China is looking more serious about replacing its old and decrepit military force, Dale Winner, portfolio manager and analyst with Templeton, tells The Wall Street Transcript. "It looks like they might be negotiating a bit more closely with Russia as they have initiated strategic reviews and joint ventures. China also has a long-term order to buy Sukhoi aircraft from Russia. Although it may not be a direct issue for the U.S., it does definitely raise tensions in the area."
The real problem for the U.S. aerospace and defense industry in 2000 could come from the fall elections, says Pierre Chao, managing director and senior aerospace/defense analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. "... The nightmare scenario in my mind is an all-Democratic government or an all-Republican government," he tells The Wall Street Transcript.
NMF Canada, which builds aircraft wing skins in Mirabel, will invest $5 million to open a facility in Wichita, Kan. Bombardier, its largest customer, has a major facility in Wichita. The new plant will begin operations in April, and the Learjet work now done in Mirabel will be transferred to Wichita.
Members of the Association of European Airlines are studying a European Council resolution to involve Europe in the Galileo satellite navigation system. User requirements and demands, according to the EC, "should be of key importance in deciding on the development of a European satellite navigation system and its characteristics" - a different approach from the already established U.S. Global Positioning System, which foremost is a military system.
A merger offer from Lockheed Martin was approved by nearly three quarters of the Comsat stockholders Friday at the company's annual stockholder's meeting in Bethesda, Md. Approximately 74% of shares were represented with 99% of those voting in favor.
The Discoverer II satellite program will not survive a cut if the House Appropriations Committee's markup of the Dept. of Defense budget stands, according to program officials.
The U.S. Army expects to be named lead agency for National Missile Defense, says Lt. Gen. John Costello, head of the service's Space and Missile Defense Command. The announcement is expected to come from the White House in the next two weeks. The service plans to assign theater and air defense oversight to the Army National Guard. The Army is also staffing its theater and air defense master plan through key contacts in Washington. A space master plan is expected to follow shortly.
A website based in Hong Kong is offering upgrade kits for SA-2 and SA-3 missiles - an example, says Byron Callan, aerospace and defense analyst for Merrill Lynch, of "how rapidly technology proliferates, and how a globalizing economy is far from a benign factor when it comes to defense equipment and the stuff that's just available these days." He tells The Wall Street Transcript that "... The movement of information, of technology, is much different from the situation in the Cold War.
The system that monitors the health of GPS satellites is not yet ready for the Y2K calendar change and won't be compliant until Dec. 1, according to an audit conducted by the Dept. of Defense's Inspector General. The late operational date for the new Integrated Mission Operations Support Center at Schriever AFB, Colo., may cause errors and delays for the worldwide navigation system, said the report, titled "Preparation of the Global Positioning System for Year 2000" (99-229) and released this week.
Three main factors - perceived threat, budget surpluses and the need to replace aging equipment - are driving the uptick in U.S. defense spending, the first in 13 years, according to industry analysts.
AlliedSignal Inc. has been selected by Aeroflot to supply Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems (ACAS II) for the Russian airline's eight Ilyushin Il-76 cargo airplanes. The CAS-67A systems, made by AlliedSignal Aerospace, will bring the aircraft into compliance with new ACAS II mandates in Europe, the company said yesterday in announcing its selection. ACAS gives flight crews a map-like view of surrounding traffic while electronically tracking nearby aircraft.
L-3 Communications signed a contract with Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems to develop and make towed arrays for the U.S. Navy. The contract carries a potential value of $75 million. L-3 said it will serve as a major subcontractor for the OMNIBUS Towed System Program for Submarines and Surface Ships, and will assist in the development and production of the TB-29A towed array system, the primary anti-submarine warfare sensor for the U.S. Navy's submarine force. "For over 20 years, the Ocean Systems division has been a major producer of towed arrays for the U.S.
A Vympel R-77 (AA-12 Adder) medium range air-to-air missile was test fired by a modified MiG-21 of the Indian Air Force on Aug. 5 at the Akhtubinsk test and development center in Kazakhstan. The test was conducted jointly by the Sokol aircraft plant based in Nizhny Novgorod, radar manufacturer Phazotron and missile manufacturer Vympel. "The weapon, an unarmed telemetry round, struck a small target drone in a completely successful launch," said Mikhail Shibaev, Sokol technical director.
CORRECTION: The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization plans to fly a Raytheon-built kinetic kill vehicle against a target representing a ballistic missile this fall. It will be the first intercept test for the National Missile Defense program. A Boeing-built kill vehicle is a "hot back up" that would be used if problems surfaced with the Raytheon vehicle. The DAILY on Aug. 19, reported that both kill vehicles would be tested.
A test of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile system was aborted in the final moments before launch at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., yesterday because of a problem with the missile's Hera target.
The Chinook helicopter fleets of the U.K. Royal Air Force and U.S. Army remain grounded following the Aug. 6 discovery of a cracked transmission gearbox case in one of the RAF helicopters during depot maintenance. The grounding has affected all operational Chinooks, including several assigned to the peacekeeping force in Bosnia, an Army spokesman confirmed. However, the Army and prime contractor Boeing are optimistic that a solution could be in place within a week.
LITTON INDUSTRIES named R. Evans "Evan" Hineman group vice president for intelligence at the Information Systems Group (ISG) and appointed James Frey Litton vice president and president of TASC Inc., succeeding Hineman. Hineman, 65, former vice president of TASC Inc., will provide leadership and oversight to Litton in its business activities with the intelligence community. Hineman, who has served as president of Litton TASC since April 1998, joined the company in 1989 as executive vice president and director of the Systems Div.
Boeing Co. has won a three-year, $20 million U.S. Air Force contract to produce a portable system to assess the low observable characteristics of stealth aircraft in the field. The Common Low Observables Verification System (CLOVerS) will help determine mission readiness or need for repair.
The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile's last two successful intercepts are sufficient to move the program into the next phase of development, the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization said yesterday.
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 dpiX Holding Co. LLC and dpix Inc. - 8/9 -- dpiX Holding LLC is a consortium owned by Planar Systems, Varian Medical Systems, and a joint venture of the U.S. affiliates of Philips Medical
GROUP TECHNOLOGIES CORP., a subsidiary of Sypris Solutions Inc., received a contract from Raytheon Systems Co.'s Command, Control&Communications Segment, Fort Wayne, Ind., to make subassemblies for the Magnastar C-2000 digital telecommunications system for the Dept. of Defense. The contract is valued at $3 million, with options for up to $12 million through 2001. Delivery of the subassemblies will begin in September of this year.
LORAL SPACE&COMMUNICATIONS has leased 27 C-band and 16 Ku-band transponders on the Apstar IIR satellite to serve the Asia/Pacific region. The capacity, which has been leased through the end of the Apstar satellite's expected mission life in about 2012, will replace capability lost when the Orion 3 satellite was left in a useless orbit last May by a malfunctioning Delta II rocket. The insurance payment from the Orion 3 loss will cover most of the transponder lease, Loral said.
