Message posted by Jose on April 10, 2001 at 14:25:56 PST:
Interesting, X-43A will fly to NY from LA for 30 minutes. It's fastest fly at mach 7-10, Boeing say. http://www.latimes.com/business/20010410/t000030477.html More info on X-43 and See FAS Space Policy Project http://www.fas.org/spp/guide/usa/launch/x-43.htm http://www.orbital.com/LaunchVehicles/X43/hyper-x.htm http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rlv-01a.html More X-43A galleries (1996 to present) from DFRC ========================================== Northrop, Litton megafirm taking shape Kresa, during an interview at Litton's Integrated Systems unit in Northridge, said that he expects the transition to be finished by year's end. He could not estimate how many Litton workers would lose their jobs. But significant cuts could come in headquarters operations, now based in Woodland Hills. The merger will bring about $250 million in savings. "Clearly, there will be some redundancies that will go away," Kresa said. The message to workers was upbeat, though. "They are a world-class company and they do world-class work, as does Northrop Grumman," Kresa said. "We see combining Northrop Grumman and Litton (will) create one exciting company." Negotiations between Century City-based Northrop Grumman and Litton were so secret that when the deal was announced it caught Wall Street by surprise. Kresa would not discuss any future acquisition plans. The $5.1 billion deal for Litton, which includes assuming $1.3 billion in debt, created the nation's third-biggest defense contractor with annual sales of about $15 billion and 80,000 employees worldwide. Kresa expects both those numbers to grow over the next several years. Northrop Grumman should have $18 billion in sales within two years, and a bigger payroll. "It's going to take a lot more people to do the work. We see this as a growing company," he said. Analyst Joe Nadol at J.P. Morgan said that Northrop Grumman executives will probably focus some immediate attention on cost overruns at Litton's ship building unit. Kresa toured those facilities in Mississippi the day the deal was completed. Loren Thompson, a defense sector analyst at Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said the companies are a good fit and Kresa is a forward thinking executive. Northrop Grumman includes the B-2 stealth bomber and advanced electronic weapons systems, a good match for Litton's defense electronic business. "I think Kresa is probably the only CEO of a major defense contractor who really had a kind of a technological vision of where he wanted to take his company," Thompson said. "It's like the military's needs coming before the military knew what it wanted." http://www.dailynews.com/business/articles/0401/10/biz03.asp
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/X-43A/index.html
By Gregory J. Wilcox
Staff Writer
Northrop Grumman Corp. Chairman Kent Kresa continued the process of melding two corporate cultures on Monday, welcoming Litton Industries Inc. employees to the combined company during two stops in the San Fernando Valley.
And signs were readily evident Northrop Grumman is now in charge. The Northrop Grumman name is prominently displayed on Litton's Web site. And Northrop Grumman's mission statement plaque now hangs above Litton's in some company executive offices.
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