The results of Aviation Week’s 2012 Top-Performing Companies (TPC) study are providing fresh evidence that downturns in U.S. and European defense spending are starting to hit contractors. BAE Systems, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon all saw their TPC scores decline from last year. And the strong gains in operational efficiency made by defense primes during the past decade are showing tentative signs of weakening.
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Christopher Kubasik, Lockheed Martin's incoming CEO, plans to maintain the heading set by his predecessor, Robert Stevens, when he takes the helm of the Pentagon's largest contractor next year in the face of major cuts to the defense budget.
The results of Aviation Week's 2012 Top-Performing Companies (TPC) study are providing fresh evidence that downturns in U.S. and European defense spending are starting to hit contractors (p. 44). BAE Systems, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon all saw their TPC scores decline from last year. And the strong gains in operational efficiency made by defense primes during the past decade are showing tentative signs of weakening.
Jim McNerney smiled broadly as he bounded onto a podium in a historic hangar at Reagan Washington National Airport this month, a gleaming Boeing 787 serving as a dramatic backdrop just beyond the open hangar door. The chairman and CEO of Boeing was accepting the 2011 Robert J. Collier Trophy on behalf of the team that developed the 787, a jet that is finally in service following more than three years of delays.
Here is one simple lesson to be gleaned from Aviation Week's Top-Performing Companies (TPC Study): avoid overconfidence. History shows that a first-place finish is no guarantee of long-term success. Conversely, even consistently strong performers have a bad year every now and then.
The Australian government will buy 10 Alenia Aermacchi/L-3 Communications C-27Js to meet its tactical transport needs. An item in The World (May 14, p. 15) incorrectly identified one of the contractors.
To see more details about the Medal of Honor aviators, plus photographs of them and video footage from the conflicts in which they served, go to AviationWeek.com/medalofhonor or your digital edition of AW&ST on an iPad. By the time Joe Jackson volunteered for duty in Vietnam at the age of 45, he already was a combat veteran. He had flown 107 sorties during the Korean War as a Republic F-84 pilot, and later was chosen to fly Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance missions.
The first Tupolev Tu-214R twinjet reconnaissance aircraft is now in flight trials. This aircraft, made at the Kazan-based KAPO facility, a subsidiary of Russia's United Aircraft Corp. (UAC), is the first of two airplanes ordered by the Russian defense ministry in 2002. Under this contract, both aircraft should have been delivered in 2008, but according to KAPO's annual report for 2011, delivery of the first Tu-214R has been s postponed until 2013. The second Tu-214R is on the final assembly line, with delivery expected in 2014.
As top-tier defense contractors begin to move away from an era of big-ticket weapons procurements, they are scrutinizing their portfolios in an effort to weed out lower-performing businesses. And one problem area keeps coming to the forefront: low-margin government services businesses.
When the U.S. Air Force showed only a tepid interest in unmanned aircraft, a small San Diego company, General Atomics, decided to build them on its own dime. So when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks hit and U.S. forces were suddenly sent to combat guerilla-like forces in the mountains of Afghanistan, the company's Hellfire-equipped Predators were not just a concept—they were in production.
Textron Defense Systems has demonstrated refinements to its BattleHawk squad-level loitering munition with flights of the lethal unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Army's Rapid Equipping Force at Socorro, N.M. BattleHawk is a tube-launched, warhead-equipped small expendable UAV unveiled by Textron last year as the Tactical Remote Aerial Munition, its entry into the emerging loitering-munition market.
Indonesia aims to become a major defense exporter and will increasingly be working to secure partnerships that can assist it in achieving that goal. The government is formulating guidelines for international joint development of defense equipment including military aircraft, the country's deputy defense minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, told Aviation Week at the Defense Services Asia (DSA) exhibition here last month.
Airbus Military and its A400M development program face a mixed situation. After years of schedule struggles, company officials exude confidence that they will hand over the first airlifter earlier than expected despite a new round of engine problems. Late last week, engineers were poised to begin a key test phase that should lead to civil type approval in July, according to program chief Cedric Gautier. The initial military type certification is due in August or September, says Airbus Military head Domingo Urena-Raso.
MOSCOW — The first Tupolev Tu-214R reconnaissance aircraft is now in flight trials. The aircraft has been spotted at the Kazan-based KAPO facility, a subsidiary of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).
BMD SLUMP: The ballistic missile defense market, which earned revenues of $9.45 billion in 2010, is expected to drop over the next few years, reaching $8.44 billion in 2016, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan. The market is expected to recover by 2020, the group says. “Procurement is now focused on improved ‘kill packages,’ radar modifications, and improved missiles,” Frost & Sullivan analyst Wayne Plucker says. “In general, the market is moving closer to a sustainment model, but true sustainment can be achieved only after the next six to seven years.”
U.S. Navy officials say they remain committed to deploying the first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1), the USS Freedom, to Singapore as a warship. But at the same time, service officials and other government supporters of the vessel say it should really be viewed as an R&D prototype shedding light on what design changes will be needed for the rest of the class.
NEW DELHI — India has finally signed a contract to buy a fleet of 75 Swiss Pilatus PC-7 MK II turboprop aircraft to conduct initial training for its air force pilots. The contract, which is worth more than 500 million Swiss francs ($520 million) also includes an integrated, ground-based training system and a comprehensive logistics support package.
