Concern is growing among British companies that London will not support military space research for at least the coming financial year, a move apparently at odds with the Defense Ministry’s just-released Defense Technology Plan.
Defense ministers from the four Eurofighter partner nations met in Germany Mar. 12 to try to agree on the framework for a deal on the Tranche 3 production run of the aircraft. One option under consideration, according to defense industry executives, is to split the Tranche 3 production run into two batches to ease funding pressures. A decision on whether to proceed with the second element of Tranche 3 could come later. Any deal would then be subject to the national approvals process of the four partners: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Since acquiring Gulfstream Aerospace in 1999, General Dynamics has grown its aerospace segment to more than $5 billion in annual revenues via its expanding range of business aviation products and services.
The European Commission has approved the proposed purchase of a 26.56% share in Thales by Dassault Aviation. The EC inquiry focused on space, civil/military aviation and military flight simulators, where the two companies cooperate or have client-supplier relationships. The French government owns 38% of the voting rights in Thales and it jointly controls Dassault Aviation with the Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault through TSA, a state holding company. The Dassault bid is awaiting approval by authorities in key nations in which Thales operates, including the U.K.
Michael Bruno (Washington), John M. Doyle (Washington), Bettina H. Chavanne (Washington), Amy Butler (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.)
The U.S. defense acquisition system is broken, and the time may have finally come to fix it. Those sentiments are consuming Washington now as the aerospace and defense landscape reacts to—and tries to influence the outcome of—a virtual earthquake triggered by the global economic recession and the rise of the Obama administration.
Ball Aerospace is preparing the Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite for launch Apr. 30 on a Minotaur IV from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The satellite, built by Boeing and integrated by Ball, includes a Ball-designed gimbaled telescope and sensor package that will provide rapid looks at other satellites in space. The spacecraft is expected to survey the highly populated geostationary belt, and to provide added space surveillance to the ground-based systems managed by Air Force Space Command.
LOT Polish Airlines is appointing new executives to its supervisory and management boards to cope with large losses. The group has named Sebastian Mikosz, formerly a director at global consultancy Deloitte, to preside over the management board, replacing CEO Dariusz Nowak, who stepped down to avoid dismissal, it is widely believed. The supervisory board is now headed by Jacek Krawczyk, replacing Jacek Ksen, whom the board ousted.
The costly two-year launch delay for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will offer a few fringe benefits for the mission’s science objectives. All of the MSL instruments are due to arrive at JPL by year-end, says Joy Crisp of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Hardware readiness reviews have been held for six of the rover’s 10 instruments, and “we have plenty of schedule for this now,” she says. The extra time also will allow the team to ensure that the actuators on the mission’s rover, which is the size of a small car, will be able to function properly in the deep cold of Mars.
Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan (GTF) is in development at a time of spiraling costs, uncertain oil prices and growing environmental pressures for airlines. Although studied by Pratt for more than 20 years, the GTF concept came to the fore three years ago when the project was launched to spearhead the revitalization of the company’s commercial engines business. Renamed the PW1000G in mid-2008, the engine is in firm design for initial application on Mitsubishi’s MRJ and Bombardier’s CSeries small-airliner projects.
Beyond the short-term certainty of a grim first quarter, big questions loom for U.S. airlines: When will demand bottom out? Has the industry hit the trough of this down cycle, or is the slide only starting? The answers will determine whether predictions of a profitable 2009 are realistic or merely wishful thinking.
The U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) is testing Stage III rocket motors used in the Minuteman ICBM series. The latest , conducted at the center’s J-6 Large Rocket Motor Test Facility, was the 100th since the complex was completed early in the 1990s. The test is aimed at discovering age-related problems with this series of motors. The latest engine tested was built in 2000. AEDC and Northrop Grumman engineers are looking for degradation in ballistic performance and any structural problems.
Strikes and delays on Boeing’s 787 program were major contributors to Vought Aircraft finishing the fourth quarter 2008 with a $29.9-million loss in net income, although it finished the year with a $93.7-million gain on revenues of $1.8 billion. “Our 2008 results were tempered by several factors: the 787 program delay, the Boeing [International Assn. of Machinists] strike, the IAM strike at our Nashville facility and ongoing pension funding requirements, said President and CEO Elmer Doty.
U.S. Special Operations Command is likely to propose starting work on a new fixed-wing gunship in the Fiscal 2010 budget, but Pentagon approval is not assured.
Aerospace and defense acquisition activity declined 57% in 2008 to $14.3 billion, virtually drying up in the fourth quarter as the global economic crisis intensified and companies moved to conserve cash, PricewaterhouseCoopers reports. Private equity deals sank to 17% of the total, down from 49% in 2007, but European companies’ purchases of North American properties hit a record high as they moved to take advantage of a weak U.S. dollar. The year’s biggest deal was Finmeccanica’s $5.6-billion purchase of DRS Technologies.
When the wayward, classified USA-193 intelligence satellite was reentering Earth’s atmosphere last year, the Operation Burnt Frost team tackled the challenge of downing it with a ship-launched interceptor. For this unprecedented feat, they have won the 2009 Operations Laureate.
NASA’s Kepler mission to find planets outside our Solar System is well into its 60-day checkout period following a trouble-free countdown and nominal launch into clear skies Mar. 6. A United Launch Alliance Delta II lifted the 2,320-lb. spacecraft, built by Ball Aerospace, into an Earth-trailing orbit from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. “With the successful launch, we are now positioned to turn on the photometer and start collecting calibration data from our 95-megapixel camera,” says John Troeltzsch, Ball Aerospace program manager.
Rolls-Royce Turbomeca and Australian Aerospace have won a contract to provide through-life support for MRTM322-01/9 turboshaft engines that equip Australia’s 46 new MRH90 helicopters. The five-year contract carries a further five-year option.
“The days of giving defense contractors a blank check are over.” That recent pronouncement from President Barack Obama and other signals that domestic issues—such as jobs, energy and transportation—are higher on his agenda is certainly worrying investors. Since the start of the year, General Dynamics Corp. shares have fallen 37%, Raytheon Co. 35%, Lockheed Martin Corp. 31% and Northrop Grumman Corp. 23%, outpacing a 20% decline in the S&P 500 index. The question is whether investors should look at those declines as buying opportunities—or keep running for cover.
The European Defense Agency will set up a procurement unit to coordinate purchase of commercial satellite communications services by European Union members for the EU’s growing crisis management operations. The three-year pilot project—with an anticipated business volume of €30 million ($37.5 million)—is intended to lead to a permanent unit. The move follows the recent decision to make Europe’s new Multinational Space-based Imaging System (Musis) an EDA project (AW&ST Mar. 9, p. 19).
Already facing a budget crunch, the European Space Agency’s first rover mission to Mars is now struggling to stay within its specified weight limits, making the downsizing of its science payload seemingly inevitable.
Lockheed Martin software engineer Binh Dang tests the en route automation modernization (ERAM) at the William J. Hughes Technical Center near Atlantic City, N.J. ERAM is considered a crucial upgrade for the U.S. air traffic control network, and a foundation for the NextGen modernization plan (see p. 44). The system is being installed at all 20 of FAA’s en route centers, and its operational debut is scheduled for late March or early April at the Salt Lake City and Seattle centers. Lockheed Martin photo.
In another significant aircraft bird strike, an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Electra was hit while climbing out from Boston for Philadelphia in 1960. The plane crashed into Boston Harbor, killing a number of people. Afterward, I remember a picture of two men with shotguns standing guard to scare off birds when planes were taking off.
Eutelsat has contracted with Thales Alenia Space to build W3C, a new spacecraft intended to complement W3A at the 7 deg. E. Long. position, which serves the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and Europe. Eutelsat had planned to use W3B at this spot, but after the failure of W2M in January decided to switch W3B, currently under construction, to the operator’s 16 E. neighborhood. To be launched in the third quarter of 2011, W3C will provide much-needed redundancy at 7 deg. E.
U.S. officials are firing back verbal volleys to Chinese counterparts over an incident in the South China Sea this month after the Pentagon says Chinese ships and possibly aircraft “harassed” an unarmed U.S. surveillance ship. The USNS Impeccable, a Military Sealift Command vessel, was mapping the sea bottom 70 mi. south of Hainan Island on Mar. 8 when the ship was surrounded by five Chinese vessels. U.S. civilian crews used fire hoses to challenge them.
Two years after its purchase by Sikorsky, PZL Mielec has rolled out the first of 200 Black Hawk cabins. The initial cabin, the first produced outside the U.S., will be used by PZL on the S-70i International Black Hawk program, a multi-mission 10-ton-class variant of the H-60 developed with mission-specific requirements for international customers. PZL is to assemble the S-70i using parts and components from a global supply chain. S-70i deliveries are expected in late 2011. However, the second Black Hawk cabin from Mielec will be shipped to the U.S.
