The National Defense Political Action Committee has endorsed five more congressional candidates, including Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), an Air Force veteran who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The PAC, which backs candidates who have military experience and are deemed to support a stronger national defense, has now endorsed a total of 24 candidates in the fall elections. It has raised more than $7,000 for those candidates.
A Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA orbited a third-generation Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS III) spacecraft Thursday night, after a week-long delay to check out an electrical problem with a timer on the spacecraft. Launch controllers at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station had to troubleshoot several glitches after the launch window opened at 7:36 p.m. EDT Thursday, including a barge that wandered into the launch danger zone, before getting the mission off the ground at 8:40 p.m. EDT.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Naval Electronics&Surveilliance Systems (NE&SS) and Michelin Aircraft Tire Corp. will work together to deliver tires for U.S. Navy aircraft anywhere in the world within two to four days.
The European Commission has approved creation of Airbus Integrated Company (AIC), which will manage the Airbus aircraft business of EADS and BAE Systems. "The operation raised no concerns with respect to material and immediate vertical effects on the markets for product suppliers to Airbus programs," the Commission said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Northrop Grumman Corp. breezed past analysts' estimates for the third quarter, but its future outlook is furrowing the brows of some Wall Street experts. Todd Ernst, for instance, who covers the company for Prudential Securities Inc., said the fact that Northrop Grumman beat his third quarter estimates by a "wide margin" is "not the main story."
The Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation said the Lockheed Martin F-22 is making progress in meeting its Defense Acquisition Board criteria, but acknowledged there is still a lot to do before the Dec. 31 deadline, including work on the environmental control system. "They have an enormous amount of work to do, and they are right up against the stops as far as the schedule goes," Philip Coyle, director of OT&E, told reporters at a breakfast in Washington yesterday.
Singapore Airlines plans to order six Boeing 747-400 freighters in a $1.3 billion deal that includes spare parts and spare engines, Boeing confirmed yesterday. The airline took options on nine more freighter or passenger 747s. Pratt&Whitney will supply PW4000 engines for the aircraft, deliveries of which will begin in September 2002. Singapore already operates nine 747-400 freighters, and holds existing firm orders for two. It also operates 36 747-400 passenger aircraft, and has four more on firm order from previous announcements.
GKN plc of the U.K. plans to buy Boeing Co.'s St. Louis fabrication operations, establish its U.S.-based administrative offices there, and transfer its non-Boeing manufacturing work to St. Louis, the companies said yesterday. Value of the deal, which should be completed early next year, assuming approval by the companies' boards or directors and regulatory agencies, is $61 million. Revenue to GKN over a five-year period is expected to be $1.8 billion, with about $300 million coming in 2001. The agreement was reached Oct. 18.
Lockheed Martin's X-35A entry in the Joint Strike Fighter competition has completed its low-speed taxi tests at Palmdale, Calif., is preparing for the next phase of taxi tests, and is ramping up for first flight which may come as early as next week. Medium- and high-speed taxi tests may be completed as soon as today, and if so, first flight should follow within about a week, a source familiar with the program told The DAILY.
Louis R. Hughes, 51, who has been president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin since April 27, surprised the industry yesterday by announcing that he will leave the company Oct. 31 for personal reasons. Robert J. Stevens, 49, who has been the chief financial officer, will take his place.
The Czech government is finally close to requesting bids to replace its aging MiG-21 fighters, a program that has waited for years while Prague looked for the money to carry it out. The government said Monday it plans to launch the tender by the end of next month, and expects to buy 24 or 36 multi-role fighters.
Kaman Corp. boosted aerospace profits 5.8% over the prior year for the third quarter of 2000, but aerospace sales slipped more than 12%. Still, President and CEO Paul R. Kuhn said, "This has been a good year for Kaman's Aerospace segment with the company winning important competitions for multi-year aircraft structures and components contracts."
The military won't be able to pay for three new fighter aircraft unless several changes are made, including defense budget increases, acquisition streamlining, base closings and either reduced overseas deployments or increased burden-sharing by U.S. allies, House Armed Services research and development subcommittee Chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said yesterday.
Russian space officials delayed a final decision on the future of the 14-year-old Mir space station yesterday amid strong indications there is no money to keep it in orbit. As the Russian "Collegia" of top space-sector officials convened in Moscow to discuss both Mir and the upcoming launch of the first International Space Station crew, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov - the nation's top space official - said the government will decide Mir's fate before the end of the month.
The first 2 of 22 EH101 Merlin Mk 3 transport helicopters on order for the Royal Air Force, RAF01 and RAF02, have completed the initial stage of Military Aircraft Release (MAR) trials with the Rotary-Wing Test Squadron of the Defense Evaluation&Research Agency (DERA) at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. Preparations are being made for second-stage MAR trials, while deliveries of additional Merlins to the RAF and Royal Navy are continuing from GKN Westland's Yeovil production line.
Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $29.1 contract modification to extend long-lead funding for one Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft in Lot IX through March 2001. The contract was awarded by the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom, AFB, Mass.
Foreign currency translation cut United Technologies Corp.'s third quarter revenue growth and earning by 2% and $0.02 a share, respectively, but the company still boosted revenues 9% over the prior year and its earnings beat Wall Street estimates. "Our results again demonstrate that the diversity of UTC's globally leading businesses and geographic presence can deliver steady performance even in tougher market conditions," said Chairman and CEO George David.
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO has hired Statistical Research Inc. to develop methods for measuring the audience for Sirius' planned digital satellite radio service. Based in Westfield, N.J., Statistical Research has been in business for more than 30 years providing major networks, advertising agencies and advertising agencies with the results of its media research. Sirius plans to begin broadcasting 100 channels of S-band music and news content through a constellation of three geostationary satellites from studios in New York.
SIGNAL TECHNOLOGY CORP.'S Keltec Div. won an initial production contract for APX-111 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) power supplies slated for use on the U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F aircraft. The company estimates the deal, plus follow-on awards, is worth between $3 million and $5 million.
Russian ballistics experts went to work late yesterday calculating the final "phasing angles" of the International Space Station for the arrival of its first full-time crew, and NASA was expecting their calculations to call for a one-day slip in the "Expedition One" launch date.
Despite lighter commercial aircraft deliveries in the third quarter, Boeing turned in healthy sales and earnings growth and predicted even brighter days ahead. The aerospace and defense giant boosted profits 27.7% to $609 million, in spite of a 10.6% dip in revenues. There was a top-line variance of over $1.0 billion between last year's third quarter in the commercial jetliner sector. But Chief Financial Officer Mike Sears said the delivery slowdown didn't catch Boeing by surprise, given its order mix.
SURREY SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY has released photos taken in orbit by its SNAP-1 nanosatellite, which was launched June 28 by a Cosmos rocket flying from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The 6.5-kilogram spacecraft used its "machine vision system" of four single-chip video cameras to image Russia's Nadezhda COSPAS-SARSAT spacecraft and China's Tsinghua-1 microsatellite. The idea behind the engineering experiment, according to Surrey Space Centre, was to demonstrate that nanosatellies can be used by astronauts and ground controllers to examine the outside of space vehicles.
BARUCH BLUMBERG, a 1976 medicine Nobel laureate, will advise NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin as the U.S. space agency organizes its new Office of Biological and Physical Research, and while it seeks an associate administrator to run the new organization. Blumberg, just named a senior advisor to Goldin on top of his position as head of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, and NASA Chief Scientist Kathie L. Olsen will lead the search to fill the associate's slot that Olsen is handling on an acting basis, as well as other posts in the new organization.
European recognition of potential missile threats has spurred two NATO-funded study contracts defining the architecture of a multilateral missile defense system that would likely include the U.S. as a player, according to the Pentagon's top acquisition official.
A Defense Dept. official has directed the Navy to develop a strategy by year's end to improve its ship cruise missiles defenses, according to a memorandum obtained by The DAILY yesterday. The July 31 memo, signed by Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Jacques Gansler, cites a July report by the General Accounting Office that concluded that most Navy surface ships have only limited defenses against cruise missiles (DAILY, July 13). Gansler said the Defense Dept. agrees that the Navy's ship defenses have "deficiencies."
