BAE Systems Spies Growth in Space Defense
June 22 2016 - 9:50AM
Dow Jones News
LONDON—Protecting space systems from attack is emerging as a
growth opportunity for BAE Systems PLC, a senior company executive
said, particularly given the Pentagon's worries about safeguarding
some of its most sensitive spacecraft.
Space "is a new frontier," said Tom Arseneault, Chief Operating
Officer of BAE Systems, Inc., the U.S. arm overseeing most of the
company's defense-electronics activities. "It is an area where
full-up electronic warfare capability is of increasing interest,"
he said.
Interest in protecting satellites was spurred by China's
successful test of an antisatellite weapon in 2007. The kill
vehicle destroyed an out-of-service Chinese weather satellite,
creating a huge debris field. The Pentagon in a report to Congress
this year said China was continuing with tests that appear to be
linked to advancing antisatellite capabilities.
Mr. Arseneault said the 2007 test caused a ripple effect not
unlike that generated by the Soviet Union's shooting down of
Francis Gary Powers and his U-2 spy plane using a long-range,
antiaircraft missile some 56 years ago. The highflying U-2 was
expected to be safe and had no self-protection equipment. Mr.
Powers, who flew the spy plane for the Central Intelligence Agency,
was captured and held prisoner for almost two years.
"If someone can show they can shoot down a satellite just like
they could shoot down a U-2 back in 1960, self-protection is a
concern," Mr. Arseneault said.
Gen. John Hyten, the head of U.S. Air Force Space Command in
April said the U.S. could no longer assume its spacecraft were safe
in announcing an initiative to bolster spacecraft defenses. The
effort also includes the National Reconnaissance Office, he said,
which builds U.S. spy satellites.
Mr. Arseneault wouldn't detail specific projects BAE was
pursuing, but said the Pentagon was putting more money into such
efforts.
BAE Systems makes equipment to protect everything from Boeing
Co. AH-64 attack helicopters to the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35
Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's biggest weapons program. The
company's Electronic Systems unit, which had about $4 billion in
sales last year, generated roughly a third from its
electronic-warfare activities, Mr. Arseneault said.
After a period during which BAE was bidding on many high-profile
Pentagon electronic warfare programs, Mr. Arseneault said the focus
now has shifted to securing upgrades to existing platforms.
The company has had mixed success in winning some of the
big-ticket items. It has secured a key position on the Pentagon's
new B-21 bomber, being developed by Northrop Grumman Corp. BAE lost
an important U.S. Navy jammer project to Raytheon Co. and a U.S.
Army helicopter self-protection program to Northrop Grumman
Corp.
"Big franchise programs are behind us right now," Mr. Arseneault
said. The company, for instance, is competing to against Northrop
Grumman to upgrade Air Force Special Operations C-130 planes. BAE
Systems also would play a key part on a U.S. Air Force program to
modernize a plane used to jam enemy radar systems. The plan to
shift the mission from a C-130 transport plane to a business jet
has met congressional opposition, though.
Mr. Arseneault said the company also is looking for Boeing to
win more export orders for the F-15 jet fighter, for which it
provides the electronic-warfare system. Qatar is considering buying
the plane.
The miniaturizing of electronics is making application of
sophisticated electronic-warfare equipment feasible in other
domains, such as making more sophisticated missiles or protecting
increasingly sophisticated and expensive drones.
Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 22, 2016 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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