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Alliant Techsystems is renaming its Utah operations as ATK Launch Systems Group to better reflect its evolving and expanding role as a supplier of rocket motors and propulsion systems for both commercial and military programs.
Yet in stepping away from the well-known ATK Thiokol name, which Alliant adopted in 2001 when it acquired the Utah-based Thiokol Propulsion Corp. for about $700 million, the company vows that it will not severe its links with the past.
"We're not eliminating the name of Thiokol, but building upon it," said Ron Dittemore, president of the newly named ATK Launch Systems Group. "Thiokol is a registered trademark that will continue to be used because of its familiarity among our customers. It will always be part of who we are."
Dittemore said Alliant's Utah operations, which generate annual sales of approximately $900 million and employ 4,300 people at three locations along the Wasatch Front, is poised for additional growth. That is primarily because of its selection as the prime contractor for the first stage of NASA's new Crew Launch Vehicle, which is destined to replace the nation's aging space shuttle fleet.
And along with internal growth, the Utah operations also expect to gain additional work from programs previously managed by other Alliant units. They include the missile-defense propulsion systems for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor that is designed to shoot down incoming missiles, sounding rockets that are used in suborbital flights and additional space-launch vehicles.
ATK Launch Systems also will be part of the team that will be designing a nontoxic liquid oxygen/liquid methane rocket engine for NASA under a recent $10.4 million development contract.
"Our skills and capability in systems engineering have positioned us well for current and future programs," Dittemore said.
The Minnesota-based Alliant Techsystems earlier this week reported higher sales but lower fourth-quarter earnings because of costs associated with refinancing a portion of its debt.
Sales were up 15 percent, to $918 million, for the quarter, the company said, noting that each of its segments - including its propulsion and space business and its ammunition business - saw increases.
Securities analysts Troy Lahr and Hunter Keay at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore indicated they expect ATK's top-line growth to approach 7 percent in the coming fiscal year as the company continues its small-caliber ammunition production and reusable solid-rocket motor work for NASA.
"Two important business areas for ATK [human exploration and small-caliber ammunition] remain well supported by Congress and the Bush administration," they wrote in a research summary released earlier this week.