Lockheed Martin said two commercial corporations, Honeywell and Cat Logistics, will provide product-support and supply-chain management for its Joint Strike Fighter team. "The efficient and effective management of our supply chain is absolutely critical to the overall success of the JSF," said Frank J. Cappuccio, vice president and program manager of the Lockheed Martin JSF team. "It's no secret that Honeywell and Cat Logistics together offer some of the most advanced supply-chain logistics support in the world."
The U.S. Air Force's fleet of 1,417 F-16s is undergoing a Time Compliance Technical Order (TCTO) to examine the installation of ejection seat initiators, an AF spokesperson said. The check was prompted by mis-installation in a few planes of the devices, which are critical to the proper firing of the seat. So far, checks have found 17 inaccurately installed initiators on 12 jets, according to Bruce Collins, deputy director of public affairs at Hill AFB, Utah. The inspections are 70% complete and are continuing, he said.
After highlighting "rock solid" second quarter numbers that beat Wall Street's estimates, Boeing's Phil Condit yesterday announced increased revenue guidance for fiscal 2000 and 2001 and forecast a stable commercial airliner market.
Iran's successful test of its Shabab-3 medium-range missile on July 15 has sparked concern in the Pentagon that the country will explore further development of Shahab-4 and 5 intercontinental-range missiles, which may one day threaten the U.S., the Defense Dept. spokesman said yesterday.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has reached a no-cash-outlay agreement with lawyers for shareholders who sued the commercial space company last year after its financial restatements caused Orbital's stock to plunge.
ALCATEL SPACE of France signed a contract to build four satellites for U.S.-based GE American Communications Inc. Alcatel, announcing the deal yesterday, didn't disclose the value of the contract. The 4-5 metric ton satellites, to be built in Cannes and Toulouse, will be based on Alcatel's Spacebus platform. They will allow GE Americom to expand its fleet.
AN AWARD to Loral Space and Communications by a Pentagon agency was taken back soon after it was given. The Defense Security Service presented the company with the Outstanding Industrial Security Achievement on Monday, but withdrew it shortly thereafter because Loral is still under a federal grand jury investigation for allegedly violating export control policies when it provided an accident report about a failed rocket launch to China. Pentagon Spokesman Ken Bacon described the event as "unfortunate," but noted that it was quickly corrected.
Teledyne Technologies Inc., Los Angeles, won a $48 million U.S. Army contract to provide Extended Air Defense Simulation (EADSIM) software to the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. EADSIM, Teledyne said, is a war-game simulation product which enables the user to predict outcomes of simulated air, space, missile and ground warfare in theater conflicts. Examples of systems involved, it said, are the Army's Patriot and THAAD (Theater High Altitude Area Defense) missile systems.
As expected, three-year government spending plans, announced on Tuesday by U.K. Chancellor Gordon Brown, include small real-terms increases in defense expenditure for the first time in several years. From the current level of 22,975 million pounds ($34,692 million), annual totals will increase to 23,570 million pounds in 2001-02, 24,198 million pounds in 2002-03, and 24,978 million pounds in 2003-04. These will represent real-terms growth increasing from 0.1% to 0.7% by the end of the period.
Russian ground controllers continued to work toward a July 25 docking of the Zvezda Service Module to the International Space Station, with systems on the long-awaited module performing well as of Monday. But a senior Russian space official warned that the same cash shortage that delayed launch of Zvezda for most of two years is at work on seven of the remaining eight Russian Station modules, with only Russia's docking compartment still moving ahead on something approaching schedule.
Congress should heed lessons from the Iridium bankruptcy and the success of "dot-com" startups in raising capital as it looks for ways to boost the commercial space industry, witnesses told a House Science subcommittee yesterday. Iridium failed in part because it took so long for the low-Earth orbit communications satellite network to develop its technology that terrestrial alternatives were able to eat into its potential market, members of an expert panel told the space and aeronautics subcommittee.
Honeywell posted second quarter results in line with lowered expectations it warned about last month. The company, formed late last year by the merger of AlliedSignal and Honeywell Inc., reported a 14% increase in earnings for the three-month period ended June 30 - to $617 million from the $540 million reported in the same quarter a year ago. Sales grew 6% - to $6.309 billion from $5.96 billion.
A House-Senate conference committee has agreed to cut the Clinton Administration's $857 million request for the Joint Strike Fighter by about $168 million, according to the fiscal 2001 defense appropriations conference report released yesterday.
The National Missile Defense system under consideration by the U.S. wasn't picked because it was the best conceivable technology, John D. Holum, under secretary of state for Arms Control and International Security, said yesterday. The architecture was decided on because it could be fielded sooner rather than later, in time to meet the intelligence community's timeline for North Korea's long-range missile development, he said.
Hughes Electronics Corp., driven by strong growth in satellite services, posted second quarter revenues of $1,837 billion, an increase of 39.6% from $1,316 billion in the second quarter of 1999, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $179.6 million, up 44.5% year-over-year.
Final Analysis picked the General Dynamics/L-3 Communications team to provide the communications payload for its FAISAT global wireless data system, handing over a contract worth over $50 million that includes an equity investment by L-3. "This is an important alliance with General Dynamics and Final Analysis, and an important win for L-3 Communications," said Frank C. Lanza, chairman and CEO of L-3 Communications. "We believe that our investment in Final Analysis is the right choice strategic to L-3's sustained growth."
Aerojet General Corp. and Pratt&Whitney announced their intent to form a new space propulsion company, marking a step in the consolidation of the U.S. propulsion industry. Pratt&Whitney would have the majority interest in the new company, for which a definitive agreement is expected before the end of the year. The company would operate out of P&W facilities in Alabama, California and Florida.
First of 59 WAH-64 versions of Boeing's AH-64D Longbow Apache being license-built by GKN Westland for Britain's Army Air Corps made its initial flight yesterday at the U.K. company's Yeovil facility. Crewed by GKN Westland Project Test Pilot Richard Norton and Boeing Production Test Pilot Walt Jones, the WAH-64 made a 20-minute sortie which included systems and other checks at speeds up to 140 knots. Flight development has been in progress for some time in the U.S. and U.K.
The U.S. and Australia signed an agreement to improve defense ties and bolster their industrial bases. The agreement, similar to one recently signed by the U.S. and the U.K., outlines principles for further mutual cooperation, including harmonization of military requirements and acquisition processes, security of defense articles and services, export procedures, protection of national security and defense technology information, industrial partnerships, research and development, and reciprocal defense trade.
PRC Inc., McLean, Va., a wholly owned subsidiary of Litton Industries, Inc., is being awarded a $23,639,365 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity-type contract with cost-plus-fixed-fee pricing for research and development for command, control, communications and intelligence (C4I) software applications and databases. Specific efforts include engineering products related to C4I software applications and database or database management systems for current and new C4I systems. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif., and is expected to be completed July 2005.
SOCIETE EUROPEENNE DES SATELLITES (SES) has agreed to buy a 50% interest in Nordic Satellite Company (NSAB) while at the same time Swedish Space Corp. increases its ownership in NSAB to 50%. SES will pay a total of 125 million euros for its stake in the Scandinavian satellite operator, which manages three geostationary spacecraft - Sirius W, Sirius 2 and Sirius 3 - that serve the Nordic region. The deal gives SES increased presence in Eastern Europe, as well as in Scandinavia and the Baltic states.
Microsoft has joined Lockheed Martin's team working on the U.S. Navy's new CVN-77 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Microsoft Federal Systems will be in charge of information infrastructure development and help design the ship's information technology architecture based on its Windows 2000 platform. The commercial off-the-shelf software comes with a three-year commitment from Microsoft Consulting Services for technical support during the ship's software design, development and deployment.
Logicon, a Northrop Grumman company, changed the name of its Grumman Systems Support Corp. to Logicon Commercial Information Services (LCIS) in a move to highlight Logicon's presence in the commercial information services market. "This name change reinforces Logicon's attention to the commercial market and strengthens our corporate identity by incorporating Logicon into the business unit name," said Herb Anderson, president and CEO of Logicon.
Space launch providers in the U.S. and Russia launched six satellites in three days on four rockets, including the first commercial use of Russia's Fregat upper stage for the venerable Soyuz launch vehicle.
The current suspension of U.S. Marine Corps AV-8 Harrier flight operations, due to the No. 3 engine bearing assembly in the aircraft's Rolls-Royce F402-RR-408 engine, represents the 28th time the aircraft has been issued a "red stripe" stand-down from Naval Aviation Systems Command since 1991.
