ITT Industries will supply its Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) to modernize the Saudi Arabian National Guard's tactical communications systems under a new $29 million deal. The contract covers the latest export model of the system, known as the Advanced Tactical Communication Systems (ATCS), which features better voice and data networking capabilities and is compatible with previously fielded SINCGARS systems. ATCS is useful for forward-deployed units because of its small size and GPS capability, ITT said.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control - Dallas said it is working under a $2.2 million U.S. Navy contract to demonstrate a solid fuel ramjet missile. The Solid Fuel Ramjet Missile Technology program will demonstrate solid fuel ramjet and low-cost carbon-carbon technologies for hypersonic weapons applications, the company said yesterday. The 18-month program, it said, will develop a ramjet propulsion system using an airbreathing solid fuel combined with carbon-carbon structural components.
CAROLYN GRINER, deputy director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala., since 1994, announced plans to retire at the end of the year. Griner started at Marshall as a co-op student in 1964. Before being named deputy director, her most significant assignments included serving as director of the Marshall Center Mission Operations Laboratory and managing the Marshall Payload Projects Office. She also served as acting director of the Marshall Center for nine months in 1998. No decision has been made on who will replace Griner as deputy director.
Hawker Pacific Aerospace finally turned in third quarter results, after a required independent accounting review was held up last month by a switch to a new accounting firm (DAILY, Nov. 27). The landing gear maintenance company lost $11.1 million, or $1.88 per share - compared to $518,000 or $0.09 a share a year earlier - mostly due to one-time hits.
Missile defense spending needs to be increased by several billion dollars a year to ensure the U.S. can deploy an effective system as soon as possible, the Center for Strategic and International Studies asserts in a one of several "Homeland Defense" reports released yesterday.
Postponements mount for the launch of Arianespace Flight 137, which will carry the Eurasiasat-1 satellite to orbit. The launch service contractor said yesterday that satellite builder Alcatel Space Industries requested payload checks that must be conducted in the S3 preparation building. Arianespace said a new launch date will be set early next week for liftoff with the satellite mounted atop an Ariane 4 rocket from the European spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana. Launch dates of Dec. 8 and Dec. 11 were scrubbed for "verifications."
MOOG INC. of East Aurora, N.Y. won a $7.5 million, long-term contract from U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, Ala., to provide pitch trim acuators for the Army's Black Hawk helicopters.
TRW Inc. announced that David M. Cote, 48, now president and COO, will succeed Joseph T. Gorman, 63, as president and CEO. Cote's appointment becomes effective Feb. 1, 2001. Gorman will remain chairman and a member of the board until July 31, 2001, when he will retire from the company and both positions, TRW said. At that time, Cote will assume the title of chairman and CEO. Gorman, a 32-year veteran of the company, has served as chairman and CEO for the past 12 years.
Material Technologies Inc., a Los Angeles-based specialist in metal fatigue monitoring technologies, said it has won a $2 million U.S. Air Force contract to develop a system for military aircraft turbine engine assessment. The project is part of the AF's nondestructive on-wing capability of evaluating interior parts of engines. The contract is a follow-on to the Phase 4 Development Contract issued in February 1999 to the team of MATECH and the University of Pennsylvania.
China has a host of efforts underway to deny the use of space to potential enemies and exploit space for its military and civilian goals, according to Richard D. Fisher Jr., a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation. China's space-related modernization is part of a strategy to build "asymmetrical" capabilities against the U.S. and force Taiwan to accept unification on Beijing's terms, Fisher wrote in a paper released at the Center for Security Policy's conference on space power Monday.
Mexico needs to buy 360 new commercial airplanes, worth about $18 billion, over the next two decades, according to Boeing, which aims to snag the bulk of that business, maintaining its lead position in Latin American markets. "Latin America, and especially Mexico, is an extremely important region for Boeing," said Daniel da Silva, Boeing VP of sales for Latin America and the Caribbean. "Boeing is responsible for more than 75 percent of all airplane deliveries to Latin America since 1988."
ASTRA 2D, a Boeing 376 HP spacecraft built for Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) of Luxembourg, is slated for launch on Dec. 19, Boeing Satellite Systems Inc. said yesterday. The satellite will be launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center. The 43-minute launch window opens at 9:26 p.m. (4:26 p.m. PST; 12:26 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20, GMT).
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are both exploring a possible dual-role tanker/cargo plane that could replace the U.S. Air Force's aging KC-135 tanker while helping alleviate the service's airlift shortage, representatives of the two companies said Tuesday and Wednesday. Both companies are trying to sell the Air Force on the idea, and a tanker requirement study the Defense Dept. is doing in addition to an airlift study (see related story) could move the issue along, company representatives said at a Defense Week conference on military airlift.
Spending on all defense programs except military personnel will be cut across the board by 0.22% or roughly $500 million as part of a deal negotiated between Congress and the White House on the remaining fiscal 2001 spending bills, sources told The DAILY yesterday. The $287.5 billion fiscal 2001 defense appropriations bill was signed into law earlier this year (DAILY, Aug. 11), but defense and non-defense programs are being cut now to keep a lid on total spending, sources said.
ITT Industries, Defense Ltd. said it has won a contract from the U.K. Ministry of Defense to modernize military air traffic control radar systems. Under the Replacement Precision Approach Radar (RPAR) Program, ITT said it will replace most of the military air traffic control landing systems now in use in Great Britain and at other Royal Air Force sites. The contract could be worth up to $125 million if all options are exercised.
NEC Corporation and Toshiba Corporation are merging their space operations, in a move designed to bolster their competitiveness in international commercial space markets. "The unified business will enjoy increased resources, and offer superior space related systems and cost competitiveness," the two said in a prepared statement.
After delays of more than eight years and around $435 million in wasted R&D, some progress was made late last week with the MOD's Bowman digitized battlefield communications system program. In competition with three other companies, the U.K.'s Marconi Mobile was nominated as preferred supplier for the personal role short-range tactical radio equipment element in this $2.46 billion British army requirement.
Northrop Grumman's revenue growth will outpace that of its major competitors, like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, if management's forecasts are on the ball, according to Prudential Securities defense analyst Todd Ernst. "Assuming that management meets its growth and margin objectives, the outlook is definitely [stronger than we expected]...," Ernst said in a review of Northrop Grumman's annual outlook.
The Pentagon's Mobility Requirement Study will almost certainly show that the Air Force needs more airlift, Air Force Gen. Charles Robertson, commander of the Air Mobility Command, said Tuesday. The report, which was due out over the summer but which has been delayed, will show the airlift requirement of 49.7 million ton miles per day should be raised, Robertson said at a Defense Week conference on military airlift.
Boeing enjoyed a strong year in 2000 and has promising days ahead in expanding its products and market reach, but there's never time to relax, Phil Condit, the company's Chairman and CEO, said yesterday. "2000 has been a very exciting year. 2001, I believe, will be even more exciting," Condit predicted at a news conference in Seattle.
First flight of the fifth "Beluga" freighter was conducted at Toulouse, France, on Dec. 12. The last of the aircraft built by SATIC flew for four hours and five minutes. The crew consisted of Chief Test Pilot Lucien Besnard, Co-Pilot Didier Roncery and Flight Engineer Bruno Bigand. Delivery of the aircraft to Airbus Industrie is slated for later this month, half a year earlier than originally planned. Regular flights are slated to begin early next year.
The U.S. aerospace industry will show modest growth in 2001 and probably 2002 and 2003, the head of the Aerospace Industries Association said yesterday. John W. Douglass, president and CEO of AIA, said that in 2000, orders for U.S. aerospace products increased 21%, signaling growth in the next couple of years. The industry generated $144 billion in sales this year, down $7.4 billion from last year's $151 billion, a record.
The Pentagon will use funding from the Fiscal 2001 National Defense Authorization Act to raise five more teams trained to investigate and assess incidents involving weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The additions will boost the total number of homeland defense units to 32.
Rockwell Collins, the soon-to-be spin-off from Rockwell International, plans more and larger acquisitions next year. "I would like to be in a place to take advantage of acquisitions larger than ones we've made in the last year," Rockwell Collins President and CEO-designate Clay Jones told analysts and investors at a meeting Monday.
Adjusting for inflation, cost estimates for the Pentagon's 70 major programs have grown some $239.5 million between June and September, but only because an increase stemming from hardware enhancements on a single program - the U.S. Army's Joint STARS Common Ground System (CGS) - offset cost declines in other areas.
