The initial contract we covered at that time is now complete. The TIPS industrial consortium, working with the Transatlantic Cooperative AGS Radar (TCAR) team, have submitted the study commissioned under the initial EUR 22 million NATO contract. It addresses issues such as overall system and radar-sensor development, cost issues and program risk reduction, and integration issues as its main priorities.
Armor Holdings also indicated that it will continue to subcontract to its Israeli based partner, Plasan Sasa, for production of the additional MTVR armor kits to be delivered to the USMC in 2006. Work under the new award will also be performed at the Armor Holdings Aerospace and Defense Group facilities in Ohio.
Back on June 29, 2005, DID covered the potential use of modified Phalanx weapons systems to counter mortars fired by insurgents et. al. That program appears to have taken a step forward; the U.S. Army selected Northrop Grumman Corporation as the prime contractor for the Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar (C-RAM) Integration and Fielding contract. Under this $38 million contract, Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector is developing a systems architecture and integrating the C-RAM target acquisition, fire control, warning and engagement subsystems.
POGO (the Project On Government Oversight) aren’t anti-military; there are some weapons programs they like and have defended, and they’ve been willing to change their minds based on favorable reviews from the troops. The V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft isn’t one of those systems, however. POGO believes the aircraft has numerous important operational deficiencies, has sucked up immense amounts of development dollars that could have been better spent on other projects, and offers a cost/airlift ratio that is far inferior to available helicopter options with performance gains that are less than advertised. The PRV-22 variant bowed out of the CSAR-X combat search and rescue competition, while its HV-22 variant was quietly declined by the US Navy in favour of the MH-60S.
Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE:NOC) board of directors has authorized a new program to repurchase up to $1.5 billion of its outstanding common stock, representing nearly 8% of its 355 million shares outstanding, over the next 12 to 18 months.
The company completed its previous $1 billion share repurchase program, authorized by the board of directors on Oct. 26, 2004, in less than 12 months, repurchasing 18.2 million common shares at an average price of $54.83 per share. Since the inception of its share repurchases in August 2003, the company has repurchased more than 32 million shares for a total of $1.7 billion.
