Comsat Corp. said yesterday it is strategically restructuring elements of all of its business units to lower costs and improve long term competitiveness. The company said it will take a pre-tax charge of $32 million as part of the restructuring. At the same time, Comsat said it anticipates a $5 million decline in operating income in the third quarter due to losses in its entertainment group, lower profit margins in Comsat RSI, higher borrowing costs and increased tax accruals.
House Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.) told President Clinton yesterday that it is "incomprehensible" that the Administration is "simultaneously considering" vetoing the $243 billion fiscal 1996 compromise defense appropriations bill while pursuing a diplomatic solution in Bosnia which has as its centerpiece "a sizable and costly deployment of American forces."
JOHN L. FUGH has been named president of McDonnell Douglas-China, McDonnell Douglas said yesterday. It said Fugh, 61, will be responsible for all aspects of MDC's interests in the People's Republic of China, including the marketing and manufacturing operations in China for Douglas Aircraft. Fugh, 61, reports to Bob Hood, president of Douglas Aircraft, and is stationed in Beijing. He comes to MDC from the law firm of McGuire, Woods, Battle and Boothe in Washington.
U.S. Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler electronic combat aircraft are becoming so important that they will likely be declared national assets, but because the Northrop Grumman planes are aging and being heavily used, there will also have to be a study of options to replace them, a top Marine officer said yesterday.
Billy M. Thomas, Lt. Gen., (USA-Ret.), has joined the company as vice president of business development. Prior to joining ITT, Thomas was president of a consulting group.
A decision by House and Senate appropriators to strip an estimated $1 billion out of the National Reconnaissance Office's fiscal 1996 budget will put a pinch on the intelligence community, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said yesterday. "I think it's going to hurt intelligence gathering," Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) told reporters on Capitol Hill. "We're going to have to replace it somehow. It would be like us taking $1 billion out of a submarine account, saying 'Well, you haven't spent it, we're going to take it.'"
A House-Senate conference agreement on the fiscal 1996 defense appropriations bill was filed Monday. Below are the levels at which selected programs were funded by the four congressional panels that oversee the Pentagon's budget, and the results from the conference of the House and Senate appropriations conference. Dollar figures are in millions. The defense authorization conference between the House National Security Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee has not yet been held. Air Force RDT&E Admin.
Walter J. Bank has been appointed to vice president of business development. William C. Reuter, Jr. was appointed to vice president and division manager of the Flight Test and Weapons Division.
Richard F. Smith was promoted to vice president, government affairs and a corporate officer of Textron Inc. Prior to joining Textron, Smith was a colonel in the United States Army and directed the Army's legislative liaison office in Washington, D.C. John F. Zugschwert has been promoted to vice president, government marketing, and corporate officer of Textron Inc.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S SANDERS unit has received $2.3 million as the first increment of the $97.6 million EMD phase for the U.S. Army's Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures (ATIRCM) Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) program, DOD said yesterday. The only other competitor was Northrop Grumman, which was eliminated from the competition by the Army earlier this year (DAILY, Aug. 22, p. 273). Sanders is teamed with Loral.
Congressional appropriators have increased fiscal year 1996 funding for the Tier II Predator unmanned aerial vehicle in their conference report, but have barred the Defense Dept. from using the funds to look at a marinized version.
CANADAIR CHALLENGER(X) 604 business jet received Canadian Type Approval on Sept. 20, and deliveries will begin next month, Bombardier said. Approval of the U.S. FAA is anticipated in late October. The company said 331 Challenger business jets of all versions have been delivered to date-84 Challenger 600s, 66 Challenger 601-1As, 134 Challenger 601-3As and 47 of the current production version 601-3R. The fleet had logged more than 946,200 hours as of Aug. 31.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CO., Baltimore, was chosen yesterday by the U.S. Army for an effort to demonstrate smaller, more lethal combat vehicles having improved performance and higher survivability. The Pentagon said the company was awarded $16.5 million to carry out research and development for the Target Acquisition Advanced Technology Demonstrator (TAATD), a key component of the Advanced Land Combat (ALC) Advanced Vehicles Technologies (AVT) Top Level Demonstration (TLD).
Boeing Defense&Space Group will lead an industry team to compete for an air traffic control program with a potential value of $1 billion. The company yesterday confirmed an earlier report (DAILY, Sept. 25, page 457) that it will lead four other companies in a competition for the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) program. Under STARS, run by the FAA and the Dept. of Defense, will improve the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) systems at more than 200 sites across the country.
Allen E. Dukes was named vice president-general manager, Information Systems Division. Dukes succeeds R. Phillip Henderson, who is retiring after 22 years of service.
Julian May, president of Tech/Ops Internationsl was chosen by the SAE Aerospce Council as the 1995 recipient of the Franklin W. Kolk Air Transportation Progress Award.
Hugo Fruehauf has been named to head the Defense Systems Group. Previously, Fruehauf has been president of EFRATOM Time and Frequency Products Inc., Ivine, Calif., and EFRATOM Elektronik GmbH, Hofolding (Munich) Germany, wholly owned subsidiaries of Datum, Inc., Anaheim, Calif.
Gary L. Denman, previously, corporate senior vice president for strategic planning, has been promoted to executive vice president and appointed to the newly established position of chief operating officer.
Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Appropriations national security subcommittee, expressed doubt yesterday that a threatened White House veto of the $243 billion fiscal 1996 compromise defense appropriations bill would materialize. A published report quoted a senior White House official as saying that President Clinton would veto the bill because he objected to increasing defense spending while many of his domestic priorities were being cut.
JORDAN is interested in purchasing F-16s, and U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry said the Pentagon would discuss the matter. Perry met Jordan's King Hussein yesterday at the Pentagon. Talks between the two would focus on Jordan's general defense needs and specific weapons systems, like the F-16s, Perry told reporters before the meeting with Hussein.
Larry G. James, previously DSEG controller, has been appointed vice president. Steven D. Roemerman, former manager of interdiction weapons systems, was appointed vice president.
Anthony W. Ruggiero, who most recently served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Reader's Digest Association, Pleasantville, N.Y., has joined the company as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Ruggiero succeeds James A. Riggs, who has retired after 30 years with the company.
NASA managers won't know until the end of the year what jobs are to be cut when Space Shuttle operations are shifted to a single prime contractor, but congressional critics of the space agency's attention to Shuttle safety in the streamlining process plan to hold a hearing on the issue before they adjourn at Thanksgiving.
The House-Senate fiscal 1996 defense appropriations conference report provided $745.6 million for national missile defense-not $670.6 as reported in The DAILY of Sept. 27 (page 473).
