Rockwell Collins has exercised its option to acquire 100% ownership of Flight Dynamics in a transaction expected to occur by the end of the quarter, Rockwell reported Tuesday. Based in Portland, Ore., Flight Dynamics is a leader in advanced approach guidance systems. The company was formed as a joint venture of Rockwell Collins and Kaiser Aerospace Electronics Corp.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. continued to ride the booming business jet market last year, posting records for sales, earnings and new orders in 1998, the company reported Tuesday. "Gulfstream delivered another year of record performance in 1998, as demand for both the GIV and GV aircraft remained strong, and increased productivity enabled us once again to grow earnings faster than revenues," Theodore Forstmann, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
ORBCOMM has signed a service license agreement with Transexpo Corp. of Kiev to provide "little LEO" alphanumeric messaging and data communications services in Ukraine. Under the deal, Transexpo will take delivery of an Orbcomm gateway Earth station and gateway control center to support a launch of commercial service in the second half of this year.
EDO Corp., New York, will evaluate strategic alternatives for its Barnes business unit, including its possible sale, EDO reported Monday. Barnes develops and makes electro-optic earth and sun sensors for the satellite market.
GKN plc completed a cash tender offer for all outstanding stock of The Interlake Corp. and accepted shares representing about 87% of Interlake's total amount outstanding after conversion of preferred stock, GKN reported last Thursday.
LOCKHEED MARTIN's U-2S/ER-2 high-altitude aircraft will receive this year's Collier Trophy as the top aeronautical achievement in the U.S. last year, the National Aeronautic Association said yesterday. The U-2S, flown by Air Force Air Combat Command on military missions, and the ER-2, flown by NASA for civilian research, are twice as heavy as the original, classified U-2 and can carry four times the payload. NAA will present the trophy at the Robert J. Collier Presentation Banquet, scheduled April 28 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel, Arlington, Va.
Launch of the U.S. Air Force's ARGOS spacecraft aboard a Delta rocket is scheduled for 2:19 a.m. tomorrow from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The mission was first attempted January 15, but poor weather and a malfunction of one of the vernier engines on the Delta booster caused repeated delays. The launch was scrubbed most recently on Feb. 7 because upper level winds caused a safety hazard (DAILY, Feb. 9). The rocket is scheduled to place three satellites into orbit, including the ARGOS research sate, South Africa's SUNSAT and Denmark's Orsted.
The Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) sector is booming as at least seven U.S. companies struggle to develop commercial systems, and investors - especially those in the public equity and debt markets - are searching for the right opportunity to invest, according to an industry analyst.
North Korea remains the country most likely to involve the U.S. in a large-scale regional war over the next five years, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Patrick M. Hughes has told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Hughes was slated to brief House lawmakers on this and other global threat matters this week in closed session.
LITHIUM TECHNOLOGY CORP. has received a purchase order from NASA's Lewis Research Center for 20 prototype lithium-ion polymer cells the NASA center can use in testing against its aerospace requirements. The large (4"-by-8"-by1/4") high capacity/high energy density cells were originally developed for notebook computers and portable medical equipment. The Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based company uses high performance fibers in composite battery structures and continuous flow manufacturing in its proprietary battery technology.
LOCKHEED MARTIN COMMERCIAL SPACE SYSTEMS will build four A2100 satellites for GE American Communications (GE Americom) for telecommunications services to the U.S. market. Designated GE-6, GE-7, GE-8 and GE-9, the satellites will begin launching in the fall of 2000. That satellite, GE-6, will by a C/Ku-band hybrid on a very large A2100 bus to supplement coverage by three orbiting GE Americom satellites and a fourth scheduled for launch late this year.
Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin and TRW - doing business as Team SBL IFX Joint Venture in Canoga Park, Calif. - won a $125 million contract for the Space Based Laser integrated flight experiment. The initial project, funded jointly by the AF and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, will verify technologies for use in the flight vehicle design.
PanAmSat launched its new demand assigned multiple access (DAMA) platform, expanding its Bandwidth on Demand telephony service for relaying telephone calls and data communications throughout the Americas and Europe, the company reported Tuesday. The new platform allows voice and data to be routed directly over the PAS-5 satellite to Latin America and Europe, eliminating the need to transmit to the U.S. first for switching. Hughes Global Services Inc., will be the first customer.
Language in one of the Clinton Administration's budget documents leaves the impression that $63 billion of the Administration's proposed $112 billion six-year defense initiative would be held hostage to congressional enactment of Social Security reform, but most congressional sources queried dismissed the Administration language as a ploy to back up President Clinton's oft-repeated promise to "save Social Security first."
HONEYWELL SPACE SYSTEMS and Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector have entered a joint licensing agreement to use Motorola's PowerPC technology in Honeywell space processors. Honeywell plans a next-generation "Space Processor Chip" (SpacePC) that adds its Silicon On Insulator technology for performance and radiation hardening to Motorola's PowerPC 603e microprocessor.
Defense Dept. test and evaluation (T&E) infrastructure is deteriorating and causing delays in major programs as a result, according to Phillip E. Coyle, the department's director of operational T&E. In his annual report to Congress Coyle predicted that the problem would grow unless investment and construction money is increased to equal the workload. He blamed the problem on a shrinking workforce, aging facilities, base closures and consolidations.
The Air Force has canceled two missile defense demonstration contracts worth about $830 million to Boeing Co. and TRW Inc. for work on part of the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) program. The companies were to demonstrate flight and low altitude components of the SBIRS-Low element, which along with SBIRS-High component would provide early warning of ballistic missile launches against the U.S.
INTEGRAL SYSTEMS has won a contract from Loral Skynet to provide the ground system that will control the three Orion satellites. Integral will use the same EPOCH 2000 product line it already uses to control Loral Skynet's fleet of Lockheed Martin and Loral satellites. Orion 1 is a Matra Eurostar 2000 satellite already providing trans-Atlantic and European service. Orion 2, which will be launched later this year, is a Loral FS 1300 spacecraft, while Orion 3 is a Hughes 601HP also scheduled for launch this year.
Cordant Technologies posted a profit of $142 million on sales of $2.43 billion in 1998, aided by increases in operating earnings in its business segments, the company reported yesterday. In 1997, the company earned $89.5 million on sales of $1.07 billion.
The Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday passed a bill mandating deployment of a U.S. national missile defense (NMD) system as soon as technologically possible. The action came during a closed mark up on a 12-7 vote. SASC members rejected, also on a 12-7 vote, a substitute bill offered by committee ranking Democrat Carl Levin (Mich.) that would make it U.S. policy to deploy only after assessment of several factors, including the effect of NMD on arms control agreements like the ABM Treaty.
Cordant Technologies Inc., Salt Lake City, acquired the 22.7 million shares of Howmet International Inc. owned by the Carlyle Group for $17 per share or $385 million, Cordant reported Monday. The acquisition increases Cordant's ownership in Howmet to 84.7% of outstanding common stock. The buy was financed with borrowings under bank lines of credit. Howmet's remaining stock is publicly owned, and Cordant said it has no present plans to acquire the additional Howmet shares.
Top 100 U.S. defense contractors for fiscal year 1998 The Defense Dept.'s top 100 contractors for fiscal year 1998 are listed in the following table, released by the Pentagon (DAILY, Feb. 8). Net value of prime contract awards to each contractor and the value of awards to their subsidiaries are given. Additional information is available at http://web1.whs.osd.mil/diorhome.htm. Total of all contract awards $118,138,926 Total of 100 companies/subsidiaries $70,996,368
A major trade clash loomed today with the expected approval by the European Parliament of an April ban on hushkitted transport jets, which U.S. officials said yesterday could cause cancellation of $1 billion in U.S. exports. The U.S. secretaries of Commerce and Transportation and the U.S. Trade Representative yesterday warned the European Union's administrative body, the European Commission, of the "profound impact that implementation of the regulation would have on U.S.-EU relations."
