The TRW board of directors voted to reject the most recent stock exchange offer proposed by Northrop Grumman Corp. In an April 17 statement, TRW officials called the new offer "financially inadequate" and said the board would recommend that TRW shareholders not tender their shares.
Arianespace successfully launched New Skies Satellites' NSS-7 atop an Ariane 44L April 16, marking the company's fifth launch this year and leaving only five more flights before the Ariane 4 family is phased out. The liftoff from Arianespace's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana also marked the 150th launch for the European launch provider, which has averaged 10 flights a year since 1992. Arianespace's backlog now stands at 36 satellites to be launched, plus nine Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) missions for the International Space Station.
Beginning as early as June of 2003, the Defense Department will boost the signal of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites by 10 decibels, according to John Stenbit, the assistant secretary of defense for command, control and communications. The signal boost, which would be for satellites not yet launched, will help counter attempts to jam the GPS signals, a source of increasing concern for the U.S. military as forces have become more dependent on GPS.
The four-nation Eurofighter program has achieved several major milestones this month, including initial flights of the first instrumented production aircraft (IPAs 1,2 and 3), each of which completed three sorties on their debut outings.
The Boeing Co. posted a $1.25 billion net loss for the first quarter of fiscal year 2002 due to acquisition-related charges and accounting adjustments. In an April 17 conference call with investors and analysts, company officials reported first-quarter revenues of about $13.8 billion, as compared with about $13.3 billion a year ago at this time. Net earnings for the quarter totaled $578 million, as compared with $1.2 billion in the first quarter of FY 01.
The Boeing Co. posted a $1.25 billion net loss for the first quarter of fiscal year 2002 due to acquisition-related charges and accounting adjustments. In an April 17 conference call with investors and analysts, company officials reported first-quarter revenues of about $13.8 billion, as compared with about $13.3 billion a year ago at this time. Net earnings for the quarter totaled $578 million, as compared with $1.2 billion in the first quarter of FY 01.
NEW DELHI - India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program, already six years behind schedule, will be delayed further by complications with the LCA's second technology demonstrator, TD2. A senior defense scientist working on the LCA project told The DAILY that there are problems with the TD2's flight software, which is not complete.
U.S. efforts to enlist the Netherlands in the Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program have been complicated by the collapse of the Dutch government. The Dutch parliament had been expected to vote April 16 to approve a cabinet recommendation to join the program. Before the parliament could act that day, the cabinet resigned over allegations that Dutch peacekeeping troops failed to prevent a 1995 massacre in the Bosnian war.
Despite modest gains from sales of military avionics and communications equipment, avionics maker Rockwell Collins posted a six percent drop in income for the second quarter of fiscal year 2002, company officials said April 16. Second-quarter income for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based company fell from $62 million in the second quarter of last year to $58 million, while overall sales fell from $690 million a year ago to $608 million this quarter.
U.S. efforts to enlist the Netherlands in the Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program have been complicated by the collapse of the Dutch government. The Dutch parliament had been expected to vote April 16 to approve a cabinet recommendation to join the program. Before the parliament could act that day, the cabinet resigned over allegations that Dutch peacekeeping troops failed to prevent a 1995 massacre in the Bosnian war.
With the future of tiltrotor technology likely riding on V-22 Osprey flight tests slated to resume next month, the Vertical Flight Consortium is preparing for possible battles over the technology, both on Capitol Hill and in the arena of public opinion. Grounded since December of 2000, the V-22 is scheduled to begin two more years of flight tests in the second week of May. The consortium originally was founded in the 1980s, when then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney cut production of the V-22 in an effort to kill the program.
With the future of tiltrotor technology likely riding on V-22 Osprey flight tests slated to resume next month, the Vertical Flight Consortium is preparing for possible battles over the technology, both on Capitol Hill and in the arena of public opinion. Grounded since December of 2000, the V-22 is scheduled to begin two more years of flight tests in the second week of May. The consortium originally was founded in the 1980s, when then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney cut production of the V-22 in an effort to kill the program.
While the commercial market for Boeing Co.'s airborne broadband communications system was stalled by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the government market is picking up and the company is putting the system on VIP transport aircraft used by the executive branch, a Boeing executive said. John Stammreich, vice president for homeland security and vice president strategic management for Boeing Space and Communications, said at a conference here last week that one of the lessons of the attacks was that government VIP planes must have such a system.
Despite modest gains from sales of military avionics and communications equipment, avionics maker Rockwell Collins posted a six percent drop in income for the second quarter of fiscal year 2002, company officials said April 16. Second-quarter income for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based company fell from $62 million in the second quarter of last year to $58 million, while overall sales fell from $690 million a year ago to $608 million this quarter.
Three transatlantic defense companies have submitted a white paper to senior NATO officials outlining the basic requirements for a NATO-owned and operated airborne ground surveillance system. Called the Transatlantic Industrial Proposed Solution (TIPS) by its creators - Northrop Grumman ISS International, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and Galileo Avionica - the proposal utilizes a "system-of-systems" approach to coordinate the surveillance assets of NATO members.
NASA's renewed Teacher in Space program will feature "educator mission specialists" to interest students in space and help replenish NASA's workforce, Administrator Sean O'Keefe said April 16 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In his first major public address on the future of the agency April 12, O'Keefe announced that Astronaut Barbara Morgan would fly as the first educator mission specialist on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) sometime after the station's core elements are complete in 2004 (DAILY, April 15).
Three transatlantic defense companies have submitted a white paper to senior NATO officials outlining the basic requirements for a NATO-owned and operated airborne ground surveillance system. Called the Transatlantic Industrial Proposed Solution (TIPS) by its creators - Northrop Grumman ISS International, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and Galileo Avionica - the proposal utilizes a "system-of-systems" approach to coordinate the surveillance assets of NATO members.
Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems Sector is poised for solid growth due to the diversity of its product line and a projected worldwide spending increase on advanced electronic systems, according to analysts. "The group can control its future if it can continue to produce superior products and systems with a focus on providing complete customer support and satisfaction," says a Deutsche Bank Securities report on the sector, written by senior aerospace and defense analyst Christopher Mecray.
INVESTMENT: China plans to invest 3 billion yuan ($361 million) a year over the next five years to further implement the country's high technology plan, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced April 11. China is welcoming foreign scientists, including those from the European Union, to participate in joint research in information technology, biology, the environment and other fields. The plan, called the "863 Program," was initiated in March 1986 to reinforce China's economic and defense competitiveness. It now has been opened to foreign scientists.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) predicted April 16 that Senate Democrats will try to slash the Bush Administration's $7.8 billion fiscal 2003 budget request for missile defense and impose constraints on anti-missile testing. Kyl, a leading congressional advocate of missile defense, said the proposed cuts could total at least $1 billion. He expects the testing limits will be aimed at trying to adhere as much as possible to the missile defense restrictions of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, despite the treaty's demise.
Despite widespread praise for the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), a senior Navy official said laser-guided bombs (LGBs) often have been more useful than JDAMs during Operation Enduring Freedom. JDAMs use the Global Positioning System to guide delivery. Rear Adm. Matthew Moffit, the U.S. Marine Corps' assistant deputy commandant for aviation, said that while JDAMs were very useful, in many cases LGBs were "a lot easier to manipulate and get on target."
Shuttle Atlantis astronauts installed a 14-foot beam and five handrails, to help future spacewalkers move about outside the station, during the last spacewalk of the STS-110 mission on April 16. Astronauts Jerry Ross and Lee Morin also were to install halogen work lights on the Unity module and the U.S. laboratory Destiny. Astronauts earlier had trouble with the station's new Mobile Transporter (MT), which NASA describes as "the first railroad in space." It eventually will help move the station's robotic arm along its new truss.
