Page 10 - CNC West web Feb March 2022

EXEC H TLINE
Austal to Spend $100M on
National City, CA. Site
Austal USA, which builds small surface ships for the U.S. Navy, has big growth plans for National City.
The defense contractor expects to make ap- proximately $100 million worth of improve- ments to a newly leased bayfront site south of the 32nd Street naval station. In addition, it plans to expand its local headcount of 60 employees to more than 300 by the summer of 2023, according to Larry Ryder, Austal USA’s vice president of business development and external affairs.
The business announced plans to bring in a 531-foot dry dock, suitable for substantial repair jobs. Austal plans to maintain and repair small Navy surface combatants — includ- ing the Austal-built Littoral Combat Ship and the Navy’s new class of frigates — as well as ships from the Military Sealift Command and U.S. Coast Guard.
Austal is investing approximately $100 mil- lion on the dry dock, lease acquisition and other capital expenditures, Ryder said.
Kratos Defense Building
Affordable Jet Engines
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. announced that it received an initial pro- duction order for a new, affordable, high performance jet engine for an aerial vehicle application. Its customer, which it did not name, is in the national security space. Fi- nancial terms were not disclosed.
Kratos said it is under contract from sev- eral government and other national security related customers for the development of next generation, affordable, high performance tur- bojet, turbofan and other engine types for unmanned aerial system (UAS) aircraft, cruise missiles, powered munitions, and other related systems. Work under the just announced order will be performed at a secure Kratos manufac- turing facility.
Separately, Kratos announced that it re- ceived initial funding of approximately $4 million on a new, single-award C5ISR program (the initials stand for Command, Control, Communication, Computing, Combat System, In- telligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance). The customer was not identified.
Rocket Lab to Acquire Space
Solar Power Products Company
SolAero for $80M
Long Beach-based rocket launch company Rocket Lab USA Inc. announced Dec. 13 that it has agreed to acquire Albuquerque, N.M.- based space solar products company SolAero Holdings Inc. for $80 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
SolAero Holdings is one of only two compa- nies that produce high-efficiency, space-grade solar cells in the United States; the other is Spectrolab, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Boeing Co.
Space solar cells, also known as space solar panels, are used to power satellites, some spacecraft and other space-based facili- ties such as the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope.
By merging with Rocket Lab, SolAero hopes to use Rocket Lab’s resources and manufactur- ing capability to boost the production and efficiency of its space solar cells.
Under the deal, SolAero Chief Executive Brad Clevenger will stay on to lead the So- lAero team at its production facility in Al- buquerque.
Boeing and Atlas Air Worldwide
Announced an Order for Four 777
Freighters.
The order, placed in December, rounds out a record-setting 2021 for Boeing’s freighter family including new-production and converted models. Boeing has forecast that the global freighter fleet will grow by 70% in the next 20 years, with freight carriers such as Atlas Air supporting a rapidly expanding global e- commerce business and evolving supply chains.
Through November, Boeing had surpassed the previous freighter record including 80 orders for new production freighters and more than 80 orders for converted models.
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