October 29, 2007: Aero defense and commercial aviation notes

A few notes and a list of stocks that have appeal as a new cold (soon to called "warm") war era begins with China, Russia and their minions.

The tide has turned in Iraq, and unless Congress finds a way to snatch defeat from victory before Christmas, US and coalition partners will begin reducing troops significantly by early Spring. Why? Superb tactics in rooting out terrorists, gaining local popular support, and the mass deployment of unmanned aircraft (see previous posts) capable of seeing and destroying anyone doing terrorist things 24/7. Iraq and a significant part of Afghanistan will be blanketed to the detail of every square inch by mid 2008. The technology is presently having a chilling effect upon our adversaries.

Even better, Iran has lost many operatives in Iraq and on the Iran-Iraq border areas where these aircraft can operate with impunity. Ditto for western Pakistan and the Taliban as Pakistani forces (wink, wink) are also said to be using these aerial weapons to vaporize our common terrorist zealots.

It is a shame the Democratic Party is invested in defeat, when almost all aspects of the War on Terror are looking positive.

News:

Practically all large cap defense names reported higher than expected earnings this past week.

RTN bought Oakley, a leader in cyberwarfare ops.

DOD sent Congress a $43.b supplemental request that included $19.9b for wheeled anti-explosive vehicles including $10.4b for WRAPs.

The first commercial A380 Airbus flight by Singapore Airlines was successfully completed.

Stocks:

Allaint Techsystems (ATK)
BE Aerospace (BEAV)
Boeing (BA)
Ceradyne (CRDN)
DRS Technologies (DRS)
Dyncorp (DYN)
Embraer (ERJ)
Easterline Technologies (ESL)
Flour (FLR)
Force Protection (FRPT)
General Dynamics (GD)
General Electric (GE)
Goodrich (GR)
KBR (KBR)
Precision Castparts (PCP)
Spirit Aerosystems(SPR)