Honeywell, which has faced investor criticism and lawsuits over its poor stock price performance since the merger with AlliedSignal, said it will buy back about four million common shares by the end the third quarter. "We are taking decisive and aggressive action based on the plans we announced in July to improve Honeywell's performance and to increase shareholder value," said Michael Bonsignore, chairman and CEO.
L-3 Communications' Aviation Recorder unit, Sarasota, Fla., won a $2.5 million U.S. Air Force contract to supply Solid State Flight Data Recorders (SSFDRs) for the service's C-130 transport fleet. L-3 Aviation Recorders' FA2100 will replace tape-based FDR units. The USAF plans to retrofit the C-130 fleet over the next two years, with installation slated to begin this month. Followon award opportunities are estimated to be worth an additional $3.5 million for L-3 Aviation Recorders.
HONEYWELL filed a shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission registering $2 billion of debt securities and preferred and common stock.
Contingency plans for cuts of more than $2 billion in Royal Air Force budget allocations, which would result in the loss of at least three combat squadrons, were submitted for consideration by the Air Force Board in early August, according to U.K. press reports on Tuesday. When details of these plans were first appeared in the British press a couple of weeks ago, they were described by junior Defense Minister Lewis Moonie as "speculative" and based on assumptions which were "out of date and no longer relevant."
DRS TECHNOLOGIES INC., Parsippany, N.J., completed the sale of its magnetic tape head businesses in St. Croix Falls, Wis., and Razlog, Bulgaria, to privately-held Michigan Magnetics Inc., Vermontville, Mich. DRS retains its magnetic head unit in San Jose, Calif. There will be no gain or loss from the transaction this year, according to the company. DRS' chairman, president and CEO, Mark S. Newman, said the move was made to refocus resources on core strengths.
Boeing outlined a plan for its St. Louis operation that calls for investment of $250 million in new facilities, including a final assembly site for the Joint Strike Fighter should it win that program, and the sale of about 1.8 million square feet of space on 81 acres of land. The land would be sold to the St. Louis Airport Authority, which operates the adjacent Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
The two presidential hopefuls agree that a strong defense is essential but they press decidedly different buttons when making their cases on what the force structure should look like and where it should be used. Republican teammates George W. Bush and Dick Cheney believe strong leadership, which advances U.S. interests and extends peace, begins with a strong military, Bush advisor Stephen J. Hadley told an audience Monday at the Air Force Association (AFA) national convention in Washington.
U.S. and European defense companies favor different approaches to expanding into each other's market, according to a new report by the General Accounting Office. U.S. companies prefer teams over other kinds of alliances because they allow for the selection of new partners in each European market, and because they can be easily abandoned, the GAO said in "Defense Trade: Contractors Engage in Varied International Alliances" (GAO/NSIAD-00-213). Companies form teams to pursue particular government contracts.
One of the U.S. Air Force's key focus area for the next Quadrennial Defense Review, due 150 days after the new president takes office, is recapitalization of air-breathing and space systems, the service's QDR director said yesterday.
It would be out of character for NATO to make a pre-emptive move to deflect tensions in Montenegro, but the top U.S. Air Force commander for Europe doesn't rule out an intervention with air and ground forces if there is a flareup in the potential Balkan hot spot.
The M.L. Mil Helicopter Plant has rolled out a night-fighting version of the Mi-24 attack helicopter, despite going bankrupt and being placed under external administration four months ago. Designated the Mi-24PN, the new version of the well-known Mi-24 for night-time operations is intended to cover a gap in Russia's battlefield aviation capabilities. But given the large number of helicopter modifications generated by Mil over the years, the most unusual thing about the new Mi-24 variant is the fact that the aircraft was rolled out after Mil went bankrupt.
The FBI has directed its Washington field office to work with the Defense Dept.'s Office of Inspector General to review allegations of "fraud and a cover-up" in the National Missile Defense program and determine if federal laws were broken, according to a recent letter from the FBI to a member of Congress.
While the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office believes he has intelligence processing concerns under control, exploitation and dissemination remain issues.
Hughes Space and Communications is drawing on the Thuraya geostationary mobile satellite system it is building for the United Arab Emirates in its proposal for the Wideband Gapfiller System it wants to build for the U.S. Defense Dept. The company said yesterday its Gapfiller would also use technology developed for Spaceway, a next-generation broadband turnkey system set for first launch in 2002 that will use on-board digital processing, packing switching and spot beam technology to deliver bandwidth on demand.
China's People's Liberation Army is using space technology in a new "aggressive" program designed to develop exotic high-tech weapons, according to a new report by a Republican congressional aide. The program, called Project 1-26 because it was launched on Jan. 26, involves dual-use space technology, which can be used for both commercial and military purposes, said the report, written by Al Santoli, a national security aide for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). The weapons being developed include miniaturized nanoweapons.
United Technologies Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., is being awarded an $8,763,534 option to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for gas generator design definition in support of the Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) program. This program will develop and validate advanced turbine technologies. Expected contract completion date is Oct. 2, 2004. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33615-97-C-2779-P00008).
Northrop Grumman Corp., El Segundo, Calif., being awarded a $5,192,053 order against a previously awarded basic ordering agreement N00383-00-G-001D for F/A-18C/D Center Barrel Replacement Plus (CBR+) shipsets for the Navy (four shipsets) and the Government of Canada (one partial shipset). This contract combines the purchases of the U.S. NAVY (87%) and the government of Canada (13%) under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif., and is expected to be completed by December 2002.
NASA scientists are giving serious consideration to space elevators, a space transportation concept older than space flight that has been explored by such respected space-travel visionaries as Arthur C. Clarke and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
While George W. Bush has made it "very clear" he wants to be "in the business" of protecting the U.S. from ballistic missile attack at the earliest possible date, Stephen J. Hadley, an advisor to the Republican presidential nominee, said yesterday that Bush may not rush forward with the presently envisioned national missile defense system if there are better options.
Boeing executives said they expect the first flight of their X-32A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) Joint Strike Fighter within five to seven days, with only the high-speed taxi run and air vehicle certification remaining to be completed. The flight, which will take off from Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, Calif., and fly to nearby Edwards AFB, Calif., is expected to last about 45 minutes.
EG&G Technical Services, Las Vegas, Nev., is being awarded a $28,351,237 cost-plus-award-fee, contract to provide for operation and maintenance from January 2001 through September 2004 (phase-in October-December 2000) of the National Radar Cross Section Test Facility at Holloman AFB, NM. There were 16 firms solicited and 4 proposals received. Expected contract completion date is Sept. 30, 2004. Solicitation issue date was April 14, 2000. Negotiation completion date was Aug. 11, 2000.
The Proteus Corp., Albuquerque, N.M., is being awarded a $24,900,000 (not-to-exceed) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide for engineering, test, and quick response acquisition services through Sept. 7, 2005 in support of the Countermeasures Hands-On Program (CHOP). This effort includes acquisition, design, development, fabrication, test, evaluation, demonstration, and reporting for simulation, special project, and independent experiment hardware mission areas.
RAYTHEON SYSTEMS CANADA won a $2 million engineering support contract for the Canadian Automated Traffic System (CAATS) from Nav Canada. Raytheon is on schedule for final delivery of CAATS to Nav Canada later this year. The deal also includes long-term maintenance and support services for CAATS at the Technical Support Center in Ottawa.
Astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis were scheduled to begin transferring some three tons of supplies into the International Space Station today, after a six-hour spacewalk yesterday left Russia's new Zvezda service module hard-wired into the orbiting facility.
