A key Aerojet Rocketdyne executive is optimistic about his business unit and company not only maintaining through sequestration-related federal budget cuts, but even growing.
“We see growth in all areas of the company right now,” Aerojet Rocketdyne Vice President of Missile Defense and Strategic Systems Michael Bright told Defense Daily yesterday. Aerojet Rocketdyne is a division of GenCorp [GY]. “Primarily, it’s back orders that are growing and that’s kind of where we are.”
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| Aerojet Rocketdyne Vice President of Missile Defense and Strategic Systems Michael Bright. Photo: Aerojet. |
With Congress on break for its August recess and fiscal year 2014 beginning Oct. 1, another round of legislative battles over the sequestration funding reductions, of $500 billion in decade-long defense spending, is set to renew when legislators return after Labor Day. Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House appear to be nowhere near a deal to stop sequestration. The Pentagon’s sequestration cut–from planned defense spending–for FY ’14 would be $52 billion. That FY ’14 cut would be 40 percent greater than the FY ’13 one, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel noted earlier this week (Defense Daily, Aug. 7).
Despite the reduction in defense spending and the possibility of more looming on the horizon, Bright said Aerojet hasn’t felt an impact and likely won’t “for some time.”
“Right now, we’re holding steady,” Bright said. “There will be impacts (from) sequestration…We’re building on back orders, so we aren’t feeling it yet. We’re optimistic about our ability to maintain through sequestration and even grow.”
Bright said he feels confident in Aerojet’s ability to wade through the sequestration waves because he knows what future orders and sales are. Bright said the programs he’s responsible for include Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) throttling divert and attitude control system (TDACS), which Aerojet spokeswoman Jessica Pieczonka said yesterday allows a solid rocket motor to be operated as a liquid, or “throttleable.” Bright also said his division has the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) liquid TDACS and the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) liquid TDACS.
Bright said the company is moving from development into production for SM-3 Blocks IB and IIA and THAAD is positive news for Aerojet. THAAD is a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) program developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT] that provides the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) with a globally transportable, rapidly deployable capability to intercept or destroy ballistic missiles inside or outside the atmosphere during their final, or terminal, phase of flight, according to MDA. Raytheon [RTN] produces the AN/TPY-2 radar portion of THAAD.
“I know what the future looks like and I know where that is going to go,” Bright said. “I can project into the future for five years and I can see growth in my particular business area.”
SM-3 is a defensive weapon used by the Navy to destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles. SM-3 destroys incoming ballistic missile threats by colliding with them. Raytheon [RTN] develops SM-3 Block IB and IIA.
GenCorp in June finalized its $550 million acquisition of the Rocketdyne business unit from United Technologies Corp. [UTX] The acquisition expanded Aerojet’s heavy lift rocket engine business and provide it with additional rocket boosters (Defense Daily, June 17).