Published: 09.30.2007

Raytheon hunts for skilled workers; aging workforce adds urgency

By Jack Gillum

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Near the Westin La Paloma ballrooms sat dozens of candidates for jobs at Raytheon Missile Systems, many decked out in full suits or formal attire. Some were scouring their résumés, while others were making conversation before their interviews.

One of those candidates, 46-year-old Ronny Bolding, flew in from Huntsville, Ala., for a finance-job interview Sept. 20. That followed his 14-year career with NASA and its space shuttle program.

“We’re saving lives,” Bolding said, as if he were already part of Raytheon’s workforce. But he quickly turned to why he’s choosing a different career path with Tucson’s largest employer.

“I love it out here,” he said.

Missile maker hopes to diversify, create technology for peacetime

Max Jarman
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 30, 2007 12:00 AM

Tucson’s Raytheon Missile Systems is on a roll.

The company’s Tomahawk and Paveway missiles are the weapons of choice for the U.S. military in Iraq.

Its Standard Missile 3s and its Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicles are the backbone of an elaborate plan to defend the United States and its allies from enemy attacks.

Raytheon Missile Systems, a unit of Waltham, Mass., defense contractor Raytheon Co., now is the world’s largest supplier of guided missiles and the largest private employer in southern Arizona.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent invasion of Iraq, Raytheon has racked up billions of dollars in new government contracts that have doubled company revenue to more than $4.5 billion a year.

Louise Francesconi, Raytheon Missile Systems’ forward-thinking president, isn’t satisfied. She’s obsessed with reinventing a peacetime role for the wartime powerhouse and new niches for the company inside an increasingly high-tech U.S. military.

Published: 09.26.2007

Arizona Daily Star

Missile-defense test involving Raytheon set for Friday

BLOOMBERG NEWS

The latest test of a ground-based U.S. missile defense system using components made by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems is scheduled for Friday, the Pentagon said.

The most recent test, scheduled for May 25, was scrubbed when the target failed to achieve a flight profile replicating an incoming North Korean missile. The last successful test occurred in September 2006.

A Raytheon warhead carried on an Orbital Sciences Corp. interceptor missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, will attempt to intercept the surrogate enemy missile fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, during the $85 million test, the Missile Defense Agency said.

“This will be a retest of the May test,” agency spokesman Rick Lehner said in a statement today. “A target intercept will be a primary test objective,” he said. “We will be using the same interceptor missile from that test.

Published: 09-24-2007

Sept. 24, 2007

UA gives bioscience a boost in Tucson, and Phoenix

Published: 09.18.2007

Solar council: More perks needed

Group finds technology adequate, proposes three-point action plan

By Shelley Shelton

Solar technology is up to snuff, but the heat is on to increase financial incentives and community education about solar energy, according to a report issued by Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ Community Solar Energy Initiative advisory council and work group.

Although Arizona has enough daily sunshine to power the United States, more than 90 percent of Southern Arizona’s electricity generation is fueled by coal, according to the report.

The report identifies three key areas that need attention to guarantee solar market success, along with an action plan for each area:

Incubator advocates tell what’s needed for success

By Philip S. Moore
Inside Tucson Business

Business incubators need support to help startup firms

Andrew Johnson
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 14, 2007 02:57 PM

Business incubators can play a key role in advancing and sustaining a community’s entrepreneurial spirit, but the programs need support from local economic-development officials and investors if they are to have a lasting impact.

That was the message relayed Thursday in Tucson by two national experts on business incubation at a luncheon hosted by the University of Arizona’s Office of Economic Development and the Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities group.

Incubators are programs that typically provide startup companies with office and lab space, business consulting services and access to investors groups.

UA trial seeks cure for valley fever

30,000 suffering in Tucson, Phoenix areas

ALAN FISCHER

Published: 09.13.2007

University of Arizona researchers are ready to launch a long-delayed human clinical trial on a drug they hope will cure valley fever.

Nikkomycin Z, discovered in the 1970s, will be tested in Tucson on people diagnosed with fresh cases of valley fever to show the drug’s safety and offer insights on its effectiveness, said Dr. John Galgiani, director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence.

Valley fever – also known as Coccidioidomycosis – is a fungal pneumonia with no cure that primarily strikes people in desert areas of southern Arizona and the San Joaquin Valley in California, Galgiani said.