Italian KC-767 tanker slips
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Italy, Military Aviation, U.S. Air Force, logistics, production program
Boeing will face financial penalties from Italy as delivery of their KC-767 tankers have slipped 36 months. Originally planned for a 2005 delivery the first won’t be ready until late 2008. Issues with the pod holding the drogue refueling system and also meeting some of the Italian specific requirements that are set higher then the FAA’s have caused the delays. This will not help with the Boeing bid on the USAF new tanker.
See Bloomberg.com for more.
DRS reports
Filed under: Acquisitions, DRS Technologies, Finemeccanica, IT, Italy, production program
DRS Technologies reported that sales were a record high for the last quarter. See an article here. DRS also reported a 40% increase in profits and a record backlog of over $1 B dollars. As discussed here, Finmeccanica has agreed to buy the American company. This would be one of the largest foreign acquisitions of an American defense company.
Finmeccanica follows through
Filed under: Acquisitions, Agusta Westland, Congress, DRS Technologies, Finemeccanica, IT, Italy, production program
Bump - Fresh off good financial reports for the quarter, EADS is now looking at DRS Technologies as well. See an article here. This makes it sound like DRS might be a good buy.
As rumored this weekend Finmeccanica bought DRS today. The deal is for around $5 B. See an article here. This is the biggest acquisition so far by an European company. DRS has been an attractive take over target for a few years, one of the reasons its stock was so high. If this deal can make it through the necessary regulatory and legal review it will be quite stunning. Prior to this BAE and EADS had been doing smaller acquisitions, under a $1B. In today’s political environment due to the KC-45 deal and it being an election year it should be interesting to see Congress’s reaction.
Looking to buy DRS
Filed under: Acquisitions, Finemeccanica, Italy, SETA, production program
This article discusses the idea that Finmeccanica, the Italian defense conglomerate, is looking at DRS Technology for an American acquisition. Like EADS and BAE the Italian company has been expanding its presence in the US. Its helicopter arm, Augusta Westland, won the VH-71 Presidential helicopter teamed with Lockheed Martin and is also trying to win the CSAR-X recompete post-protest. DRS which makes advanced sensors and electronics while providing SETA services has long been an attractive take over target. It’s stock though has done very well recently and for Finmeccanica to buy it would require a substantial investment. Read more
Force Protection wins foreign orders
Filed under: Contract Awards, England, Force Protection, Italy, production program
Force Protection won two contracts worth about $120 M to build vehicles for Britain and Italy. See an article here about this. Force Protection had been struggling a little lately due to some US cancellations or contracts going to other companies, but these contracts should help.
Japan KC-767 passes key test
Filed under: Boeing, Italy, Japan, commercial aviation, logistics
Boeing tested the KC-767 aircraft they are building for Japan by conducting night refueling operations. See CNNMoney.com for more on this story. Japan will receive 2 aircraft next year and Boeing is also building KC-767 for Italy. Of course, Boeing and EADS are in a fight for the KC-X tanker contract from the US Air Force.





