Author Topic: Orbital and ATK’s Aerospace and Defense Groups to Combine in $5 Billion Merger  (Read 91643 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

Notes they have already partnered together. Antares upper stages come to mind (potentially our lead image with the ATK on the Castor motor in space).
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Offline Chris Bergin

Had this already been a done deal, 2013 rev would have been $4.5 billion.
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Offline Chris Bergin

ATK will continue with munitions. (I think the British Army bought a boat load of ammunition from ATK a while back).
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Offline Chris Bergin

Dave Thompson - "This is a great day for Orbital and ATK. Will create a major new Space, aviation company. Much larger, more capable - with focus on affordability".
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Offline Chris Bergin

Growth and lower risk, financial synergies.....investors and shareholders....Waiting for something space related :)
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Offline Chris Bergin

Noting the breakdown of revenue. A lot is in space related business, such as satellites (which Orbital rule at).
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Offline Chris Bergin

They have worked together for 25 years. Over 400 rocket motors from ATK on 150 Orbital vehicles.

100 Orbital sats, have used ATK solar arrays, structures, tanks, etc.

Working together on Antares, Stratolaunch etc. Increased ATK involvement with Antares expected. (30XL is immediate future, so something more maybe)
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Offline jongoff

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Will Antares get a new, all composite solid first stage? Hhmmm...

Honestly, I'd be surprised. The Antares first stage was really high performance--the NK33s have great Isp and really high T/W for liquids. If anything they want to increase the payload of Antares up to the 3.4tonne class that they talked about in the Super Cygnus presentation from a few weeks back (which also happens to be about the payload class that ISS is asking for on CRS-2). I doubt that going to an all-solid Antares would enable that, but who knows, I haven't actually run the numbers. If the first stage is sufficiently larger than the Antares first stage, and if you put a second stage in there (so three-stage solid) it might work.

~Jon

Offline Chris Bergin

"This is the kind of merger, often sought, but rarely found." - Dave Thompson.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Question time. Starting with investor media as opposed to space media right now.

Expecting greater customer demand via lower costs. SpaceX angle?
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Offline Chris Bergin

Oh! Expect to be able to do some programs they couldn't individually, such as an advanced ICBM and Sat Servicing.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Need to spend some money over the first few years on transition costs.
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Offline Chris Bergin

JP Morgan. Royal Bank of Canada.....not your usual bunch of reporters for an event we cover! :)

A&D departments to merge forces as a big plus. Wonder if it means job losses....a lot of "creating efficiencies" which is the same thing sometimes. Hope not.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Affordability will be a watch word for the next decade in the space industry.....and particularly in the defense industry.

Notes the successful introduction of Antares and medium class satellites.
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Offline jongoff

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Oh! Expect to be able to do some programs they couldn't individually, such as an advanced ICBM and Sat Servicing.

Yeah, the ATK group that used to be Swales is just across DC from Dulles. That's where ATK had been working on its ViviSat project. It's also the group doing most of the sat servicing tools for Goddard and that had been pretty heavily involved in DARPA Phoenix as well. While ATK has done a little bit of spacecraft bus work, Orbital has done a ton, so I could see this merger being synergistic for satellite servicing. The two pieces they won't have in-house for sat servicing at that point are the prox-ops systems, and the robotic manipulators.

~Jon
« Last Edit: 04/29/2014 01:38 pm by jongoff »

Offline Chris Bergin

Both companies have a similar contract mix, per cost+ contracts, etc.
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Offline Chris Bergin

The merger will improve competitive position and customer demand in space products.

Orbital tried an entry point in some of ATK's business, but didn't work out. This merger solves that.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Don't expect to sell any businesses to pass reviews. Very little competitive overlap. (Which is good for jobs).
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Offline Chris Bergin

We're now past the 1000 mark for the mention of the word "synergies".

Last question, they were all from banks etc.

Report notes ATK have seen decreasing defense contract demand.

They see growth in Space market and missiles for ATK. Orbital's commercial satellite business is higher than ATK, but ATK in human space flight are about the same as Orbitals.
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Offline MP99

Will Antares get a new, all composite solid first stage? Hhmmm...

Honestly, I'd be surprised. The Antares first stage was really high performance--the NK33s have great Isp and really high T/W for liquids. If anything they want to increase the payload of Antares up to the 3.4tonne class that they talked about in the Super Cygnus presentation from a few weeks back (which also happens to be about the payload class that ISS is asking for on CRS-2). I doubt that going to an all-solid Antares would enable that, but who knows, I haven't actually run the numbers. If the first stage is sufficiently larger than the Antares first stage, and if you put a second stage in there (so three-stage solid) it might work.

I suspect they'll ultimately want to use Stratolaunch for that. It more than has the payload:-
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/08/orbital-atk-solid-partnership-stratolaunch-alv/

Edit: and to note the multi-solid design of that LV, much as you describe.

cheers, Martin
« Last Edit: 04/29/2014 01:57 pm by MP99 »

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