Lockheed Martin Ramping Up For JSF Production Illustrates Industrial Base Concerns

December 7, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: BNET

Because of the decision to accelerate the JSF production Alcoa Aluminum will have to invest over a hundred million dollars in refurbishing a...

Tags: alcoa, alcoa aluminum, BNET Government Industry, hundred million, million dollars

U.S. Department of Defense Invests In Prostrate Cancer Treatment

October 14, 2009 by Matthew Potter · 1 Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Congress, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, Events, Federal Budget Process, S&T, SRI International, Services, development program

The U.S. Department of Defense/Prostrate Cancer Research Program (DoD/PCRP) gave a grant of just over $1.5 million dollars to SRI International to support pre-clinical studies of the non-profit organization’s agents that might be able to develop into drugs to treat prostate cancer. This grant follows an earlier one that had led to some positive results utilizing plant products.

The U.S. defense budget contains a great deal of novel R&D efforts and a lot of funding. Congress has used it to fund breast and other cancer and disease prevention and treatment research. Obviously the military has a great deal invested in their human capital and medical treatment and this funding helps in those areas. SRI International is a spin-off of Stanford University specializing in sponsored research for government, businesses and foundations.

Tags: 5 million, cancer research program, defense budget, Department of Defense, disease prevention and treatment, drugs, government businesses, million dollars, non profit organization, prostate cancer, prostrate cancer, sponsored research, sri international, stanford university, u s department

Recent Raytheon Acquistion BBN Awarded Army Contract

September 9, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: BBN Technologies, Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Events, IT, Massachusetts, Raytheon, Services, States, U.S. Army, development program, logistics, production program

In a continuing program to improve the defenses of vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan the U.S. Army awarded BBN Technologies a contract for another thousand Boomerang Shooter Detection Systems. The contract for these systems and their mounting kits is worth about twenty-two million dollars. The system has already been installed on vehicles and detects incoming fire and tries to determine the location of the enemy.

BBN Technologies was recently acquired by Raytheon. This is a major M&A event and one of several that occurred recently. As with the other ones it may indicate that there will be significant consolidation of the defense industry as the larger companies move to shore up revenue and earnings through M&A.

Tags: BBN Technologies, boomerang, incoming fire, larger companies, million dollars, other ones, Raytheon, shooter, two million, u s army

A400M Talks Continue

June 15, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Congress, Contract Awards, Countries, EADS, England, Events, Military Aviation, Restructuring, Spain, Turkey, commercial aviation, development program, logistics

With the Paris Airshow coming up there is a great deal of pressure on EADS to be able to announce some good news at the premier showcase for their products. The company is looking at some severe issues on the military side with their major program the A400M facing push back from its customers.

This medium transport program is at a critical juncture as the nations looking to buy it have the right to end their deals and demand several million dollars worth of payments back from the company. England has been the most negative on the project as their budget problems overall are forcing an entire re-look at military procurement. Some of the other smaller countries such as Spain and Turkey have been more positive.

Now it is reported that talks between EADS and its customers have been extended once again to try and work something out. The hope is that more defense work will be able to balance off the decline in the civil aviation market driven by the world’s recession. Unfortunately like Boeing is facing EADS may have to deal with some major cuts to plans for U.S. defense spending. The FY 2011 budget may continue the large cuts to defense programs that Obama’s first one did.

Tags: a400m, aviation market, Boeing, budget problems, civil aviation, critical juncture, decline, defense spending, EADS, England, military procurement, military side, million dollars, paris airshow, recession, showcase, spain, transport program, turkey

Future Combat Systems (FCS) technology acceleration good to Arizona

July 25, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Arizona, Boeing, DARPA, Department of Defense, Restructuring, SBIR, SMDC, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, development program

This article describes the economic effect of the Army decision to begin pushing components of the multi-system Future Combat System (FCS) out-the-door faster. Due to this decision several hundred million dollars are flowing to Arizona companies earlier then originally planned by the Army. The two systems with the most effect are the non-line of sight missile system that uses a box launcher with integrated fire control and several unmanned systems. The Army benefits two ways by this type of decision; first, they get needed technology upgrades into the field earlier; and secondly they get testing under real world conditions.