Daniel L. Smith has been named vice president with responsibility for the company's Naval and Maritime Systems (NAMS) business unit, based in Portsmouth, R.I. He succeeds Thomas Ligon, who retired after a 33-year career with Raytheon.
GOING ON WITH THE SHIP: CEO John Weston doesn't know how long British Aerospace will stay in the shipbuilding business, but the current business climate will keep them at it for a while longer even though the real money is in sea systems. "The key is to do difficult bits [of integration]," he tells reporters in Washington. "You can do that without a shipyard, but the market is not comfortable with separating those activities. Until then, a shipyard is an asset."
Congressional supporters of the F-22 failed to restore a $1.8 billion funding cut to the program last week, but are gearing up to try again when the full House takes up the fiscal year 2000 defense appropriations bill this week. The House Appropriations Committee, passing its FY 00 defense spending bill Friday, left intact a $1.8 billion cut to the F-22 that the Air Force claims will raise the program cost by $6.5 billion.
Neal J. Keating has been named vice president and general manager of Rockwell Collins Passenger Systems, located in Pomona, Calif. replacing Kenneth J. McNamara who left the company to pursue other interests. Steven J. Piller has been named vice president and general manager of Rockwell Collins Air Transport Systems, replacing Neal J. Keating.
MORE PLEASE: Hughes is glad to have more chances to use Russia's Proton to launch satellites, because it's "an attractive business event for us," a spokesman tells the DAILY, but the satellite-maker sees the White House decision to lift the Russian launch quote (DAILY, July 15) as only a beginning. "The bottom line is we're pleased to see the expansion [of Russian launch quotas], but as a company, we would like to have access to a multiple line of launch vehicles."
Robert K. Henry has been named president of the Government Communications Systems Division. Daniel R. Pearson has been appointed vice president and general manager of its Aerospace Systems Division. He replaces Robert A. Walters who retired after 31 years in the company.
Michael R. Brown has been elected chairman of the board. Harry Halamandaris has been elected executive vice president and chief operating officer. Gerald J. "Jerry" St. Pe has been elected executive vice president of Litton Industries Inc. and chief operating officer of Litton Ship Systems, a newly formed business organization.
FINAL DEPLOYMENT: The U.S. Navy is wrapping up the last scheduled deployment for the Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles. The Navy is downsizing the active unit from six systems to two in order to redirect money to the Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) UAV program.
As NASA celebrates the 30th anniversary of Apollo 11, when humans first walked the moon, a tiny chunk of metal and microchips is preparing to land - crash is the precise term - near the moon's south pole next week in the only new visit of any kind to Earth's satellite currently on the books.
STANDARDS WANTED: Top military leaders are begging for standards to be written covering unmanned aerial vehicle payloads. They want to make the payloads "plug and play" commodities that can be shared among the services. They also believe common sensors will make information exchange easier during joint operations.
Hot-fire tests of the Rocketdyne linear aerospike rocket engine developed for the NASA/Lockheed Martin X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype will include an attempt to run two engines on a single power pack, simulating an emergency engine-out situation that would otherwise spell disaster for the unique vehicle.
DO NOT ENTER: Weston says company executives have done a fantastic job bringing BAe's regional jet business back "on the right side of the [profitability] line" over the past five or six years. The company has brought costs down and tried to stick with cash deals. New products are in the pipeline, but will not be ready for a while. The market is highly competitive, he says, and "if we weren't already in the market, I wouldn't rush to get in."
SAFETY FIRST: Safety and reliability also get new emphasis in the expanded space transportation architecture study, but that doesn't mean they'll get more money. Administrator Goldin tells top agency officials there will be "no increased outside funding" for safety in upcoming budgets. Instead, programs will be canceled and personnel levels cut to beef up safety efforts, including Shuttle upgrades and investments in facilities.
REP. GEORGE E. BROWN JR. (D-Calif.), ranking member of his party on the House Science Committee, died Friday of complications following open heart surgery in May. He was 79. First elected to Congress in 1962, Brown was chairman of the Science Committee in the 102nd and 103rd Congresses. One of the few scientists in Congress, Brown created legislation setting up the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1976 and was a longtime shaper of federal science policy on Capitol Hill.
Russia launched a Progress resupply capsule from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the Mir orbital station Friday, one day after Kazakhstan lifted a launch ban at the sprawling launch facility Russia leases on its territory. Among the two-and-a-half tons of supplies in the robotic capsule was a special analog control device designed to keep Mir stable from the time the current crew abandons the station next month until a final Progress docks with it early next year with fuel for a controlled reentry.
Paul J. Coco has been appointed sector vice president, Aerostructures, replacing Jim C. Hoover, who retired. Frank W. Moore has been appointed corporate director of Executive and Employee Communications.
