WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tucson, Arizona-based Securaplane Technologies Inc, which makes a charger for batteries used on the Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner, on Sunday said it would support an investigation into battery issues that have grounded the new planes.

Securaplane, a unit of Britain’s Meggitt Plc, first began working on the charger in 2004, but suffered millions of dollars of damages in November 2006 after a lithium-ion battery used in testing exploded and sparked a fire that burned an administrative building to the ground.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. safety inspectors on Sunday ruled out excess voltage as the cause of a battery fire last month on a Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner jet operated by Japan Airlines Co (JAL) and widened its efforts to include the battery’s charger and the jet’s auxiliary power unit.

Last week, governments across the world grounded the Dreamliner while Boeing halted deliveries after a problem with a lithium-ion battery on a second 787 plane, flown by All Nippon Airways Co (ANA), forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing in western Japan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon and U.S. Navy on Friday grounded the Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 fighter jet after an incident that occurred during a training flight at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on Wednesday.

The Pentagon’s F-35 program office said the grounding affected all 25 F-35B model jets, while flights of the Air Force’s A-model and the Navy’s C-model were unaffected. Ground operations of the B-model planes continued, it said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co and Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp, said they were teaming up to develop a next-generation multi-role helicopter for the U.S. military.

The strategic teaming agreement, signed January 13 and announced on Friday, reunites two of the biggest U.S. helicopter manufacturers, who often compete for orders but joined forces to build the Comanche, a U.S. Army helicopter program that was canceled in 2004.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Air Force is moving ahead with plans to change its approach to national security satellites, including greater use of government sensors on commercial satellites and possible launches of cheaper, less-complex satellites for other missions, a top Air Force general said on Thursday.

General William Shelton, who heads Air Force Space Command, told reporters that he expected to issue an open-ended, multiyear contract in 2013 that would allow the government to use more “hosted payloads” in which government sensors are launched aboard commercial satellites.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iran responded to a 2010 cyber attack on its nuclear facilities by beefing up its own cyber capabilities, and will be a “force to be reckoned with” in the future, a senior U.S. Air Force official told reporters on Thursday.

General William Shelton, who heads Air Force Space Command and oversees the Air Force’s cyber operations, declined to comment about Iran’s ability to disrupt U.S. government computer networks, but said Tehran had clearly increased its efforts in that arena after the 2010 incident.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday it would temporarily ground Boeing Co’s 787s after a second incident involving battery failures caused one of the Dreamliner passenger jets to make an emergency landing in Japan.

The FAA said airlines would have to demonstrate that the lithium ion batteries involved were safe before they could resume flying Boeing’s newest commercial airliner, but gave no details on when that could occur.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Lockheed Martin Corp
sees good prospects for selling new coastal warships and
helicopters it is building for the U.S. Navy to other countries,
especially given a planned U.S. pivot to the Asia-Pacific
region, company executives said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Navy’s plans to send Lockheed’s first Littoral
Combat Ship, or LCS-1, to Singapore in mid-April, could deepen
international interest in the new warship, said Michele Evans,
vice president of business development for Lockheed’s mission
systems and training business.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – General Dynamics Corp (GD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Monday it notified 139 of its employees at the U.S. Army Depot in Anniston, Alabama last week that they face layoffs beginning in March due to a reduction in the company’s production of Stryker armored vehicles.

General Dynamics issued notices to the workers under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining (WARN) Act, notifying them that the expected layoffs will kick in from March through April, said company spokesman Peter Keating.

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – The United States is
concerned about China’s expanding ability to disrupt the most
sensitive U.S. military and intelligence satellites, as Beijing
pursues its expanded ambitions in space, according to multiple
sources in the U.S. government and outside space experts.

A classified U.S. intelligence assessment completed late
last year analyzed China’s increasing activities in space and
mapped out the growing vulnerability of U.S. satellites that
provide secure military communications, warn about enemy missile
launches and provide precise targeting coordinates, said the
sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.