2019cnc4-5

8 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST April/May 2019 EXEC H TLINE Continued on page 96....... Boeing in El Segundo Secures Work The Boeing Co. has been awarded a $4 bil- lion modification contract by the Department of Defense to produce 78 F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets for the U.S. Navy. The contract stipulates the production and delivery of 78 F/A-18 aircraft, specifically 61 F/A-18E and 17 F/A-18F aircraft for fiscal years 2018 through 2021, according to the De- partment of Defense. The company’s El Segundo, California, plant will get 61 percent of the work with a variety of other operations filling out the rest. Palmdale, CA Company Produces 500th Center Fuselage Northrop Grumman Corp. produced its 500th center fuselage for the F-35 Lighting II jet fighter in late February at its Palmdale manu- facturing facility, the company announced. The aerospace and defense contractor said it was ahead of schedule with this delivery. Northrop produces the fuselage using an in- tegrated assembly line that employs robotics and automation. The fuselages are sent for final assembly to a Fort Worth, Texas plant operated by Lockheed Martin Corp. Kevin Mickey, sector vice president and general manager of military aircraft systems in Palmdale, said that Northrop has set the standard for producing military aircraft. “Our teams and suppliers are constantly finding better, more affordable ways to deliver a superior product on-time, at-cost and, as with this center fuselage, ahead of schedule,” Mickey said in a statement. The F-35 is the newest single-seat fighter developed for the U.S. and foreign militaries. The aircraft comes in three versions – con- ventional takeoff and landing for the U.S. Air Force, carrier takeoff and landing for the U.S. Navy and short takeoff and vertical landing. San Diego Based Kratos Buys Florida Turbine Technologies Kratos Defense, which has a business build- ing small military drones, may soon build its own jet engines for those aircraft. The San Diego company announced Feb. 28 that it acquired a majority stake in Florida Turbine Technologies Inc. for $60 million. Kratos is paying $33 million in cash and $27 million in Kratos stock. Kratos also announced the formation of a new business unit focused on small, affordable, high-performance jet engines, to be led by executive Stacey Rock. The deal gives Kratos an 80.1 percent stake in FTT. The San Diego business will have the option to buy the remaining 19.9 percent at an unspecified date in the future. Vector Secures Additional $70M in Series B Financing Vector, a leading microsatellite launch company with manufacturing in Arizona com- prised of New Space and enterprise software industry veterans from SpaceX, Virgin Galac- tic, McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, Sea Launch and VMware,recently announced that it has secured $70M in a Series B funding round led by Kodem Growth Partners, in conjunction with Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners. Ex- isting investors Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures also participated in the round. “Vector’s solution for routine and afford- able access to space is what motivated Se- quoia to partner with Vector in their Series A,” said Bill Coughran, Partner at Sequoia. “Since then, Vector has grown rapidly and we look forward to continuing the journey with this tenacious team.” “Low earth orbit satellite launches are pro- jected to grow nearly four times in the next four years, but no dedicated launch platform exists with robust capability to get small satellites into space,” said Alex Taussig, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “ Over the next few months, Vector will ex- pand its sales and marketing teams, effectively doubling its footprint in Silicon Valley. In addition, as the company enters into the pro- duction phase of its launch vehicles, Vector expects to break ground on its state-of-the- art factory in Tucson, AZ