Raytheon missile deals worth $71M

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.30.2009

Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems has won two contracts worth a total of $71 million to provide Stinger surface-to-air missiles to the Army for foreign military sales customers Taiwan, Egypt and Turkey, the Pentagon announced.

A $45.4 million contract for Taiwan includes 171 of the portable missiles and related equipment, for completion by mid-2012. In the other contract, for $26 million, the company will provide 178 Stingers for Egypt and Turkey by the end of 2012

Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 3:18pm MST

The Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson received $20.8 million from the National Cancer Institute.

This is a renewal of funding from NCI, which has given financial support to the cancer center since 1978, when it received $1 million. The grant also extends the center’s designation as one of 40 comprehensive cancer units in the United States, and the only one based in Arizona.

The Arizona Cancer Center ranked 25th in NCI funding among facilities nationally, with more than $29 million.

To achieve its grant renewal, the cancer center submitted a 1,054-page application and hosted a 32-member peer-review committee visit in February. Facilities must demonstrate depth and breadth of activities in basic, clinical and prevention-control research. In 2007-08, 1,707 participants were enrolled in clinical trials at the Arizona Cancer Center.

Raytheon adds learning center

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.18.2009

At an employee event Tuesday, Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems human-resources chief Daisy Jenkins recalled how several years ago, staffers attended some training sessions in a couple of converted double-wide trailers on Raytheon’s headquarters campus.

“We’ve come a long way, baby!” Jenkins said moments before she cut the ribbon on the company’s new Employee Learning Center.

The two-story, 10,000-square-foot building, also known as Building M10, is tucked behind another Raytheon building at 3360 E. Hemisphere Loop, near South Palo Verde and East Valencia roads.

The center features 12 classrooms, a kitchen and two large conference rooms. It also features digital video displays and other high-tech equipment, including an interactive touch-screen display that allows a roomful of users to collaborate on a document.

One year into the job, Raytheon Missile’s chief looks for new ways to use technology

By Lee Allen, Inside Tucson Business
Published on Monday, June 15, 2009

The 12,515 people working for Raytheon Company’s Tucson-based Missile Systems Division make it the largest employer among Southern Arizona defense contractors. But don’t call the division’s leader, Taylor W. Lawrence, skipper of the largest industrial vessel in Pima County.

“Being in charge of a missile operation, I don’t know as I’d characterize my job as skipper, but fair enough, whatever you call it, it’s an awesome responsibility,” says the 45-year-old Stanford University graduate with a doctorate in applied physics.

Lawrence, who had been vice president of Engineering, Technology and Mission Assurance overseeing more than 40,000 engineers from Raytheon’s headquarters in Waltham, Mass., took over as president of the Missile Systems division on July 1, 2008. He replaced Louise Francesconi, who retired after 33 years with the company.

Drone maker now part of giant

By David Wichner

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.12.2009

What can a small, 50-employee technology company in Tucson offer the world’s second-largest defense contractor?

Quite a lot, based on comments from executives of BAE Systems who were in Tucson Thursday for their first local appearance as new owners of homegrown Advanced Ceramics Research, or ACR.

BAE Systems Inc., the North American subsidiary of British-based BAE Systems PLC, announced earlier this week that it had completed its buyout of ACR, a maker of unmanned aircraft and advanced materials, in a stock purchase worth $14.7 million.

Officials of both BAE and the former ACR described the deal as a perfect fit that will complement each company’s strengths in the burgeoning market for unmanned aircraft, known generally as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.

Raytheon to get $56M for RAM missile work

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.10.2009

The Naval Sea Systems Command is awarding Raytheon Missile Systems a $56.4 million contract change to supply 90 ship-defense missile rounds and related items, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

The modified contract for the Block 1 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), a NATO program for the United States and Germany, includes options that could bring the value to more than $118 million, the Pentagon said. The 9-foot-long RAM is designed to provide anti-ship missile defense for severalship types.

Half the work would be performed in Tucson, and most of the rest in Germany, by December 2011, the Pentagon said.

BAE Systems acquires Advanced Ceramics Inc.

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.09.2009

Defense giant BAE Systems Inc. on Monday completed a $14.7 million deal to acquire Tucson-based Advanced Ceramics Research Inc., a producer of small, unmanned aircraft and advanced materials.

The acquisition through a stock purchase was announced in March.

The Tucson business employs 60 people and has its headquarters at 3292 E. Hemisphere Loop. BAE Systems, headquartered in Rockville, Md., is the U.S. subsidiary of London-based BAE Systems PLC.

The deal did not include Advanced Ceramics Manufacturing LLC, a supplier of ceramics components on the Tohono O’odham Reservation near Tucson.

Published: 05.07.2009

UA spinoff seeks safer cancer drugs

Wife, husband use savings to develop product that can help in cancer fight

By Dan Sullivan

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A University of Arizona spinoff company started by a husband-and-wife team is marketing a new technology aimed at making cancer drugs safer.

Luceome Biotechnologies is developing a product dubbed KinaseSeeker that is available to academic labs and drug companies to help speed cancer drug development.

The company was started by Reena Zutshi and her husband, Indraneel Ghosh.

Zutshi, former operations vice president at Tucson-based ImaRx Therapeutics, is the company’s president and CEO. Ghosh — an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a member of the UA’s Bio5 biotechnology institute — is the chief scientific officer.