ICO BAILOUT: U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., and courts in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands have approved $150 million in debtor-in-possession financing for ICO Global Communications through an arrangement led by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw. The courts' approvals mark another step in McCaw's proposed $1.2 billion takeover of the troubled medium-Earth orbit communications satellite constellation (DAILY, Aug. 30, Nov. 2, 3). ICO says it will seek final approval from U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Dec.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Norway's Navia Aviation AS, a supplier of instrument landing systems, digital voice switching systems and air traffic control systems, for $35 million in cash. Navia, based in Oslo, reported revenues of about $35 million in 1998 and employs more than 200 people at sites in Oslo, Horten and Remskog.
NOT WORRIED YET: The modernization of China's military "in and of itself" does not concern the U.S. for now, "but we are watching it," says a Pentagon spokesman. China's military is seen as primarily defensive in nature, and "a sovereign state has the right to develop a capability to defend itself." There's no question that China will be an economic and regional power in the future, the spokesman added, and "we want to have a meaningful, productive relationship with China that leads to stability."
MEDIA HYPE: British Aerospace and General Electric Co. stock also benefited from some sloppy reporting last week. A news story originating in London quoted BAe Chief Executive John Weston as saying the U.S. had decreed the New BAe to be "treated as American" in terms of business dealings in the U.S. A BAe spokesman says the quote was accurate, but taken out of context, and that Weston was referring to BAe properties in the U.S. and not the new combined company. "Stories in the U.K.
THE 125-MEMBER COUNCIL of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) voted unanimously Thursday to recommend rejection of Boeing's latest contract offer, SPEEA reported. The 23,000 engineering and technical employees represented by SPEEA will vote on the contract, which the union leadership labeled "insulting and inadequate," over the next two weeks. The union will hold a rally in Seattle today to explain the offer to members.
A criminal trial against SabreTech which begins today in U.S. District Court in Miami is expected to test the difference in standards of the NTSB's procedures for determining probable cause in an accident and criminal law application of proof beyond reasonable doubt standards. The U.S. attorney has charged SabreTech in connection with the fatal May 11, 1996, crash of a ValuJet DC-9, which killed all 110 aboard. One former SabreTech employee and one former contract employee also are charged.
Y2K DEADLINE: NASA Space Shuttle managers are feeling some urgency in getting the Shuttle Discovery underway on its STS-103 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA managers have decided not to have Discovery in orbit over the turn of the year because of concerns that a Year-2000 date-logic problem may lurk in Shuttle-system software. "We're willing to fly through Christmas, but we want to be back on the ground by the 27th or 28th," says an agency spokesperson, noting there us an unofficial deadline of about Dec. 15 for STS-103 to lift off.
The Pentagon's National Missile Defense (NMD) Joint Program Office (JPO) has requested added funding to implement some recommendations contained in the latest Welch panel assessment of the NMD program.
British Aerospace won a subcontract from Spain's Amper Programas to supply 238 ROVIS digital inter-communication systems to the Spanish Armed Forces, BAe reported Thursday. Amper Programas won a contract to supply the communication systems for the Leopard 2 main battle tanks and selected ROVIS to meet part of that requirement. Amper Programas will make the ROVIS systems in Madrid, with the Leopard 2 tanks scheduled for delivery beginning in 2000 and running through 2006.
BUDGET WRAPUP: Congress this week is expected to wrap up budget disputes with the White House and adjourn for the year. The possibility of an across-the-board cut to federal agencies that could take up to 1% of DOD fiscal year 2001 funds is still looming. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) does not want to make that cut, but claims that unless the White House delivers some offset ideas to the Hill quickly he and other appropriators will have no choice.
Unveiling numerous new schedule and technical problems, an independent panel is recommending the Pentagon delay next year's decision on when to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system rather than add more risk to the program. Schedule slips and technical problems with the NMD exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) and other components are adding risk to the program, and a deployment decision should be delayed, according to a new independent panel report sent to Capitol Hill this week.
House members have ordered the U.S. defense and intelligence communities to devote more attention and money to how they use the new generation of spy satellites Boeing is building under the National Reconnaissance Office's Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) program, which one member of the House Intelligence Committee termed "a Ferrari welded to a Ford Falcon."
LABARGE INC., St. Louis, won a $3.9 million contract from United Space Alliance (USA), NASA's prime contractor for Space Shuttle operations, to make cable assemblies for the program, LaBarge reported yesterday. LaBarge's Manufacturing Services Group will make special single-mission cable assemblies for the Space Shuttle's solid rocket boosters at its Joplin, Mo., plant. Delivery is scheduled to begin in January 2000 and run for two years.
Aerospace industry mergers and acquisitions Selected mergers and acquisitions taking place recently in the aerospace industry are listed in the following table, prepared by The DAILY. COMPANIES DATE ANNOUNCED CLOSING DATE BFGoodrich and Boeing 11/3 Completed -- BFGoodrich has leading business positions in advanced aerospace systems,
House members have adopted a measure ordering Intelsat to privatize and allowing U.S. telecommunications service providers "direct access" to the worldwide communications satellite consortium without going through U.S. Intelsat signatory Comsat. By a voice vote late Wednesday the House approved the measure offered by Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Va.), chair of the House Commerce Committee. The bill also clears the way for Lockheed Martin to complete its proposed merger with Comsat.
Precision Castparts Corp. and Wyman-Gordon Co. received acceptance from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for public comment on the Agreement Containing Consent Orders previously agreed to by the FTC staff, the companies reported yesterday.
Taking lessons from Operation Desert Storm, U.S. adversaries could buy enough cruise and ballistic missiles to undertake multiple strikes against aircraft at forward bases for an investment of about $1 billion, according to a new Rand Corp. study.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley (R-Va.) has introduced a counterpart bill to Senate legislation calling for the privatization of Intelsat. A key portion of the Bliley bill is a provision that allows for "direct access," which would permit telecommunications providers to deal directly with Intelsat rather than having to go though the U.S. signatory, Comsat, as a middle step as is the current practice.
NASA and two Honeywell units are demonstrating a Global Positioning System-based navigation system at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport this week that will allow landings on closely spaced parallel runways to continue under instrument conditions, Honeywell reported.
The option of killing the heavyweight Crusader self-propelled howitzer program remains on the table as the Army works with the Office of the Secretary of Defense on its fiscal year 2001-02 budget submission, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki told reporters yesterday.
Ukraine has delivered the first three of 11 Soviet-era strategic bombers to Russia under a barter deal in which the former Soviet republic will use weapons to pay for Russian natural gas. The first shipment of bombers - two supersonic Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjacks and a turboprop Tu-95MS Bear-N - flew to Russia on Friday under a deal signed at Yalta Oct. 6. The 11 planes, plus cruise missiles, ground support equipment and spare parts, will settle some $275 million of Ukraine's $1 billion natural gas bill with Russia.
NASA and the FAA have signed a formal memorandum of understanding outlining avenues of cooperation as the two agencies respectively develop RLVs and figure out how to integrate them into the air traffic control system. The MOU, announced Tuesday, "is to promote collaborative use by the FAA and NASA of technical information, research results and potentially funded activities which will assist each agency in fulfilling its respective roles and responsibilities," FAA stated.
Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre's remarks last week about the stock market's recent handling of defense companies reflected his frustration with Wall Street and its demands for high returns, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
