Congress and the White House, reaching agreement on the fiscal year 2000 budget package, included a .38% across-the-board cut in all discretionary budget accounts. The Defense Dept. will not be allowed to make its .38% cut in personnel accounts. DOD will be able to select where it wants to cut, as long as no individual account is cut by more than 15%, sources said.
Aerospace companies are among the most technologically innovative organizations in the world, but they must avoid reacting to short-term financial developments and start bringing some longer-term planning into the way they operate, industry executives said here yesterday. Tom Burbage, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems, said at Aviation Week's Aerospace Expo '99 conference that companies need to concentrate on being the best to work for and invest in.
Triumph Group Inc., Wayne, Pa., reported the acquisition of Lee Aerospace Inc. of Wichita, Kan., a maker of unheated windshields, flight deck and cabin windows for general aviation and corporate jets. Lee will become part of Triumph's structural components group, bringing about $8 million in annual revenues.
Hughes Space and Communications is preparing to launch the U.S. Navy's 10th UHF Follow-On (UFO) communications satellite Sunday, and has won contracts both to build an 11th UFO and to study technology for next-generation military communications satellites. Liftoff of the next UFO is scheduled for a two-hour launch window that opens at 11:09 p.m. EST Sunday. A Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA launch vehicle is set to lift the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla.
COL. JOHN PAUL STAPP, once known as "the fastest man on earth" because of his 1954 rocket sled ride of 632 mph, died Nov. 13 at his home in Alamagordo, N.M. He was 89. Stapp's ride, and 28 other similar rides, were intended to evaluate the effects of ejection at supersonic speeds. In the 1954 test, Stapp's sled accelerated from a standstill to its peak speed in five seconds. It was then decelerated to a stop, using scoops digging into a trough of water, in 1.4 seconds. Stapp experienced a force of about 40 g's.
SatCon Technology Corp., Cambridge, Mass., which makes and sells power and energy management products, said it has acquired the power electronics products business unit from Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman receives about 570,000 shares of SatCon common stock and warrants to buy 200,000 more shares in the future.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S Integrated Systems and Aerostructures sector received a $4.4 million order to replace structural assemblies and parts for F/A-18 Hornets. It was the first contract in what is expected to be a long-term program, the company said. The Center Barrel Plus (CBR Plus) program is planned to ensure the structural life of the existing F/A-18 A/B/C/D airframe and provide the basis for potential structural life extension.
LITTON subsidiary TASC Inc. won a contract from the General Services Administration to provide professional engineering services to U.S. government agencies through the Federal Supply Schedule. The contract has a five-year period of performance worth up to $100 million, and also contains a five-year option. "This award will also enable TASC to continue its dramatic growth in the federal information and consulting marketplace," said James Frey, Litton vice president and president of TASC.
Lawmakers worried that the intelligence "take" from the next-generation of U.S. imaging satellites might not match the vast expense of building them have ordered a top-to-bottom review of the National Reconnaissance Office by an independent commission to make sure the spysats are worth the money.
Fields Aircraft Spares Inc., Simi Valley, Calif., and its four subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in California, the company reported yesterday. Fields, which distributes aftermarket replacement parts for commercial aircraft interiors, said it will file a proposed plan of reorganization, "underscoring its goal of completing its reorganization and emerging from Chapter 11 as quickly as possible." Management said the filings will have no significant impact on the operation of Fields, 23% of which is owned by Boeing.
A Raytheon/Thomson-CSF consortium signed a contract worth 152 million Swiss francs ($101 million) with the Swiss Defense Procurement Agency (DPA) to continue work on the FLORAKO air defense system, Raytheon reported yesterday. The Phase IV/V contract includes new multifunction military radars, new monopulse secondary surveillance radars to be delivered by Thomson-CSF, modifications to military radar sites and integration of the new radars into the FLORAKO system. The system is being implemented and funded incrementally.
Boeing yesterday disclosed another production glitch, saying that it is removing, repairing and reinstalling the fuel tank access doors on nearly all its aircraft. It didn't expect aircraft delivery schedules to be affected.
Computer Sciences Corp. and Nichols Research Corp. completed their merger, the companies reported. The company will be known as CSC. The transaction, which will be accounted for as a pooling of interests, was completed after Nichols shareholders approved the deal. Nichols shareholders received 0.423 shares of CSC common stock for each share of Nichols.
GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL has asked the U.S. Dept. of Defense for a possible $45 million sale of 700 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tail kits, Mk. 84 inert bombs, testing and related items, the Pentagon said yesterday. It said the proposed deal "will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States" and "contribute significantly to U.S. strategic and tactical objectives." It said, "Israel will have no difficulty absorbing these JDAMs into its armed forces."
The Pentagon's final decision on whether a Navy or Army system will proceed as the premier upper tier theater missile defense system is at least a month and a half away, a senior Navy official said yesterday. "I don't think the upper tier strategy will be made until the end of December, the beginning of January," Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., deputy chief of naval operations for resources, warfare, requirements and assessments, told defense reporters at a breakfast in Washington. He wouldn't say how discussions are going.
France's Ministry of Defense ordered an undisclosed number of Paveway II and Paveway III kits along with test equipment, spares and training support totaling about $100 million, Raytheon Co. reported yesterday. The Paveway II kits will be used to adapt Mk. 82 500-pound and Mk. 83 1,000-pound warheads to full-up Paveway II Laser Guided Bombs (LGBs). The Paveway III kits will be used to adapt BLU-109 penetrator warheads, Mk. 82 500-pound and Mk. 84 2,000-pound warheads to Paveway III LGBs.
Hamilton Sundstrand will cut 290 positions by the end of next year, with most of the layoffs in Connecticut and Colorado. The cuts are in addition to the 1,500 cuts announced in September. In a company memo, Hamilton Sundstrand President Ron McKenna wrote that the moves were "in response to a continuing downturn in the market and more analysis related to product cost reduction."
NASA has picked Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colo., and Aerojet General Corp., Azusa, Calif., to conduct formulation-phase studies of an advanced microwave sounder for the next generation of U.S. polar-orbiting weather satellites. Both companies will get $4 million firm fixed-price one-year contracts to work on the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), which will replace the instruments on the Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) and the Earth Observing System-PM spacecraft.
Fokker Aerostructures B.V., a division of the Netherlands' Stork Aerospace, completed the first in a series of demonstration articles for the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Advanced Affordability Initiative (AAI) program - a thermoplastic composite engine access cover, Lockheed Martin reported yesterday.
Raytheon Control-By-Light, Sudbury, Mass., received an order from Continental Express for fiber-optic networked Digital Flight Data Acquisition Units on its 33 ATR-42 and -72 aircraft, Raytheon reported. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. Continental Express will install the systems initially on its ATR-42s. Sensors and interconnect cabling will be provided by Downey Corp., a Supplemental Type Certificate and modification center based in East Middlebury, Vt. Downey will perform the STC work to certify the installation kit.
Saab AB will acquire Celsius AB for about 5 billion krona ($596 million), combining Sweden's two largest defense companies, Saab reported Tuesday. "Combining Saab and Celsius is a strategically appropriate and important first step in light of the international development in the defense industry," Anders Scharp, chairman of Saab, said in a statement. "I see this as a necessary move in order to participate actively in the restructuring process. Furthermore, the transaction creates added value for Saab's shareholders, and creates a stronger Saab."
British Aerospace said it has won a $27.2 million contract for navigation and control system instruments for the U.K. Ministry of Defense's latest buy of Rapier missiles. British Aerospace Systems and Equipment (BASE) will carry out the work in Plymouth, BAe said. Work will begin "almost immediately," and deliveries are slated to start in March 2001, BAe said. The contract runs through August 2006.
Boeing underestimated the difficulties of designing an upgraded Delta III space launch vehicle based on its workhorse Delta II, part of an overall weakness in "design engineering processes" that a panel headed by former U.S. Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall has identified as the root cause of a recent string of Boeing space launch failures.
