U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen has given the green light for delivery of a Patriot missile battery to Turkey. The battery, including three launchers, will be located near Incirlik Air Base to protect against possible Iraqi retaliatory strikes in response to last month's Operation Desert Fox. Thirty-eight U.S. aircraft are based at Incirlik, from which they conduct flight operations to enforce the "no-fly" zone over northern Iraq.
Lockheed Martin officials say they are confident the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile will come out on top in its run against the Navy Theater Wide system to become the U.S. Dept. of Defense's premier upper tier TMD system. DOD last week announced its plan to pit the systems against each other, with the most mature moving ahead for a 2007 deployment after an evaluation next year. The decision "makes it all that more important for the THAAD team to remain focused," says Lockheed Martin spokesman Jeff Adams.
National Reconnaissance Office Director Keith Hall says the fiscal year 2000 intelligence budget to be submitted to Congress next month includes funds for an adequate amount of modernization. In the "cat and mouse game" of intelligence, he tells reporters, "you constantly have to be alert to new ways of attacking from an information point of view your opponents efforts at secrecy, and that requires modernization and investment.
Hughes Electronics Corp. reached an agreement to acquire Primestar Inc.'s 2.3 million-subscriber direct broadcast satellite (DBS) medium-power business and related Tempo high-power satellite assets. The two transactions are valued at about $1.82 billion, Hughes reported Friday. Primestar will get about $1.32 billion for the medium-power DBS business - $1.1 billion in cash and 4.9 million shares of General Motors Class H common stock. Hughes also will pay $500 million in cash for the Tempo high-powered satellite assets.
Eurocopter Group reported 10% higher sales of 11.1 billion francs ($2 billion) in 1998, with 56% of sales coming in the commercial markets and 44% in the military market, Eurocopter reported yesterday. The Franco-German venture delivered 216 new helicopters during the year and received orders for 272. The total number of orders, which includes used helicopters, R&D, customer support and miscellaneous activities, is valued at about 11.9 billion francs ($2.1 billion), with 66% coming from commercial orders and 34% from the military.
AlliedSignal earned a record $1.33 billion in 1998, a 14% increase over the previous year, as sales climbed 5% to a record $15.13 billion. In 1997, it earned $1.17 billion on sales of $14.47 billion. "During 1998, AlliedSignal generated sales growth of at least 10% in businesses which account for 70% of the company's total revenue," Lawrence Bossidy, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. Highlights included substantial sales increases in aerospace aftermarket parts and services and aerospace safety systems.
U.S. superiority in information technology, developed in the 1970s to counter the Soviet edge in numbers, led to battlefield dominance in Desert Storm, but that remarkable lead shouldn't foster complacency, according to former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry.
Coltec Industries earned $118 million on sales of $1.5 billion in 1998, up from earnings of $94.9 million on sales of $1.31 billion in 1997. Coltec's aerospace segment reported sales of $724.8 million during 1998, with an operating income of $90.1 million, which included a $25 million non-recurring charge to recognize program costs during the ramp-up of the 777 program and a $2 million expense for training costs and year 2000 compliance for new computer systems. In 1997, it reported sales of $558.3 million and operating income of $87.7 million in 1997.
An automatic device jettisoned the tether experiment on the National Reconnaissance Office's Space Technology Experiment (STEX) this week after only 22 meters had been deployed, terminating the test of tether survivability and active control, according to a mission status report posted by the Naval Research Laboratory.
An article in The DAILY of Jan. 21 (page 97) incorrectly stated in one reference that NASA is considering shifting the delayed Chandra Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) to another Space Shuttle. As stated correctly later in the article, the U.S. space agency may have to shift the next Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission to another Shuttle as a result of the AXAF delay.
Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector said it has completed upgrade kits for all 134 ASR-9 airport surveillance radars owned and operated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Dept. of Defense. Called 9-PAC (Processor Augmentation Card), the kits are designed to enhance the performance and capacity of the radar by using new software and hardware to increase processing power.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works plans to slow work on the X-33 testbed for reusable launch vehicle (RLV) technology to hold down costs as the program schedule slips because of a composite bonding problem on one of the vehicle's lightweight tanks for liquid hydrogen fuel.
The Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), a key element of U.S. air traffic control modernization, has run into so many problems that it is close to collapse, according to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House transportation subcommittee. But the FAA said this wasn't true, and STARS contractor Raytheon said "some really bad information is floating around" about the program.
RAYTHEON said it has signed an award order with the government of Greece for a Patriot missile system. The contract, for four plus two option Patriot batteries, expected later this year, will be worth about $1.1 billion, Raytheon said.
PanAmSat Corp. earned $124.6 million on sales of $767.3 million in 1998, up from earnings of $98 million on sales of $756 million in 1997. The Greenwich, Conn., company said the sales increase was primarily due to an increase in operating lease revenues, which climbed 8% to $736.6 million for 1998. This was primarily due to the start of commercial service on two new satellites, PAS-5 and Galaxy VIII-I. These increases were offset by a decrease in sales and sales-type lease revenue, which fell more than 50% from 1997.
WINDS FORCED another delay in launching the Air Force's ARGOS science satellite and two piggyback payloads yesterday. Range safety officers at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., again were concerned that debris from an explosion of the Boeing Delta II launch vehicle after liftoff could be blown over populated areas by the high-altitude winds (DAILY, Jan. 20, 21). The launch was rescheduled for 5:37 a.m. EST today.
The U.S. Intelligence Community is deficient in its ability to monitor multiple global hot spots in certain parts of the world simultaneously, a problem evidenced last year by India's surprise nuclear weapons tests, National Reconnaissance Office Director Keith Hall said yesterday. "There's a need to beef up the robustness of the collection apparatus to assure it can provide coverage of multiple hot spots in a single region," Hall told reporters at the Pentagon.
The U.S. military service chiefs told the House Armed Services Committee that they would have to sacrifice modernization if the full $12 billion plus-up in Pentagon spending in the fiscal year 2000 budget being asked by President Clinton is not realized. Senior members of HASC noted that the increase is based on $4 billion in new money and $8 billion in assumed savings. They expressed doubt that the full extent of the savings would be realized.
Hexcel Corp. earned $50.4 million on sales of $1.09 billion in 1998, the first time sales of the Stamford, Conn., company passed the $1 billion mark. In 1997, Hexcel had profits of $73.6 million on sales of $936.9 million. The Composite Materials Segment reported sales of $643.4 million during 1998, with $453.3 million coming from commercial aerospace markets, and another $89.6 million from the space and defense market.
Boeing and Rada Electronic Industries Ltd. of Israel agreed to allow a planned Boeing equity investment in Rada to expire but will continue discussions on the possibility of future cooperation, the companies reported. "At this point, both parties agree that a passive equity investment is not the best way to create strategic advantage in the global avionics test equipment market," the companies said. "Accordingly, Boeing and Rada have agreed to allow their current agreement providing for such an equity investment to expire."
Northrop Grumman's Marine Systems business unit, Sunnyvale, Calif., won a $62.8 million contract from the U.S. Navy to upgrade the USS Nevada, the second of four Trident I nuclear submarines to be backfitted with new launch tubes and subsystems to accommodate the larger D-5 Trident II ballistic missiles, the company reported. Northrop Grumman also will begin converting the Navy's strategic weapons facility in Bangor, Wash., to handle the larger launchers.
While Lockheed Martin's strategic plan for future business development clearly involves retaining a significant U.S. defense component, it also expands aggressively into international and commercial markets. "Today we are in the midst of transitioning from a collection of America's premier defense companies to a more diversified globally oriented advanced technology company with a significant U.S. defense portfolio," Robert Trice Jr., vice president of Lockheed Martin business development, told reporters at the company's headquarters in Bethesda, Md.
While the British Aerospace-GEC Marconi deal, announced Tuesday, is a good move for both companies, their next step will be even bigger, industry analysts say. "This is a smart transaction," said Jon Kutler, head of Quarterdeck Investment Partners of Los Angeles. "The British for some time have been far in front of the Germans and French in their willingness to find creative solutions to consolidation. They've clearly stepped up pace."
