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Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is partnering with Areva, a multinational energy company based in France, to construct a $363.4 million manufacturing facility for nuclear reactors in Newport News, Northrop Grumman Corp. announced Thursday.Construction will begin early next year on the 300,000-square-foot plant that will eventually bring 540 engineering and production jobs to the region, including 340 initial hires when production begins in 2012, said Margaret Mitchell-Jones, a spokeswoman for Northrop Grumman.No radioactive nuclear material will be handled, she said. Rather, the facility will produce reactor parts such as steam generators and pressurizers, most weighing more than 500 tons.“This joint venture project...

The Pentagon's top weapons buyer said the proposed aerial refueling tankers from both Northrop Grumman and Boeing were "technically outstanding" but differed by almost $3 billion on price. John Young, the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an interview at the Pentagon yesterday that under the tanker proposal from Northrop Grumman and its partner European Aeronautic Defence & Space, developing the first 68 aircraft would have cost $12.5 billion, compared with $15.4 billion under Boeing's plan.

Word that Boeing is strongly considering a “no bid” position for the next round of the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker competition is spreading only two days after the Pentagon released the revised KC-X draft request for proposals (RFP). Multiple sources familiar with Boeing’s internal discussions say company officials are strongly considering the option of not submitting a proposal as the company’s Integrated Defense Systems sector tries to respond to the draft RFP within the government’s speedy timeline. Comments are due this week. The move would leave the Defense Dept. without a competition for the KC-135 tanker replacement. A demand...

August 08, 2008, 7:00 a.m. Testing GatesTanker re-bid. By Merrill Cook A recent report by the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) devastatingly critiques one of the Pentagon’s critical procurement processes. The July 2008 report demonstrates that the government botched contracts for an urgently needed new generation of aerial refueling tankers not just once, but twice. With years of delay and billions in budget overruns in many of the Department of Defense’s top programs, many observers are asking just how deep the Pentagon’s procurement problems run. They want to know what the Pentagon’s new chief, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will...

Deadline to submit bid is just two months away WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Wednesday requested new bids on a $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, but Boeing supporters on Capitol Hill complained that the revised criteria seem to favor the rival European airplane. [...] “It’s obviously stacked against Boeing,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that focuses on national security and defense issues. “It appears to favor a larger aircraft in a way the original did not. But the timeline doesn’t give Boeing an opportunity to prepare a bid for a...

The Air Force bungled its biggest procurement deal to spend $40 billion to buy new aerial refueling tankers to replace its aging fleet, federal investigators declared last week. But what wasn't publicly known until yesterday was just how badly they did so.

Mobile’s hopes for an aircraft assembly plant just took a serious hit. As shown in the latest edition of Lagniappe, Boeing claimed the Air Force made math errors in their CNBC is reporting the U.S. General Accounting Office has also found that to be the case and called them “significant errors.” Boeing (NYSE:BA) is trading sharply higher on the news, while Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has taken a slight hit. Although the Air Force doesn’t have to abide by the GAO’s ruling, the likely outcome is for another round of bidding for the tanker contract experts say.

A labor union of technical engineers issued an 11-page “white paper” today ripping the USAF tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman and the KC-30 over the Boeing KC-767. The two page press release summarizes the white paper findings. The press release focuses entirely on EADS, parent of Airbus and maker of the A330-200 on which Northrop’s offering of the KC-30 is based. Northrop’s identified as a “minority” partner. (During a conference several months ago, Northrop acknowledged that about 50% of the contract revenues flow to EADs/Airbus. Engines, in this case provided by GE (an American company), typically represent about 20%...

A Navy deal for an unmanned plane is the latest won by a unit of the defense contractor, the region's second-largest private employer.With a bulbous head and plank-like wings, the aircraft resembles a lumbering whale. And its seven-word, 49-letter name -- Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aerial System -- is a whopper. But the award last month of a Navy contract to build the hulking, robotic patrol plane, nicknamed BAMS, could not have come at a better time for Northrop Grumman Corp. and, in particular, its military aircraft business headquartered in El Segundo. Flying highThe contract, potentially worth nearly $4...

Highlighting reasons the U.S. Air Force selected the KC-45 Tanker as best for our men and women in uniform. WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria. Despite this fact, the losing bidder wants the Government Accountability Office to overturn the Air Force decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman. Starting today and regularly in the coming weeks, “Why We Won� will provide detailed examples of why Northrop Grumman was selected, drawing...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co's (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) program manager for tanker aircraft voiced great confidence on Tuesday about winning back a $35 billion aerial-refueling deal from a team that includes European archrival Airbus. Mark McGraw, a company vice president, said he was "as confident as I can be" that congressional auditors would find fault with the U.S. Air Force's February 29 choice of the rival team of Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) to build 179 planes.

Northrop Grumman Corp. hired the lobbying firm of former U.S. Senator Trent Lott to help protect its newly won $35 billion Air Force tanker contract from challenges by losing bidder Boeing Co. and some lawmakers. Los Angeles-based Northrop and partner European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., the owner of Airbus SAS, won the contract on Feb. 29. Boeing, which has built aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force since 1956, appealed the decision last week and the leader of the U.S. House panel that controls military spending has threatened to cut funds for the program. Boeing's March 11 protest...

The legacy of the draconian cuts in military force levels and procurement during the 1990s continues to cast a pall over U.S. national security planning. That American soldiers and Marines have been overstretched by repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan is well-known, and steps are being taken to expand their strength. It is not just the combat forces, however, but the defense industry upon which they depend for arms and equipment, that also needs to be reconstituted.

WASHINGTON - Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years. Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman. EADS is the parent company of Airbus, which teamed up with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to...

Subversives cook the books so the French can build our aerial tankers Being dependent on other nations for military hardware and allowing the French to build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers is sheer lunacy but that’s what’s going to happen unless our politicians speak out. Subversive bureaucrats have already succeeded in giving away our jobs and hollowed out our industrial base. Cooking the books so the procurement specs favor the French is the last straw. Anyone with an IQ higher than a clam knows that our economy is slowing down. We can’t afford to lose the jobs...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it would formally challenge a decision by the U.S. Air Force to award a $35 billion aerial tanker program to a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Europe's EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). "This is an extraordinary step rarely taken by our company, and one we take very seriously," said Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman, president and chief executive officer, in a statement. Boeing said it would ask the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to review the February 29 decision that...

A Good Deal of Credit to McCain for Stopping a Bad Deal Boeing and blame. By David Freddoso In 2001, the United States Air Force wanted to begin replacing 500 of its aging refueling planes. The plan began with a sweetheart deal, buried in the fine print of the 2002 defense-authorization bill. The Air Force was to lease 100 Boeing fuel tankers at a cost of $26 billion — $6 billion more than the cost of buying them outright, according to an estimate by the White House Office of Management and Budget. If that sounds like a bad deal, it’s...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The European refueling tanker that won a $35 billion Pentagon contract last week "was clearly a better performer" than its U.S. rival, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told lawmakers Wednesday. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Wynne said the plane offered by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., was determined to be less expensive and less risky than the plane offered by Chicago-based Boeing Co. The planes were judged on nine key criteria, he said, and "across the spectrum, all evaluated, the Northrop Grumman airplane was clearly a...

Last week Northrop Grumman and European partner EADS confounded expectations by beating incumbent Boeing for the contract to build the Air Force's next-generation aerial refueling tanker. The initial contract will be for 179 modified wide-body jets, but eventually the entire fleet of 600 cold-war tankers will need to be replaced, making this one of the biggest marketing coups in defense-industry history. However, that is just the beginning of what Northrop Grumman has achieved, because Boeing didn't manage to beat Northrop in a single measure of merit. Here's how they were evaluated... 1. Mission capability. Arguably the most important factor, this...

McCain Still Considering Tanker Deal By MATTHEW DALY – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain said Monday that he hasn't made up his mind on a $35 billion Air Force contract awarded to the parent company of French plane maker Airbus. McCain, the likely Republican nominee for president, helped scuttle a previous deal that gave the contract for the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers to Chicago-based Boeing Co. The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, won a new competition with Boeing Friday to build the refueling planes...

“Youths” in the suburbs of Paris are escalating their intifada against French society, ambushing and firing on police. PARIS: Dozens of hooded attackers fired buckshot and nails at police this weekend, wounding four officers, France’s interior minister said. Michele Alliot-Marie called the Sunday afternoon attack an “ambush,” saying that about 30 people, some of them armed, were waiting for the officers in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny. The officers were responding to a call about vandalism at a local bakery. Three officers were hit in face with buckshot; another was hit in the leg with buckshot and nails and...

The U.S. Air Force on Friday named Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS North America to build its next-generation fleet of aerial refueling tankers, spurning a bid from rival Boeing Co. in a surprise decision that could launch a new era of jet production in Mobile. The Air Force made its choice after a fierce competition between the two teams for one of the single largest defense contracts in U.S. history. Estimated at up to $40 billion, the deal includes 179 planes to be delivered over the next 15 years. Boeing was regarded as a heavy favorite by defense analysts...

Clinton and Republicans alike perceive the issue as the Democratic front-runner's biggest vulnerability. He appears eager to take up the fight. WASHINGTON -- As children sleep safely in their beds, a menace is set loose in the world -- and a phone rings in the White House. "Your vote will decide who answers the call," says a narrator, "whether it's someone . . . tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world." In her newest television ad, released Friday, Hillary Rodham Clinton shows who should answer the 3 a.m. call: She is pictured picking up the phone, confident and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force decision awarding a $35 billion aircraft contract to a team including the European parent of Airbus landed like a bomb in Congress on Friday, drawing howls of protest from lawmakers aligned with the loser, America's Boeing Co. The Congressional delegation from the Seattle area said they were "outraged." Kansas Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt vowed to seek a review of the decision "at the highest levels of the Pentagon and Congress" in hopes of reversing it. Boeing has big facilities in both Seattle and Wichita, which stood to gain from the long-term project...

The U.S. Air Force today named Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS North America to build its next-generation fleet of aerial refueling tankers, spurning a bid from rival Boeing Co. with a decision that could bring an aircraft assembly plant to Mobile. The Air Force made its choice after a fierce competition between the two teams for one of the single largest defense contracts in U.S. history. Estimated at up to $40 billion, the deal includes 179 planes to be delivered over the next 10-15 years. Boeing was considered a heavy favorite due mainly to its political clout and its legacy...

Northrop Grumman To Tap Further Potential In India Jan 8, 2008 Neelam Mathews/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report NEW DELHI - Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems division is planning to pursue opportunities in India and arrangements should be announced this year, Aerospace Daily has learned. The Ship Systems division will follow the lead of Northrop's Integrated Defense Systems and Electronics divisions in tapping opportunities in India. The Indian navy plans to induct 120 warships and 12 submarines over the next decade to protect its maritime interests and expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region. The trend has been set as the...

PALMDALE - The Air Force is expected to announce... a program that could result in thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in economic activity for California. The Air Force is expected to announce on Jan. 31 whether a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. or a team led by The Boeing Co. will win the KC-X tanker competition. The contract, potentially worth about $40 billion, would be to provide 179 aircraft for the Air Force to replace its aging fleet of KC-135R tankers. The Northrop Grumman team, which plans to build the aircraft in Alabama, said California...

The U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon that Northrop Grumman has begun integrating on the aircraft. The company is doing the work under a seven-month, $2.5 million contract awarded June 1 by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor on the B-2, the flagship of the nation's long-range strike arsenal. The new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which is being developed by The Boeing Company, is a...

US willing to offer India advanced Hawkeye-2D spy plane 17 Dec 2007, 1319 hrs IST, IANS NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: The US is willing to offer its most advanced maritime spy plane, the advanced Hawkeye-2D, to India. According to a report in the forthcoming issue of India Strategic defence magazine, the Indian Navy had issued an RFI (Request for Information) for the aircraft to the US government some time back. Although Washington is yet to release this aircraft for export "it could be sold to countries like India, Egypt, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)", the report added. The aircraft is...

Redondo Beach CA (SPX) Northrop Grumman, along with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), have begun re-assembly of the world's most powerful laser built for an airborne environment onto MDA's Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft to prepare for high-power system testing. The integration is taking place at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., following a refurbishment by the company that involved the disassembly and inspection of the high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) after the successful conclusion of ground tests in 2005. During those tests, the laser demonstrated repeatability of sufficient power and duration to shoot down a ballistic...

Nearly three years after the highly complex Delta 4-Heavy rocket flew a test launch to demonstrate its capabilities for hauling hefty cargos to space, the giant booster entered service tonight with a fiery blastoff carrying a national security satellite.

MOJAVE - A system designed to protect passenger aircraft from portable missiles is proving successful in operation testing, according to Northrop Grumman Corp. The system, called Guardian, has logged more than 12,000 hours of on-aircraft operating time and been flown on 2,500 flights. Northrop Grumman is conducting the testing under a $55.4 million contract awarded last summer by the Department of Homeland Security to continue the development of a system aimed at decoying shoulder-launched missiles fired at jetliners. "The program and system are a continuing success," said Robert Del Boca, sector vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Defensive...

PALMDALE - Six years after the contract was first awarded, Northrop Grumman Corp. employees Friday marked another milestone along the path to fielding the nation's next fighter, the F-35 Lightning II. The center fuselage for the first Air Force near-production version of the fighter was unveiled Friday at the company's Palmdale Manufacturing Center. The fuselage incorporates design changes made during development to decrease weight in the final fighter. "This is starting a new phase for what will be a very unique fighter capability," said Air Force Maj. Gen. C.R. Davis, program executive officer for the F-35. The latest - and...

(AP) Three American defense contractors kidnapped by Colombian rebels pleaded in an interview for authorities to negotiate their release and not risk a rescue, saying they would likely die in the attempt. The interview by a Colombian journalist was the first since the men were captured after crash-landing their plane in the jungle-covered mountains of southern Colombia in February. “I don't want to die. I don't want anybody dying trying to get me out of here,” Keith Stansell, one of the captives, said in the interview, which was taped in July but will get its first public airing Wednesday when...

PALMDALE - Sen. Dianne Feinstein toured Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Palmdale Manufacturing Center on Thursday, learning of projects from upgrades for the proven B-2 stealth bomber to the company's latest endeavor, a demonstration version of an unmanned aircraft capable of operating from an aircraft carrier. snip Feinstein visited the site during production of the B-2s in the early 1990s, and praised the bomber for its successful operations since that time. snip Among the programs Feinstein learned about Thursday is the company's newest, the X-47B. Earlier this month, Northrop Grumman was awarded a $635.8 million contract from the Navy to demonstrate an...

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Northrop Grumman has won a $635.8 million U.S. contract to carry out at-sea carrier launches and recoveries with a fixed-wing unmanned air system. The program will involve Northrop Grumman's X-47B unmanned air system, or UAS, and will be the first set of trials with such a system ever carried out at sea, the company said in a statement Friday. "The Navy's program, known as the Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D), will demonstrate the capability of an autonomous, low-observable air vehicle. The UCAS-D effort will mature critical technologies, reduce unmanned air system carrier...

MOJAVE - Northrop Grumman Corp. will assume complete ownership of Mojave-based Scaled Composites under an agreement signed July 5, company officials said Friday. The agreement will increase the defense giant's ownership from 40% to 100%, said Dan McClain, corporate director of media relations for Northrop Grumman. Terms of the deal were not released. Scaled Composites President Burt Rutan and the executive team will remain in place, McClain said, and the company will continue to operate as a separate entity within Northrop Grumman. "We don't expect any operational or management changes," said Kevin Mickey, chief financial officer for Scaled Composites. Founded...

Number of Contenders Increases Exponentially for This Year's Two Million Dollar Purse SANTA MONICA, CA--(Marketwire - June 20, 2007) - A real rocket race is on the horizon with the return of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge (NG-LLC) -- the centerpiece of the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup and Holloman Air and Space Expo. In the Challenge's second year, the number of teams competing for the $2 million purse has increased from four teams to nine. The NG-LLC, sponsored by NASA's Centennial Challenges Program, is designed to accelerate commercial development of technology that can ferry cargo and humans between the...

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman employees have begun work on a $171 million contract to develop and demonstrate a new extremely high frequency satellite communications system that eventually would enable B-2 stealth bombers to send and receive battlefield information up to 100 times faster than now. Expected to last more than five years and to be done in three phases, the first system design and development phase consists primarily of engineering work that will be based in Palmdale, with flight testing likely to be at Edwards Air Force Base\. "This SDD contract provides significant momentum for the work Northrop Grumman and...

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman said the first of an improved version of the Global Hawk robot spy plane is at Edwards AFB for testing after making its maiden flight from Air Force Plant 42. With a wider wingspan and the ability to carry more sensors inside its fuselage, the first "Block 20" RQ-4 Global Hawk made its first flight March 1 , Northrop Grumman announced last week. Designated AF-8, the aircraft took off at 6:58 a.m. from Palmdale, climbed to 32,000 feet and landed at 8:31 a.m. at Edwards before a crowd of cheering Air Force officials and Northrop Grumman...

“WSJ”: Northrop Grumman proposes Israeli spy satellite to US military The IAI-built “Trinidad” small satellites cost $200 million each. Adi Ben-Israel 11 Apr 07 13:32 “The Wall Street Journal” reports that Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC) plans to collaborate with Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) to propose lighter, more-flexible spy satellites to the US military and intelligence agencies. The project, which was code-named "Trinidad" during development and expected to be announced on Wednesday, reflects Northrop's drive to move beyond being primarily a supplier of subsystems for government space programs into the more influential and potentially more profitable role as a prime...

NEW ORLEANS, March 10, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) (PRIMEZONE) -- Speaking to a crowd of more than 5,000, U.S. Sen. David Vitter of La., described the Northrop Grumman-built (NYSE:NOC) amphibious transport dock ship New Orleans (LPD 18) as a ship that "embodies a new culture of technological growth and economic progress not only for the Navy and Marines, but also for the city of New Orleans and Louisiana. This ship represents new processes, design work and engineering that will clearly serve the Navy, Marines and our country very well." The ship was commissioned into the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet here today...

Friday, January 26, 2007 Northrop Grumman Signs Teaming Agreement in Support of Skyguard Tactical Rocket Shield System for the State of Israel Northrop Grumman Signs a Teaming Agreement with RADA Electronic Industries Ltd. in Support of Skyguard Tactical Rocket Shield System for the State of Israel (Source: RADA Electronic Industries Ltd.; issued Jan. 24, 2007) [With thanks to www.defense-aerospace.com ] NETANYA, Israel --- RADA Electronic Industries Ltd., announced today that it has signed a Teaming Agreement with Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corporation of Redondo Beach, California to pursue together and cooperate in the construction and installation of the...

Northrop Gets Pact for Radar Systems Associated Press 01.10.07, 1:02 PM ET Military contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. said Wednesday it won a $49.8 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for fire control radar systems for 52 F-16 fighter aircraft to be used by Pakistan. Northrop will be responsible for the manufacture and installation of radars on 18 new F-16 Block 52+ aircraft with retrofit kits for 34 existing F-16 A/B Block 15 aircraft. The pact also include options to equip up to 44 additional F-16 aircraft with the AN/APG-68(V)9 radar capability. This would involve the manufacture of complete radar...

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 27, 2006 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE:BA], along with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, rolled out the Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft today from a modification facility in Wichita, Kan., during a ceremony marking major program achievements on several fronts. Boeing presented the aircraft to a crowd of hundreds of government customers, industry partners and Boeing employees gathered at its Integrated Defense Systems facilities in Wichita. The ceremony highlighted the following accomplishments: The Airborne Laser team in Wichita fully integrated the Lockheed Martin-designed beam control/fire control system inside the ABL aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400F....

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Oct. 9, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) announced today the company has established a high technology Missile Defense Engineering and Analysis Center (MDEAC), a state-of-the-art capability that will support the nation's integrated air and missile defense mission, at the company's Cummings Research Park complex in Huntsville, Ala. The Missile Defense Engineering and Analysis Center combines unique resources with experienced personnel from across the company to provide an air and missile defense center of excellence that will support the nation's needs in this critical mission area. "Our employee base in Huntsville is rich with exceptional technical talent...

Northrop Grumman stalks Israeli missile defense market Israeli source: They smell blood. Ran Dagoni, Washington 3 Oct 06 15:16 The battle in Israel for financial sources to develop defense systems against short and medium-range missile is heating up. The marketing potential for these systems is expected to easily expand beyond Israel’s borders. US aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC) is entering this arena. As a result of mergers and acquisitions, the company now owns the Skyguard tactical high energy laser (THEL) program, a follow-on program of the Nautilus anti short-range missile system. Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd. was a partner...

Is U.S. Ostracizing Korea From Top Weapon Sale? The U.S. is refusing to sell its long-range high-altitude drone Global Hawk to Korea but not to other countries, reports have alleged. According to press reports, Washington has authorized sales of the unmanned aerial vehicle to Japan, Australia and Singapore but has opted not to sell it to Korea. According to some sources this is because it fears theft of cutting-edge technology, while others say the refusal is due to the uncomfortable state of the Korea-U.S. alliance. But a Defense Ministry official said Seoul does not see the decision as discrimination but...

Seoul seeks to buy U.S. spy planes South Korea is seeking to buy four U.S. unmanned spy planes but Washington is reluctant to sell them for fear of a possible leak of confidential technology, a Seoul official said yesterday. The Defense Ministry will ask the United States later this month to sell Global Hawk surveillance aircraft which would greatly enhance the nation's intelligence-gathering capability. "During the Security Policy Initiative session, we are planning to request the United States to permit the sale of Global Hawk," the official said requesting anonymity. The bimonthly security meeting will be held in Washington Sept....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week. But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth at the international space station, didn't get the memo. Williams, through no fault of his own, let it slip Tuesday that the new vehicle's name is Orion. "We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name — Orion," Williams said, taping a message in advance for the space agency that was transmitted accidentally...