucrative defense contracts may not pay off in the long run, according to two industry analysts. Richard Aboulafia, senior aircraft analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va., said the strategy, while "tempting," guarantees little. "It never works out as you planned," Aboulafia said Aug. 13.
NASA'S Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite has given astronomers their best glimpse yet of a cobweb of helium left over from the Big Bang, the space agency reported. The helium is not found in stars or galaxies but is spread through space. NASA's findings are contained in the new issue of the journal Science.
B/E Aerospace Inc., of Wellington, Fla., announced Aug. 13 it will buy aerospace parts distributor M&M Aerospace Hardware, of Miami, for $177 million. B/E Aerospace manufactures cabin interior products for commercial and business jets, and said the purchase of M&M Aerospace Hardware would boost its move into the replacement parts business. M&M is one of the top five distributors of aerospace fasteners worldwide, according to B/E Aerospace.
HEICO Corp. of Miami and Hollywood, Fla., announced it has acquired Inertial Airline Services Inc., of Cleveland, which makes and overhauls the Inertial Navigation Systems used by commercial and military aircraft. HEICO acquired the company for $20 million in cash and $5 million in HEICO Class A common stock from previous owner Flight Options International, Inc. If IAS meets specified earnings targets for two years after the acquisition, HEICO will pay an additional $6 million in cash to Flight Options International.
While U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was in Moscow on Aug. 13 conducting talks on U.S. missile defense plans, Russian Duma member Alexei Arbatov was in Washington criticizing the Bush administration's refusal to work within the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. The main problem in the current Russian-American talks on missile defense is the U.S. refusal to negotiate on the treaty, Arbatov said during a panel discussion sponsored by the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Spare parts shortages for the Navy's EA-6B Prowler and F-14 Tomcat have hurt the Navy's readiness to perform missions, have driven up costs for maintenance activities on the aircraft and have "contributed to problems retaining military personnel," says a new report by the General Accounting Office.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S Joint Air-to-surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) Warhead Team will be honored by the NATO Insensitive Munitions Information Centre (NIMIC) at a symposium in Bordeaux, France, in October, the company announced. The award recognizes JASSM's increased safety and reduced vulnerability in combat and peacetime operations, according to the company - the munition will only detonate to destroy a target.
Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management has opened an office in Moscow and has proposed deploying new technology to provide air traffic control for major segments of Russian airspace that aren't currently controlled by radar, the company announced Aug. 13. "We look forward to establishing technology partnerships with Russia and neighboring countries to improve the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] region's aviation infrastructure," LMATM President Don Antonucci said in a company statement.
August 10, 2001 Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $19,319,295 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for initial spare parts for the Israeli Air Force in support of their F-16 aircraft. At this time $10,208,164 of the funds have been obligated. This work is expected to be complete July 2003. Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (F42620-99-C-0027 PM0061).
Smiths Aerospace will install its Generic Health and Usage Monitoring System (GenHUMS) on United Kingdom Royal Navy Sea King helicopters, the company announced Aug. 13. The GenHUMS system includes an integrated cockpit voice and flight data recorder and a health and usage monitoring system, installed on each aircraft as a "single box" system. It continuously checks the performance of safety-critical components, giving advance warning of potential equipment failures and collecting data for routine maintenance.
The U.S. government has approved the sale of Boeing's Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) to South Korea, the company announced Aug. 13. Boeing produces the missile for the U.S. Navy. SLAM-ER has a range of more than 150 nautical miles and uses the Global Positioning System and an infrared seeker for precise attacks against targets on land or sea. South Korea is also considering buying Boeing's F-15K, an improved version of the F-15E Strike Eagle flown by the U.S. Air Force, as part of its F-X fighter competition.
The defense spending gap between the U.S. and Europe has narrowed since 1985, but the U.S. still spends significantly more on defense than most of its European allies, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office.
UAVs IN SPACE: The time may be ripe to begin developing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology for use in planetary exploration, according to Ryan Shaefer of Adroit Systems, Inc.Schaefer is the co-author of a recent feasibility study examining the possibility of exploring Saturn's moon Titan with UAVs (DAILY, Aug. 7). "Space technology developments have always offered enhancements, in one way or another, to certain types of things that we're trying to do here on Earth, and it should be no different for UAVs," says Schaefer.
WORK IN PROGRESS: The new electronics package for the Minuteman III is so far proving to be less accurate than the system it's designed to replace, according to media reports. Responding to allegations that the new guidance and propulsion system has demonstrated poor accuracy in repeated tests, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley describes the testing as a "work in progress.
GAS GLOW: Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered that the Milky Way's X-ray glow comes from diffuse plasma gas which has temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Celsius. The findings, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, leave a big question unanswered: Why is the gas still there? According to NASA, gas that hot would ordinarily escape the confines of the Milky Way. Ken Ebisawa, leader of the team that reported its findings in Science, suggests the hot plasma may be confined to the Milky Way by magnetic fields.
QF-4 NUMBERS: The U.S. Air Force plans to field a replacement for the QF-4 drone by FY 2010 (DAILY, July 27), but if the effort is delayed, the service has the option of extending its contract with BAE Systems. The company has converted, or is under contract to convert, 153 of 321 old F-4 Phantoms to the unmanned drone configuration, leaving 168 to go. These will take the Air Force through about fiscal year 2007, as far as deliveries are concerned.
BUDDY-BUDDY: In-flight success with fighter-to-fighter refueling marks another milestone toward the introduction of the Eurofighter into the German air force, according to the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company. EADS Military Aircraft performed Eurofighter in-flight refueling trials with the German air force's buddy-buddy pod. The first test with the Manching-based Eurofighter Development Aircraft One and a GAF Tornado serving as a tanker took place Aug. 6. The flight lasted one hour and 40 minutes, according to the company.
OVERREACTION: Congressional restrictions on the export of commercial satellite technology are hurting the U.S. aerospace industry, according to Douglass. Congress' 1999 decision to transfer communications satellites to the munitions list had "negative impacts on U.S. economic and security interests," he says. The decision followed a post-launch investigation in the mid-1990s, during which sensitive rocket technology may have been transferred to China.
NEW CREW: Space Shuttle Discovery's mission to the International Space Station Alpha, which began when the shuttle lifted off at 5:10 p.m. EDT Aug. 10, will include bringing a new station crew and supplies to the station. Astronauts will also conduct spacewalks to install equipment.
MARKET POTENTIAL: The Chinese market may one day provide U.S. manufacturers of commercial aerospace products the second largest source of revenue behind the U.S. market, says John Douglass, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association. Douglass says opening the doors to trade with China would offer an enormous potential market for the U.S. aerospace industry. "Over the next 20 years, our manufacturers forecast that China, including Hong Kong and Macau, will need jetliners worth about $144 billion," Douglass says.
