SATELLITE BUSINESS GOES ORBITAL
Orbital Sciences is to acquire the spacecraft development and manufacturing business of General Dynamics' GD Advanced Information Systems subsidiary for an undisclosed sum. The business, in Gilbert, Arizona, is close to Orbital's 1,300-employee launch vehicle engineering and manufacturing facilities in Chandler and will add about 325 new employees to Orbital.
PREMIUM AEROTEC TO FUND NEW ROMANIAN PLANT
EADS's German aerostructures division, Premium Aerotec, is investing €45 million ($61 million) in a new sub-components plant in Ghimbav, Romania to supply current aircraft programmes. Separately, Aerotec's French counterpart, Aerolia, unveiled an external and internal growth strategy to become one of the world's top three aerostructures makers by 2020. The two business units were carved out of the Airbus operation in 2009.
GKN EXTENDS F-35 FOOTPRINT
BAE Systems has chosen GKN Aerospace as a strategic supplier for the manufacture of a range of composite and metallic structures for the Lockheed Martin F-35. The $200 million deal extends GKN's F-35 exposure to nearly $3 million per aircraft.
L-BAND TO DOMINATE IFE MARKET: THALES
A 10-year forecast from Thales estimates over 12,000 aircraft will be outfitted for in-flight connectivity, with L-band satellite-based solutions taking 59% of the $2 billion market, Ku-band-based systems 25% and 16% going to air-to-ground systems. Thales's strategy is based on Inmarsat's L-band SwiftBroadband service; rivals Panasonic and Row 44 work in the Ku-band space.
BAE SYSTEMS SELLING OFF SAAB STAKE
BAE Systems is selling half of its 20.5% stake in Saab to Sweden's Investor group, and will sell the rest through a market placing in due course. The deal raises Investor's capital stake in the Swedish aerospace group to 30%. BAE has been a partner in Saab's Gripen fighter but is now focused on Eurofighter and its Lockheed Martin F-35 aft fuselage production role.
DEFENCE HOLDS FOR COBHAM
Growth in defence and security overcame weakness in mission systems and "difficult" commercial markets to take pre-tax profits at defence and aerospace systems maker Cobham up 22.1% to £295 million ($442 million) as revenue grew by 17% to £1.88 billion. Chief executive Andy Stevens says "commercial markets remain hard to predict but are unlikely to recover rapidly".
ELBIT PUSHES NEW MARKETS IN SOLID 2009
Growth in airborne systems, electro-optics and C4I drove 2009 revenue 7.4% higher to $2.83 billion and net income up 5.3% to $215 million at Elbit Systems. Marketing costs rose to 8.9% of revenue, from 7.5% in 2008, as the Israeli defence equipment maker pushed to open new markets in Europe and Australia.
AIR INDIA TO SPIN OFF NON-PASSENGER DIVISIONS
An Air India restructuring plan will see the flag carrier spin off its engineering, ground-handling and cargo divisions into semi-autonomous subsidiaries from 1 April. Managing director Arvind Jadhav says: "Roughly 50% of my staff is engaged in the non-passenger business like cargo, ground handling and engineering."
Source: Flight International
