While the U.S. Air Force has been given leniency in completing required F-22 exit criteria before a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting is held to decide whether the program is ready to move into low rate initial production, Lockheed Martin has not been able to get any of its three required remaining aircraft off the ground as days tick by.
Precision Castparts Corp. has acquired Drop Dies and Forgings Co. of Cleveland in a $23 million deal that PCC said will boost its position in the growing business of smaller hammer-forged products. Drop Dies and Forgings, which makes products for several industries, including aerospace, estimates sales for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31 at about $28 million.
The Government of Chile plans to buy 10 to 12 new Lockheed Martin Block 50/52 F-16C/D aircraft, while the U.S. Air Force inked a contract to purchase four more Block 50 F-16Cs for $47.5 million. Following a four-year competition between the Boeing F/A-18, Dassault Mirage 2000-5 and the Saab Gripen, Chile chose the F-16 to replace its A-37 Dragonfly, becoming the 21st country to operate the F-16.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been assured by House leaders that she'll be the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for the next two years, Pelosi spokesman Mike Connolly told The DAILY Thursday. "It's a done deal," Connolly said. Pelosi, who has been the committee's No. 2 Democrat, will move up to a position held by Rep. Julian Dixon (Calif.), who died last month. Pelosi's priorities will include addressing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Connolly said.
Saab-BAE Systems, partners in the Gripen fighter project, has proposed that the Swedish Air Force lend 16 Gripen aircraft for four to five years as an interim solution to Poland's financially constrained fighter modernization program. The revised proposal, for 14 single-seat and two twin-seat Gripens, is backed by "a comprehensive offset program" similar to a deal proposed last month to modernize Hungary's air force (DAILY, Dec. 13). The partners have already poured in over $30 million in packages and tenders to Poland over the last five years.
The National Security Agency (NSA) is sharing its secure version of the Linux operating system with the computing community in an effort to beef up computer security. "Open source plays an increasingly important role in federal IT systems," said Jeffrey Hunker, senior director for Critical Infrastructure at the White House's National Security Council.
Spar Aerospace Ltd. plans to repurchase up to 10% of the public float of its stock, which it believes is "undervalued," based on earnings potential. The Toronto-based aviation services company won regulatory approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange to move ahead with the buyback through a normal course issuer bid for up to 752,000 shares of the 7.5 million float. The bid opened yesterday and will end on Jan. 3, 2002, unless terminated earlier by the company. Spar has 14.3 million shares issued and outstanding.
Rep. Bob Stump (R-Ariz.) narrowly beat out Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) yesterday to be chairman of the House Armed Services Committee for the next two years, a Weldon aide told The DAILY. A House steering committee, meeting behind closed doors, recommended Stump over Weldon by a 16-14 vote, and the entire House Republican membership was expected to approve the committee's suggestion yesterday evening. "Curt fought the fight and did all the right things," Weldon's aide said. "We just came up a little bit short."
A prototype of India's single-seat multi-role Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), which was formally rolled out in 1995, finally made its first flight yesterday at the Bangalore factory airfield of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). At the controls for the 20-minute first flight of Technology Demonstrator 1 (TD-1) was IAF Project Test Pilot Wing Cdr. Rajiv Katiyal. The LCA was accompanied by two IAF Dassault Mirage 2000s flying chase, in one of which was India's Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis.
DRS TECHNOLOGIES INC.'s Electronic Systems Group has won new orders totaling $38.5 million from Lockheed Martin to supply commercial-off-the-shelf AN/UYQ-70 workstations for installation on the U.S. Navy's Aegis class surface ships. For the AN/UYQ-70 program, DRS said it is manufacturing a family of display workstations that feature commercial computing technology and systems for combat, command and control, and mission essential applications.
Hamilton Sundstrand executives say their company has gained a new beach head in Europe and broadened its flight control actuation capability by agreeing to buy Claverham Group Ltd., a U.K.-based supplier to the European aerospace industry. The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, is expected to close in mid-January, a Hamilton Sundstrand spokesperson said yesterday.
Lockheed Martin Corp. will outsource "non-core operations" at its Marietta, Ga., plant -- home to the F-22 fighter and the C-130J transport -- to "substantially" cut recurring program costs and boost competitiveness. The company said it will cut up to 675 positions there over the next 18 months.
Members of Congress plan to meet with President-elect George W. Bush in Austin Monday to discuss the "full agenda" of national defense issues, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) told The DAILY Wednesday, the first day of the 107th Congress. Warner said that Bush aide Karl Rove invited him to Austin during a phone call on New Year's Day.
Donald H. Rumsfeld, President-elect George W. Bush's pick for secretary of defense, has resigned his position as chair of the congressionally chartered Space Commission in the wake of his nomination, and as duties of the commission wind down with its recommendations due on Jan. 11.
St. Louis-based Unigraphics will supply CAD/CAM/CAE software to China's Shenyang Liming Aero-Engine Group Corp under a new $1 million deal. Shenyang Liming Aero-engine Group Corp., which falls under the control of the China Aviation Industry Corporation I, supplies parts and components to aircraft engine manufacturers around the world. Meanwhile, Advanced Aerodynamics&Structures Inc. (AASI) of Long Beach, Calif.
Boeing delivered 130 commercial jets in the fourth quarter of 2000, bringing its total for the year to an expected 489 aircraft, the company reported. In 1999, Boeing delivered a record 620 planes, including 165 in the fourth quarter. Last year the company's military and space programs delivered 13 C-17s, five F-15s, 16 F/A-18C/Ds, 26 F/A-18E/Fs, eight AH-64Ds, seven CH-47s, 16 T-45TSs and 10 Delta IIs.
ROLLS-ROYCE won its single largest engine repair agreement from International Aero Engines, a 20-year, 600 million pound deal to maintain V2500s for British Airways A320s.
Exostar, the aerospace mega-online market backed by BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, will use Vastera's TradeSphere to handle regulatory compliance checks on the exchanges within the site. The move is aimed at expanding global online trading opportunities within country-specificregulations.
FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD'S move yesterday to cut the prime interest rate by half a percentage point boosted stocks across the board, including defense issues - somewhat fitting as outgoing Defense Secretary William S. Cohen was in New York to officially close the New York Stock Exchange. Boeing, which lost over $4 a share after being downgraded by a major investment firm on the first day of trading in 2001, closed up more than $0.50 a share. General Electric and Honeywell also rebounded, buoyed by the strong sentiment.
Joint Strike Fighter competitors saw additional milestones in their concept demonstrator aircraft last month at Edwards AFB, Calif. Boeing's X-32A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) plane broke the sound barrier and the controls of Lockheed Martin's X-35C carrier variant (CV) passed from a company test pilot to a U.S. Navy test pilot.
SENATE BANKING CIMMITTEE CHAIRMAN Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) said Tuesday that he plans to introduce a bill early this year to overhaul export controls for goods and technologies that have both military and civilian applications. The Export Administration Act expired in 1994, and previous efforts to reauthorize the law on dual-use items have failed. As an interim measure, President Clinton in November signed a bill that revives the EAA until Aug. 20 (DAILY, Nov. 17).
To defeat integrated enemy air defenses, the U.S. services must adopt a more coordinated approach and need a joint office to direct their efforts, the General Accounting office says in a new report. The 20-page report - "Electronic Warfare: Comprehensive Strategy Needed for Suppressing Enemy Air Defenses" (GAO-01-28) - finds that while the individual services' efforts to beef up capabilities and handle responsibilities are "beneficial," they don't reflect a "comprehensive, cross-service approach."
The U.S. Army handed out a $453 million deal to PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide distance education for about 80,000 soldiers over the next five years. The new education Web portal - Army University Access Online - is slated to go live in mid-January at three Army posts in Georgia, Kentucky and Texas. It includes more than a dozen technology providers and 29 accredited education partners. The cyber-initiative is aimed at creating "Information Age-savvy soldiers" for the high tech warfare of the future, according to Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera.
A new report from Forrester Research, Inc., highlights "unique challenges" to growing Canada's online travel market, including: technology, online infrastructure, online purchasing of travel services and an airline market controlled 80% by one carrier. Still, Forrester estimates the Canadian marketplace will cash in on about C$790 million in Web bookings this year and C$2 billion by 2004. Canadian air travel online bookers are expected to double in the next few years, reaching 1.2 million by 2004, according to the report.
Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon has announced the first in a new series of Defense Policy papers. Its subject, Defense Diplomacy, was established as a formal military mission from the 1998 Strategic Defense Review. Defense Diplomacy was defined as "the provision of forces to meet the varied MOD activities to dispel hostility, build and maintain trust, and assist in the development of democratically armed forces, thereby making a significant contribution to conflict prevention and resolution."
