BOEING AIRLIFT AND TANKER PROGRAMS received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in ceremonies in Washington yesterday. The unit, based in Long Beach, Calif., builds the C-17 Globemaster III for the U.S. Air Force and also is responsible for aerial-tanker aircraft and other Air Force/Navy airlift programs. The unit employs more than 8,000 people in Long Beach and has another 1,000 locations around the U.S.
Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet, briefing the Senate Armed Services Committee this week, said the nuclear and ballistic missile threat to the U.S. and allies from countries like North Korea, Iran and Iraq is here and growing rapidly. "Indeed, we expect the high level of launch activity in 1998 to continue in 1999," Tenet told SASC on Tuesday. Last year's activity included first launches of North Korea's Taepo Dong I, Pakistan's Ghauri and Iran's Shahab-3 missiles, with the latter two based on North Korea's No Dong.
Boeing Co. yesterday said it has refined its Joint Strike Fighter design by adding horizontal tails, modifying the wing's trailing edge, and replacing the forward-jutting chin inlet of the previous design with an aft-swept inlet. Boeing is competing with Lockheed Martin for JSF, which ultimately promises to be a 6,000-aircraft program worth some $300 billion. A winner will be picked in 2001.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. signed a contract with the Turkish government for 50 S-70 Black Hawk helicopters valued at more than $500 million for the Turkish armed forces, the company reported yesterday. The aircraft will be procured through a direct buy from Sikorsky, using a U.S. Export-Import Bank guaranteed loan to Turkey. Deliveries will begin immediately and run through 2001.
Top executives of Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) are in Washington this week looking for a door into the Americas as they continue their push to make Europe's largest direct-to-home satellite services provider a global operator.
Team Cormorant placed orders valued at $2.3 million for Doppler navigation sensors from Canadian Marconi, Cormorant reported yesterday. Canadian Marconi will supply the CMA-2012W sensor on the Cormorant search and rescue helicopter and its sister variant, the Italian Navy maritime patrol helicopter.
Republican lawmakers plan to fight an Administration budget proposal to use $230 million in national missile defense (NMD) dollars to cover the cost of implementing the Wye peace accord. A proposal in the Administration's fiscal year 2000 budget plan calls for use of $230 million from NMD to pay part of Wye. The funding would be restored in FY '01. The $230 million is part of $850 million in the FY '99 supplemental bill available for ballistic missile defense.
U.S. Air Force logisticians are using a new client/server-based system to help develop, maintain and report logistics information used during contingency and wartime deployments.
Lockheed Martin IR Imaging Systems (LMIRIS) delivered the 23rd Infrared Seeker for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile test flights, the company reported yesterday. The seeker is slated to be used in the 11th scheduled test flight of the THAAD missile. Seekers for Flight Test 9, scheduled for March, and 10 already have been delivered, the company said. LMIRIS is under contract to provide 27 seekers for flight tests and for ground and laboratory testing.
House members introduced a bill yesterday mandating deployment of a national missile defense (NMD) system, while senators tried to wrap up work on a similar bill that the Administration threatens to veto. House Armed Services Committee members Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) and John Spratt (D-S.C.) introduced a bill (H. 4) that makes it the official policy of the United States "to deploy a national missile defense."
Honeywell's Space and Aviation Control unit will consolidate its two commercial aviation businesses - Air Transport Systems (ATS) and Business and Commuter Aviation Systems (BCAS) - into a single unit known as Commercial Aviation Systems. ATS develops avionics and aviation services for the airline and air transport markets, and BCAS provides avionics and services to the corporate business jet and regional air carrier markets.
NASA managers have cleared the Chandra Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) for shipment today from the TRW plant in Redondo Beach, Calif., where it was built, to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it will be launched, after finding two more faulty circuit boards inside.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, said it will name its new launch vehicles, based on use of the new Common Core Booster stage, Atlas V. The Atlas V is being developed with a combination of Lockheed Martin and U.S. Air Force funds to support commercial and government launches. Under the Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, Lockheed Martin won contracts in October to complete development of the new family of rockets.
The U.S. satellite industry led the way in shaping the first revolution in communications but may be "a bit over-confident" in its ability to influence the second, which will bring the world even closer together, according to Brian D. Dailey, chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications.
Northrop Grumman profits plummeted 85% in the fourth quarter, leaving the company's 1998 earnings nearly 50% below 1997, the company reported yesterday. The development didn't come as a surprise to analysts, and the company's stock gained $1.31 to finish at $65.56.
In a move expected to save $35 million, Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems (LMTAS) is developing the next major software upgrade for the new Modular Mission Computer (MMC) on F-16s belonging to both the U.S. Air Force and the four European Participating Air Forces (EPAF) - Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway - under the same program.
NASA's next Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), the instrument that maps the growing holes in stratospheric ozone over the earth's poles, needs a new way to orbit because the Russian weather satellite that was scheduled to carry it as a piggyback payload won't be ready in time.
NASA's Galileo Jupiter probe went into an automatic safing mode about four hours after its final close approach to the moon Europa Feb. 1, but controllers believed the data captured on the flyby was stored safely on the spacecraft's on-board tape recorder.
Alliant Techsystems earned $16.4 million on sales of $274.4 million in its third quarter, compared to earnings of $18 million on sales of $269.2 million in the same period a year ago. The company said profits in the most recent quarter were hit by charges of $1.7 million for early pay off of debt. Excluding the charges, earnings were flat compared to a year ago.
Computer Sciences Corp. reported earnings of $87 million in its 1999 third quarter on revenues of $1.93 billion, up from profits of $69.1 million on revenues of $1.66 billion in the 1998 third quarter.
Litton Industries' Guidance&Control Systems (GCS) Division will form a strategic alliance with Fibersense Technology Corp., Canton, Mass., to resolve a Litton fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) patent infringement lawsuit against Fibersense. Under the alliance, Litton said yesterday, the companies plan to team on a program-by-program basis, cooperating in design, development and production, which will allow Fibersense to continue offering FOG products using Litton's patented technology.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is slated today to mark up a bill mandating deployment of a national missile defense (NMD) system, as the Administration makes a last ditch effort to convince lawmakers to draft a more bipartisan bill.
CUBIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS INC., San Diego, was selected as the preferred tenderer for a $65 million air combat training system (ACTS) for the Australian Defense Forces.
Raytheon Co. continued to show strong financial gains from its 1997 acquisition of the defense businesses of Hughes, posting record profits and sales for 1998, excluding special items. Raytheon posted a 34% earnings increase to $1.14 billion, excluding special items. Sales jumped 45% to $19.8 billion. Including non-recurring and special items and restructuring and special charges of $277 million, Raytheon finished with a profit of $864 million. In 1997, the company earned $527 million on sales of $13.7 billion.
