05 Dec 03. Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Electronic Systems sector and A&S Tribal Industries, Inc. (ASTI) have announced the formation of a new defense electronics manufacturing partnership under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Mentor Protege program. Established in 1975, A&S Tribal Industries is a U.S. government certified small disadvantaged business owned by the Fort Peck Tribes. Located in Poplar, Mont., ASTI has 72 employees engaged in metal parts fabrication, tooling and assembly work. Under this latest agreement, Northrop Grumman will provide engineering, manufacturing and business management training and development support to ASTI, while the two firms work together to identify opportunities to utilize ASTI’s manufacturing expertise to support Northrop Grumman’s current and future procurement needs.
02 Dec 03. Curtiss-Wright Corporation announced the acquisition of Systran Corporation of Dayton, Ohio, for approximately $18m. Systran will operate as a business unit of Curtiss-Wright Controls Inc., a subsidiary of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Systran is a leading supplier of highly-specialized, high-performance data communications products for real-time systems, primarily for the aerospace and defense, industrial automation and medical imaging markets. Key applications include simulation, process control, advanced digital signal processing, data acquisition, image processing, and test and measurement. Systran reported sales of approximately $15m for the year ended September 30, 2003.
09 Dec 03. DRS Technologies, Inc’s DRS Optronics unit has been rated fully compliant at Level 2 with the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The CMM rating increasingly is being used as a prerequisite and a key evaluation factor for the acquisition of military programs with significant software content. The Level 2 rating confirms that DRS Optronics has established an effective, well-defined software development process that meets all of the requirements for providing software products for Department of Defense mission-critical applications.