Rapid Fire Oct. 1, 2012: Lagardere Wants Better EADS Valuation

Oct 01, 2012 10:15 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff

Lagardere released earlier today a statement [in French] claiming the EADS/BAE plan “has not yet demonstrated that it was creating value for EADS.” Its CEO Arnaud Lagardere, Chairman of EADS since May 2012, then met with EADS CEO Tom Enders for a private meeting. The firm owns 7.5% of EADS. Daimler is also reportedly unhappy about EADS’ valuation in the deal. At least UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande are said to be favorable to the merger.
The OMB(Office of Management and Budget) backed with its own memo [PDF] guidance issued by the Department of Labor back in July. Both tell federal contractors they should not sent WARN Act notifications “because of uncertainty about whether sequestration will occur and, if it did, what effect it would have on particular contracts.” But the Administration’s posture is puzzling on several grounds.

First the Budget Control Act is currently the law on the books, and from that perspective is no more or less certain than, say, Obamacare, so why should businesses stop preparing for it? The fact of the matter is that FY13 started today with no solution in place to avert sequestration, more than a year after the Supercommittee was formed. Second, both OMB and DoD have adamantly refused to provide granular guidance on the contractual effects of the sequester.

The US Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) in Newport, RI, will host an Industry Day on 8 November 2012 to discuss the Next Generation Submarine Electronic Warfare System, a replacement for the AN/BLQ-10 system [PDF]. Development of AN/BLQ-10 started in 1994 to integrate Radar & Communications/Signal Intercept, Intercept Detect, and Direction Finding (DF) on Virginia class subs. It was later used on other submarine classes and is manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

Another Industry Day that might eventually challenge Lockheed Martin’s incumbent status on a program is set up by the F-35 Joint Program Office to talk about JSF sustainment. Nov. 14/15 in the DC area (venue to be confirmed soon).

The GAO tells the US Army and Air Force that they could learn from the Marine Corps’ development of “effective camouflage uniforms”, and work better together on this type of acquisition.

Technology and globalization both contribute to opening the precisions weapons market and driving prices down. At the intersection of these two trends, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is working on a GPS-guided “suicide UAV” dubbed Devil Killer that can be retrieved and re-used if it does not find its target. Surface and air-launched versions are said to be in the works.

VADM David Dunaway, Commander of US NAVAIR, wants [PDF] to simultaneously increase [acquisition] speed to the fleet, deliver integrated capabilities, and do so more affordably. That sounds like a tall order: Good – Fast – Cheap: pick 2.

Better joint operations is also on the mind of CJCS Gen. Martin Dempsey: His Capstone Concept [PDF] calls for nothing less than globally integrated operations enabled by digital collaboration technology. As long as that does not translate into remote micromanagement and second guessing by people who are not in the field…

Categories: Airbus, BAE, Bombs - Smart, Budgets, Daily Rapid Fire, Fighters & Attack, Lockheed Martin, Policy - Doctrine, Sensors - Aquatic, Soldier's Gear, Submarines, UAVs, USA

Rapid Fire Oct. 1, 2012: Lagardere Wants Better EADS Valuation

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