MANAGEMENT ON THE MOVE
LOCATIONS
01 Sep 08. Magellan Aerospace says it will invest up to C$120m in its Winnipeg Bristol Aerospace plant to gear up for the Joint Strike Fighter program, a multinational effort led by the United States that could be worth billions of dollars of revenues to the Canadian company over the next two to three decades. The Canadian government will provide Magellan with up to C$43.4m in repayable financial support for technology and process development. Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 supersonic stealth fighter plane with Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. Three variants of the F-35 will replace at least 13 types of aircraft for 11 countries. Magellan has been manufacturing low quantities of components and assemblies for the JSF program for the past five years and considers itself to be “well-positioned” to get future contracts under the program.
03 Sep 08. Teledyne TSS has expanded its global sales and support network with the opening of a new facility in Singapore. The new premises are located with the Teledyne Geophysical facility at Loyang Base in Singapore and are being used initially for sales and customer liaison. This is scheduled for expansion into a full service facility that will provide customers with technical support for all products in the TSS and S G Brown product ranges. The new Teledyne TSS facility is being managed by Anthony Gleeson, who has moved from the UK and taken-up permanent residence in Singapore to ensure that customers benefit from the continuity of a regular contact.
JOB LOSSES AND STRIKES
02 Sep 08. Sources close to BATTLESPACE suggest that GDUK has made some redundancies in its FRES Team due to the delays in ageing a contract with the MoD. It is suggested that GDUK is paying at least £500,000 per month to retain this key team.
01 Sep 08. Hara-kiri is back in fashion in Japan. Less than a year after Shinzo Abe, the aristocratic nationalist prime minister, quit on the grounds of ill health, Yasuo Fukuda has become the second premier in year to commit political suicide. Mr Fukuda, 72, is said to have sworn that he would beat Mr Abe’s year in office, if only by a day. That was not to be. In the end, after just over 11 months as prime minister, he was defeated by the impossible political situation he inherited in which, for the first time since the war, control of the upper house was seized by the opposition. (Source: FT.com)
PERSONNEL
MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT
Aug 08. Armed Forces: Trained Requirements and Strengths. As at 1 Jul 08, the UK Regular Armed Forces were under strength by 7,790 or 4.4%.
Comment: The UK Regular Army Other Rank strength has continued its downward trend and now has a deficit of 5,470 (6.4%) against a trained requirement for 85,450. The MoD released a complacent Press Notice with the figures and appears unconcerned that all strength statistics remain “provisional and subject to revision while data validation continues” (due to the introduction of Joint Personnel Administration). Possibly confused by the MoD Press Notice, a certain amount of nonsense appeared in the newspapers on 28 Aug 08. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0834, 01 Sep 08)
EUROPE APPOINTMENTS
U.S. APPOINTMENTS
29 Aug 08. McCain picks female running mate. US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has picked Sarah Palin, the female governor of Alaska, as his surprise running mate. At 44, she is younger than Barack Obama and is credited with reforms during her first term, but she is relatively unknown in US politics. Mr McCain has gone on stage at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, to celebrate his 72nd birthday and present Ms Palin. Analysts say the Republican is keen to wrest back headlines from Mr Obama. Speaking to a large crowd, who sang Happy Birthday when he appeared, Mr McCain introduced Ms Palin as someone who “understands working people”. (Source: BBC)
02 Sep 08. Army Brig. Gen. Daniel B. Allyn for promotion to the grade of m