BAE North American business sets out four-pronged strategy to exploit new markets and deliver 25% revenue hike
BAE Systems' Platform Solutions division has outlined the four strategic areas in which it needs to expand its activities to meet aggressive 25% annual growth targets.
Part of BAE Systems North America, the US/UK Platform Solutions unit took the hardware and subsystem integration elements from the 1999 British Aerospace-GEC Marconi merger.
The division's main product line, flight controls for military fixed-wing aircraft, is showing "flat-to-decline" growth forecasts, necessitating a move into new markets, says vice-president for business development Dean McCumiskey. The unit, headquartered in Johnson City, New York, with facilities in Los Angeles, California as well as UK sites in Rochester, Plymouth and Edinburgh, has been set targets of 10% organic growth and 15% growth through acquisitions by BAE Systems North America.
The first expansion will take BAE Systems' flight control expertise into rotary-wing aircraft, with development of a digital fly-by-wire system for the Sikorsky S-92 and H-92 that could be followed by retrofit deals for the UH-60 Black Hawk and SH-60 Seahawk and Boeing AH-64 Apache. "There is an untapped market at the moment in helicopter fly-by-wire, especially in the retrofit arena," says McCumiskey.
The unit is also banking on a huge potential market for enhanced vision systems and precision navigational aids for military aircraft. Its day/night all-weather visibility system is being tested by the British Army under the Ministry of Defence's Condor II helicopter technology demonstrator programme. It fuses elements of forward-looking infrared imagery, low-light television and millimetre-wave missile detection technologies. McCumiskey says a development contract with USAF research laboratories for autonomous landing sensors will run through 2005, with transport aircraft the likely platforms for any resulting product.
The final strategic direction is in human interfaces, primarily helmet-mounted displays. BAE Systems is testing systems in South African Air Force Saab/BAE Systems Gripens and Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons and will offer a system for the UK version of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. "Helmet-mounted displays will be a core strategic growth area as they replace head-up displays," says McCumiskey.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE / ROCHESTER
Source: Flight International
