Reply #18: United Defense Indus. wins $376 Navy contract [View All]

[UpInArms]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?dateid=38510.3481496991-836361768&siteID=mktw&scid=0&doctype=806&property=symb&value=&categories=&

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- United Defense Industries (UDI) said it won a $376 million contract to continue designing, developing and testing advanced gun systems for the Naval Sea Systems Command. The gun systems included the fully automated gun, magazine and long range land attack projectile used on the Navy's new destroyer. Work for the contract is expected to be completed by September 2010. The stock closed Monday up 6 cents at $74.56.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/report.aspx?aid=424&sid=200

Investing in War
The Carlyle Group profits from government and conflict

WASHINGTON, November 18, 2004 — The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm that employs numerous former high-ranking government officials with ties to both political parties, was the ninth largest Pentagon contractor between 1998 and 2003, an ongoing Center for Public Integrity investigation into Department of Defense contracts found.

A dozen companies in which Carlyle had a controlling interest netted more than $9.3 billion in contracts.

Overall, six private investment firms, including Carlyle, received nearly $14 billion in Pentagon deals between 1998 and 2003. (See related report, "The Sincerest Form of Flattery.")

From its founding in 1987, the Carlyle Group has pioneered investing in the defense and national security markets, and through its takeover of companies with billions of dollars in defense contracts became one of the U.S. military's top vendors, ranking among better known defense firms like Lockheed Martin, Boeing Co., Raytheon Co., Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics.

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It was under the leadership of former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci—first as a managing director, from 1989 to 1993, and as chairman from 1993 to 2003—that Carlyle grew from a small private equity to a global investment giant, and became a major player among defense contractors.

Other former government officials who have recent or current ties to the firm include former British Prime Minister John Major and former Philippines President Fidel Ramos; former Office of Management and Budget director Richard Darman; former Clinton chief of staff Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty; former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt and former Federal Communications Commission chairman William E. Kennard. Former Secretary of State James Baker works for the firm, as did his former boss, President George H.W. Bush, who was an adviser for the firm's Asian investment funds until he left Carlyle in 2003.

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Though none are placed as closely as the president's father, Carlyle's other Washington insiders have ties to current Bush administration officials. Current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Carlucci went to college together, for example, and Secretary of State Colin Powell was Carlucci's deputy on the National Security Council in the mid-1980s.

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