A British Royal Air Force test pilot conducted two flights July 19 that brought the Lockheed Martin team closer to completing flight testing of its X-35B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator, the company said July 23.
Goodrich Corp., of Charlotte, N.C., announced a 14 percent increase in per-share income in the second quarter compared to last year, and attributed the growth to its aerospace segment. The company announced July 23 that its second-quarter income was $88.8 million, up 14 percent from the $78.8 million it posted in the same quarter last year. Net income for the current quarter was $83.3 million, up from the $81.7 million the company reported in the second quarter last year.
Shortages of certain engine parts could cause B-2 bombers to begin experiencing groundings less than four years from now, according to the Defense Department's fiscal 2001 annual report on the aircraft. The B-2's analog engine controllers "are becoming obsolete due to vanishing vendor issues," the congressionally mandated report says. "With the current controller failure rates, it is estimated that parts shortages will begin to cause aircraft groundings in June 2005."
Ratings agency Fitch Inc., affirmed its ratings for AAR Corp. of Wood Dale, Ill., on July 23. Fitch analyst assigned a BBB (medium grade) rating to the company's senior credit. The company's ratings outlook remains stable, analysts said. The ratings affirmation was based on recent improvements in the company's financial profile following last year's termination of a support agreement with GE Aircraft Engines for engine parts, as well as the number of contracts awarded to the company by major airlines and OEMs during the past few months.
The Cosmos 1 solar sail, designed to power spacecraft to other planets, plummeted to Earth July 20 after it failed to separate from its booster rocket, according to its founders. Preliminary reports indicate a software glitch - not the rocket itself or its payload - caused the solar sail to crash into the Kamchatka region of Russia.
Congress approved the final version of the $6.5 billion fiscal 2001 supplemental appropriations bill July 20, preparing it for an expected signature by President Bush. The legislation, which contains about $5.5 billion for defense, cleared the Senate by unanimous consent. The House approved the bill by a 375-30 vote.
OPTIMISTIC: Rumsfeld says he remains optimistic about the chances of enacting his missile defense plan, despite criticism from many congressional Democrats. He says his program has "received very good reviews from an exceedingly large number of people who are enthusiastic about the approach. There'll be a lot of debate, a lot of discussion," he says. "How it'll all sort out, I don't know, but I think we'll be successful."
The United States and Japan will team up to build and launch a new observatory to measure X-ray emitting sources. Astro-E2, the new observatory, will replace the original Astro-E satellite that was lost in February 2000 due to a first-stage rocket malfunction during launch. The Japanese government recently approved the Astro-E2 mission and invited NASA to participate. Launch of the Astro-E2 is scheduled for February 2005. The instruments on the Astro-E2 include an array of X-ray cameras and telescopes and a high-energy X-ray detector.
STEPHEN CAMBONE, who served as staff director for the Space Commission, received Senate confirmation July 19 to be deputy under secretary of defense for policy. The Senate also confirmed Susan Livingstone as Navy under secretary and Alberto Mora as general counsel of the Navy Department.
National security experts presented starkly different views to the Senate Armed Services Committee about whether the Bush Administration's plans for missile defense will violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and what consequences might result from a violation.
Lockheed Martin Corp. announced July 20 the sale of its IMS Corp. subsidiary to Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. for $825 million cash, part of the company's attempt to reduce debt by selling non-core business units. The transaction, expected to close in the third quarter of 2001, will likely result in a net gain for Lockheed of between $250 million to $300 million, or $.58 to $.70 per diluted share. As of March 31, 2001, Lockheed Martin held $2.4 billion in cash and $9.9 billion of debt. About $2.2 billion of the debt matures in 2002.
SPACE TOURISM: The federal government would offer loan guarantees to the private sector for the development of transportation systems, habitation facilities and other infrastructure required for space tourism, under a bill recently introduced by Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas), a member of the House Science space subcommittee whose district includes NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The bill also would provide tax incentives for buying stock in space tourism corporations and would direct the U.S.
B-1B REPORT: Although the final version of the fiscal 2001 supplemental appropriations bill makes clear that language blocking the Defense Department from retiring 33 of 93 Air Force B-1B Lancers applies to FY '01 but not FY '02, it also says that the provision gives DOD and Congress time to review "the full implications" of the controversial B-1B proposal and to "evaluate all alternatives." As part of the review, DOD is to give Congress a "detailed justification" of the proposal, which calls for using savings from the fleet reduction to modernize the remaining planes.
SPACE CONTROL NOT SIMPLE: The open use of commercial space assets makes space control a difficult problem, according to Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano, head of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC). Securing space control, he says, is simply "making sure we have accessibility to space products, and denying the adversary's use of space products." But this task is made increasingly complicated by the fact that "a lot of the assets out there are commercial assets." With commercial satellite transponders being leased individually, "hypothetically ...
RADAR UPGRADE: The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization plans to upgrade a prototype X-band radar used as part of the July 14 test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense Segment (formerly the National Missile Defense program). The radar did well at its primary job, of tracking and targeting a missile carrying a mock warhead and helping the kill vehicle distinguish between a decoy and a mock warhead, says BMDO spokesman Col. Rick Lehner.
REVIVING ROTORCRAFT: NASA's rotorcraft program would get $15 million and a new lease on life under a fiscal 2002 spending bill recently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The House version of the bill appears to accept the Bush Administration's request, which zeroes out funding for the program (DAILY, April 10), so the issue will have to be worked out in a House-Senate conference committee.
COLORFUL COUNTERMEASURES: Worrying about future countermeasures for missile defense systems is the job of three colorful teams at the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), according to Executive Director Rob Snyder. "We have a Red, White, and Blue team," explains Snyder. "The Red team postulates what the potential countermeasures are, or [what] could be developed.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has extended its tender offer for all outstanding common stock shares of Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), marking the third time the company has extended its offer. The last extension, which began July 5, ended July 19. The latest extension runs to midnight on August 2. Nearly 2.3 million shares of Newport News stock had been tendered to Northrop as of 5 p.m. July 19, including about 742,541 shares with guaranteed delivery notices.
SHUTDOWN: A government shutdown in October is likely, according to Stan Collender, managing director of the federal budget consulting group at Fleishman Hilliard. The shutdown, Collender says, will follow a disagreement between the president and Congress about the upcoming spending bill in light of the shrinking budget surplus. "I can't see where the compromise is going to come, at least right now," Collender says.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), a member of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, plans to try to add money to the fiscal 2002 defense budget for U.S. Navy procurement of the Raytheon T-6A Texas II trainer aircraft, a spokesman told The DAILY July 20.
The Cosmos 1 solar sail project was launched in Russia on July 19 and Russian tracking radar confirmed that all three rocket stages separated, according to the Planetary Society. The Volna booster rocket carrying the test craft on its half-hour sub-orbital flight was launched at about 8:33pm Eastern Daylight Time on July 19 (4:33am on July 20, local Russian time).
Miniature flying saucers could become a common sight on the battlefield of the future, if the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has its way. DARPA's Organic Air Vehicle (OAV) program is aimed at creating relatively small, autonomous drones capable of surveying hostile forces, keeping silent watch over key areas, or relaying communications (DAILY, July 9).
The Ministry of Defence has selected a Canadian company owned by a U.S. defense contractor to supply the British army's Bowman digital secure voice and data system, just one year after reopening the competition. Computing Devices Canada Systems U.K. Ltd. - a subsidiary of General Dynamics' Computing Devices Ottawa - won out over submissions from France's Thales and Ohio-based TRW for the #1.7 billion ($2.4 billion) program.
HURRY UP, THAAD: Although it won't be deployed for several more years, the need for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system exists right now, says Cosumano. "The Missile Defense Act of 1991 said we wanted to have a deployment of THAAD, I think, by 1997. Ladies and gentlemen, we didn't do it, and we will not deploy this system until about the 2006-2007 timeframe on the current schedule.
