Lockheed Martin Team Makes Bid For JSTARS Aircraft Contract

Lockheed Martin,Raytheon and Bombardier have teamed up on a joint bid to deliver a low risk,affordable solution for the US Air Force JSTARS Recapitalization Program.The firms promise to provide the Air Force with capabilities superior to the current JSTARS,with a true open architecture that allows the government to own the technology baseline for further upgrades and reduce lifecycle cost.
Lockheed Martin will be lead systems integrator for the project;Raytheon will bring their experience with ground surveillance,intelligence,surveillance and reconnaissance,mission systems integration and JSTARS communications to the team.Bombardier will provide its ultra-long-range Global business jet platform,less costly to operate than a modern airliner,and uniquely suited to the JSTARS mission by allowing onboard radar to see further and deeper into valleys and survey the battlespace for long periods of time without refueling,Lockheed Martin said in a press release.
Bombardier,based in Montreal,added that the track record it built over the past years with the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) programme for the Air Force using the Bombardier Global platform makes it very well positioned in this market segment.A concept illustration depicts the Global business aircraft air frame with several antennae on the undersides of the wings,plus radomes above and beneath the fuselage.
The JSTARS mission,standing for Joint Surveillance Attack Radar System,is currently carried out by Boeing 707 E-8C aircraft.These aging planes have been heavily utilised since the 9-11 attacks,averaging 19.4 hours per day.
The Air Force needs ground-moving target indicators,said Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh.That intelligence has been phenomenally successful:all the combatant commanders want it.*
Lockheed Martin (LMT),Raytheon (RTN),Bombardier (TSX:BBD:B)

Body of Autistic Boy From Queens Found

This blog stays on the cases it reports,so it informs you that the body of a young teenage boy,Avonte Oquendo,14,who had been missing since October 2013,was found by a young woman on January 16 along the rocky banks of the East River in Queens,New York.The bones were identified on January 21 by DNA testing that matched his remains with relatives'samples.His striped shirt and Air Jordan sneakers were also found at the scene.
The remains of the boy,who was severely autistic and could not speak,were located several miles northeast of Riverside School,where video captured his exit from a side door when a security guard stopped him from leaving the front way.No cause of death had been determined,the Medical Examiner said.*
The case is actually not unique.Like Alzheimer's patients,autistic children are given to elopement,or wandering off at the slightest opportunity-sometimes with fatal consequences.This blog discovered there have been several similar cases in recent years.It stands to reason that their poor communication skills and having no comprehension of danger can get them into serious trouble.
Death by drowning is a common theme in these cases.Near Montreal in May 2011,the body of three year-old Adam Benhamama was found near the banks of the Mille-Illes River in Terrebonne,Quebec more than a month after he disappeared.He had vanished while playing with his seven year-old sister when his father stepped into a friend's house for a minute.
On May 19,2013,the body of seven year-old Owen Elliot Black was found floating in the water off Perdido Key,Florida.The initial massive sea,air and land searches for the blonde child had yielded nothing.He had been vacationing with his mother when he slipped away.
It is believed that water attracts such children because it soothes their overstimulated nervous systems.At the same time,it is impossible for caregivers to be on top of them every single minute.The children know this,and many of them seize the few opportunities they get to explore their surroundings.Some have proposed tracking the children with GPS as a solution;others say we should not treat them like wildlife that way.*
This blog offers its deepest sympathy to the families and friends of these children.

Shop Talk

Welcome to all my readers,from Montreal to Beijing and all points in between.I work under deadline pressure,so small errors are to be expected from time to time.When these occur,I correct them as soon as possible.The day of publication should be considered a first edition.As many of you know,I publish two other blogs,Extra Content and International Daybook,and you can visit them via link.Welcome also to Financial Times Press and LinkShare,which you may reach via link as well.

Grappling With The Bear

Financial advisors are busy grappling with the economic bear.Extreme volatility may occur this week as the markets react to the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision on Wednesday and the employment report on Friday,as well as other data.Jessica Paige of Paige Capital Management advises staying in cash.The debt market is in a crisis,and many companies will file for bankruptcy.One that has already done so is Quebecor World(QBRWF),a Montreal-based printing concern.The company,which prints textbooks,books of the month,catalogs and pamphlets,cites a need to restructure itself.Local management in Fairfield,Pennsylvania says they will not be reducing staff or cutting wages and benefits.The firm has secured one billion dollars U.S. in financing from Morgan Stanley(MS) and Credit Suisse(CS).Ms. Paige observes the market is going through a transition phase right now.Anything you want to buy will be cheaper in six months.The S and P 500 index will drop to 1200 within 6-12 months.Robert Hormats of Goldman Sachs(GS) notes that the economy is heavily in debt-much of it bad.Decoupling of other economies from the U.S. economy hasn't happened.The financial and goods markets of the U.S. are very important to other countries.It is hard for them to grow robustly without the U.S. markets.Economist Ben Stein feels the market was ridiculously oversold by hedge fund traders.They are making a fortune by shorting the market.Three hundred trillion has been knocked out of the market.Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke needs to fight them and be as ruthless as they are.Jim Awad of J.P. Stewart Asset Management says that it is the most volatile market in his forty years in the business.There is a fear of more write-downs,and it will take time to get over that.According to Joe Battipaglia of Stifel Nicolaus,the corrective process is well underway,but you still have to work through the credit mark-downs.We are one-third of the way through.The process has to unfold naturally.While this goes on,some investors are sheltering in tax-free money market funds such as Alpine Municipal MMF/Investor and Vanguard Tax-Exempt MMF.

Alcoa Courts Alcan

In the world of mining and minerals,consolidation is king.That is why Alcoa(AA) is courting its Canadian rival Alcan.It would be the second-largest deal ever in the sector.Alcoa is offering 73.25 a share,plus stock.The total value of the deal is thirty-three billion in cash,stock and debt.According to Alcoa,the transaction would result in one billion in savings.Alcoa recently closed a plant in Frederick County,Maryland because of its inability to find cheap electricity.To satisfy Canadian regulators,the company would maintain headquarters in both New York and Montreal.