Rapid Fire Oct. 11, 2012: Little Taste Left for Big Mergers

Oct 11, 2012 11:00 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff
C-17s taking off
After you, big guy
  • Analysts see prime contractors hunkering down rather than consolidate, after the failed BAE-EADS merger. Acquisitions or mergers involving tier 2 players are more likely.
  • The US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command recently conducted flight tests with C-17s flying in formations meant to reduce drag on the trailing aircraft(s), like geese V-shaped migrations. This could save fuel, and continues work started last decade by NASA and Boeing with the Autonomous Formation Flight [PDF]. Researchers from Stanford pitched a similar idea to Airbus 3 years ago, which so far seems to have translated into a CGI… with a 2050 horizon.
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  • The SPEEA trade union filed [PDF] two Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against Boeing earlier this week ahead of another round of work contract negotiation meetings yesterday. A vast majority of their members rejected [PDF] Boeing’s contract offer at the beginning of the month. According to Boeing, the current contract expired on Oct. 6 and remains in effect until Nov. 25, 2012, which takes strikes off the table until that date. Lockheed Martin workers got little out of a long strike in Texas earlier this year.

  • Germany recently bought five 127/64 Light Weight naval gun mounts from Finmeccanica’s OtoMelara for 70 million Euros to equip its F125 frigates (one will be reserved for training purposes). The company announced its first delivery, which includes their Vulcano module for fuse programming and mission planning. Its capabilities are somewhat similar to the US’ AGS, albeit at a shorter range.

  • Admiral Gorshkov, the first of a new class of “project 22350″ Russian frigates, will reportedly start sea trials before the end of next month, but another source begs to differ and sees dockside trials at best this year.

  • Russia is not in a cooperative mood with the West: they will not renew the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, and say NATO should have a mandate from the UN Security Council if they want continued help from Russia past 2014. The start of a hard reboot sequence rather than a soft reset?

  • Retired Air Marshal Satish Inamdar, a former Vice-Chief of India’s Air Staff, has some organizational suggestions for the Ministry of Defence and the services, following the Naresh Chandra report on defence reforms submitted to the government earlier this year.

  • Correction: Yesterday’s Rapid Fire mindlessly mimicked the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense’s use of the term “battleship” to describe their acquisition of 500-ton vessels. This was probably an honest translation mistake on their part, but a savvy reader pointed out that this was quite a stretch, as battleships are – or were – very heavy warships. Sorry for that lapse in judgment.

    • Categories: Boeing, Daily Rapid Fire, Germany, India, Mergers & Acquisitions, Russia, USA, WMD Proliferation

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