Latest news with #Forget
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Nonprofit plans to remove 100 abandoned boats from Hampton Roads waterways
Abandoned vessels are a problem in Hampton Roads waterways, and this week a local environmental nonprofit is stepping in to help. At least 100 abandoned or derelict boats are in the water in southeast Virginia, according to Lynnhaven River Now Executive Director Karen Forget. The group began removing several vessels in Willoughby Bay on Monday, and the goal is to tackle 100 vessels over the next year. Forget said fiberglass boats became a big trend in the 1970s and 1980s, replacing many wooden boats on local waters. Now, many of those fiberglass boats have gone years without maintenance and are at the end of their lifespan, and owners end up abandoning them. 'There is really no good system in place for people who have a boat that no longer has any commercial value and really isn't seaworthy or usable any longer,' Forget said. 'I think a lot of boat owners just really don't know what to do. Some of them just abandon them. They anchor them someplace, and they leave the boat. Then it eventually drifts and it ends up on a shoreline.' Though other groups have removed derelict boats from local waterways before, this initiative has received significant federal funding to help cover the cost. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program has provided $2.9 million toward the project, and Lynnhaven River Now has also partnered with the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program, the Elizabeth River Project and others to coordinate the actual removals. These boats can cause myriad environmental issues. Sometimes, boats end up in wetlands and scrape across an oyster bed or other kind of critical habitat. Some of the vessels also still contain cleaning chemicals and gasoline, which can leak into the water. Once they start to drift, or are pushed by a storm, they can become hard to track down, creating issues for navigation in the water. 'They're literally moving targets,' Forget said. The first two boats that will be removed are near Willoughby Spit, Forget said, and both are creating issues for Navy helicopter operations. One is a sailboat that has sunk next to a seawall, with its mast sticking up out of the water. The other is a vessel that is partially jammed into a culvert that drains storm water off of Naval Station Norfolk. In total, Lynnhaven River Now is aware of at least 20 abandoned or derelict vessels in Willoughby Bay. More than 300,000 pounds of hazardous debris have been removed from Hampton Roads waterways thanks to this nonprofit Abandoned boats are a growing concern, state officials say. A Virginia Beach man is taking on the issue in local waters. New Portsmouth boat tax would lower rate for smaller businesses' boats Virginia Beach to vote on revised budget that scraps boat tax for annual fee Tuesday The nonprofit has also marked other vessels for removal. After the removals in Willoughby Bay, there are six slated for the eastern branch of the Elizabeth River in Virginia Beach, two in Norfolk's Broad Creek and a 63-foot double-masted sailboat on the North Landing River. The sailboat — right by the Pungo Ferry Boat Ramp in Virginia Beach — is causing problems in the area's habitat and navigation. Some cities have tried to crack down on the problem. Last year, Portsmouth City Council updated its code to strengthen laws against abandoned vessels. Now, citizens can be charged with a class 1 misdemeanor if a vessel is abandoned. For each boat, Forget said, the team must do its due diligence before removing it from the water. Each owner must be tracked down, and with many boat sales going through unofficial channels or without a title exchanged, Forget said it can be a 'massive undertaking' to find a boat's owner. Then, the removal plan is reviewed by NOAA for adherence to the National Environmental Protection Act. After the NEPA review, it must then be approved by the Virginia State Historic Preservation Office. All of these steps take more than a year to complete, she said. The team submitted the first group of boats in one batch. Forget said the nonprofit is also gathering survey data on how to prevent boats being abandoned in the first place. In some cases, she said an elderly person can't do the maintenance, or young people inherit a boat they never wanted. Others have intentionally sunk their boats after it cost too much to fix or manage upkeep. Using the survey data, the project will inform the development of Virginia's first abandoned and derelict vessel prevention and removal program. 'When you hear all these stories, you can start to try to put together why this problem exists, why it's gotten so bad,' Forget said. 'We don't want to come back in three years and take another 100 boats out of the water. Our intention is to clean up as much as we can, of the ones that we can identify right now, and then help to develop some programs to prevent this problem from continuing.' An abandoned boat reading 'Virginia Beach, VA' sits at the Willoughby Marina in Norfolk on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot) An abandoned boat sits at the Willoughby Marina in Norfolk on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot) Marine life swims around the mast of a sunken sailboat at the Willoughby Boat Ramp in Norfolk on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot) The mast of a sunken sailboat pokes out of the water at the Willoughby Boat Ramp in Norfolk on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.(Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot) The mast of a sunken sailboat pokes out of the water at the Willoughby Boat Ramp in Norfolk on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot) An abandoned boat sits at the Willoughby Marina in Norfolk on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot) Show Caption1 of 7A notice from the City of Norfolk sticks on the mast of a sunken sailboat at the Willoughby Boat Ramp in Norfolk on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 (Kendall Warner / The Virginian-Pilot)Expand Eliza Noe,
Globe and Mail
29-03-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
RTX May Bag a $4.2 Billion Big-Blimp Bonanza
Forget stealth fighter jets, drones, and orbital, Earth-observing spy satellites. If you ask the U.S. Army, the future of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) may actually reside in... blimps. Or at least they had better hope so. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » Earlier this month, the U.S. Pentagon announced it has awarded a $4.2 billion, 10-year contract to build "lighter than air systems, tethered systems, and elevated sensors" for the Army to a series of 10 different companies, working together and individually. Several of the names will be virtual unknowns to defense investors, privately held companies with names like Advanced Technology Systems Co, Elevated Technologies LLC, and Skyship Services Inc. Other names, however, will be more familiar: Leidos (NYSE: LDOS) is one of those latter. Also Britain's QinetiQ. Most familiar of all, though, will be RTX Corp (NYSE: RTX) and TCOM Holdings, the two companies that began building Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) aerostats for the Army back in the mid-2010s. What you need to know about JLENS You probably remember JLENS even if the name doesn't quite ring a bell. In 2015, aerostat made headlines under the title "Raytheon's Wandering Blimp" when the aerostat broke free from its anchor at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. The gigantic blimp began floating up and down the Eastern Seaboard, dragging its massive tether along the ground, taking down power lines and generally wreaking havoc until finally being shot down by Pennsylvanian policemen armed with shotguns. " Pop!" Suffice it to say the Army quickly put JLENS on the shelf after that incident, but nearly a decade later, JLENS resurfaced when the Polish military asked Congress to let it purchase $1.2 billion worth of aerostats to use for air and missile defense. RTX, TCOM, and QinetiQ were all named as vendors in the program. And now, one year later, here we are again with these names popping back up -- this time in a U.S. Army competition to sell nearly four times as many aerostats. What is JLENS good for? Late last year, I floated the idea (pun intended) that the U.S. military might want to revive JLENS as a way of keeping track of the strange surge of unidentified flying objects, believed to be hostile surveillance drones, that had been swarming over East Coast military bases and government installations for weeks. Peering down from an altitude of 10,000 feet, JLENS has been described as able to detect and track "all fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and land attack cruise missiles," and even "surface moving targets, large caliber rockets, and tactical ballistic missiles," around "a 360-degree field of view" and "up to a range of 340 miles." That's in contrast to most ground-bound radar systems currently used by the military, which have trouble detecting drones flying too close to the ground, as reported in a recent 60 Minutes story on the drones crisis. Were I to make an educated guess, I'd suspect this is a primary reason why the Army is preparing to spend $4.2 billion on aerostats today. Aerostats are also already in use along the U.S. southern border, however, where Customs and Border Protection uses them to monitor both aircraft and surface vehicles crossing over from Mexico and moving within the Gulf. The Army may be ordering more aerostats for this purpose as well. And, of course, there's the Poland order for $1.2 billion. It's entirely possible that at least some of the $4.2 billion the Army is awarding to RTX Corp and the other aerostat companies will go to fund the production of aerostats that Poland will eventually pay for. Will this move the needle on RTX stock? One word of caution: Because the U.S. Army contract names RTX as just one of 10 companies bidding on contracts to build "lighter than air systems, tethered systems, and elevated sensors," it's possible other awardees will actually win some (or even all) of the monies on offer. I personally think it's much more likely, however, that the company that's been building aerostats for the Army from the beginning will win the lion's share of this work. I'd further postulate that contracts awarded to RTX will run through the company's Raytheon threat-detection division, which according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence earns a 9.7% operating profit margin on its revenue. If I'm right about this, then $4.2 billion times 0.097 implies RTX is now in the running to earn on the order of $400 million in incremental profit from this contract. Granted, spread over 10 years, it's probably not enough to move the needle much on a company that already earns $8.6 billion in operating profit. But it's better than a sharp stick in the eye, so to speak -- which would also be hazardous to blimps. Should you invest $1,000 in RTX right now? Before you buy stock in RTX, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and RTX wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $682,965!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of March 24, 2025
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
RTX May Bag a $4.2 Billion Big-Blimp Bonanza
Forget stealth fighter jets, drones, and orbital, Earth-observing spy satellites. If you ask the U.S. Army, the future of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) may actually reside in... blimps. Or at least they had better hope so. Earlier this month, the U.S. Pentagon announced it has awarded a $4.2 billion, 10-year contract to build "lighter than air systems, tethered systems, and elevated sensors" for the Army to a series of 10 different companies, working together and individually. Several of the names will be virtual unknowns to defense investors, privately held companies with names like Advanced Technology Systems Co, Elevated Technologies LLC, and Skyship Services Inc. Other names, however, will be more familiar: Leidos (NYSE: LDOS) is one of those latter. Also Britain's QinetiQ. Most familiar of all, though, will be RTX Corp (NYSE: RTX) and TCOM Holdings, the two companies that began building Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) aerostats for the Army back in the mid-2010s. You probably remember JLENS even if the name doesn't quite ring a bell. In 2015, aerostat made headlines under the title "Raytheon's Wandering Blimp" when the aerostat broke free from its anchor at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. The gigantic blimp began floating up and down the Eastern Seaboard, dragging its massive tether along the ground, taking down power lines and generally wreaking havoc until finally being shot down by Pennsylvanian policemen armed with shotguns. "Pop!" Suffice it to say the Army quickly put JLENS on the shelf after that incident, but nearly a decade later, JLENS resurfaced when the Polish military asked Congress to let it purchase $1.2 billion worth of aerostats to use for air and missile defense. RTX, TCOM, and QinetiQ were all named as vendors in the program. And now, one year later, here we are again with these names popping back up -- this time in a U.S. Army competition to sell nearly four times as many aerostats. Late last year, I floated the idea (pun intended) that the U.S. military might want to revive JLENS as a way of keeping track of the strange surge of unidentified flying objects, believed to be hostile surveillance drones, that had been swarming over East Coast military bases and government installations for weeks. Peering down from an altitude of 10,000 feet, JLENS has been described as able to detect and track "all fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and land attack cruise missiles," and even "surface moving targets, large caliber rockets, and tactical ballistic missiles," around "a 360-degree field of view" and "up to a range of 340 miles." That's in contrast to most ground-bound radar systems currently used by the military, which have trouble detecting drones flying too close to the ground, as reported in a recent 60 Minutes story on the drones crisis. Were I to make an educated guess, I'd suspect this is a primary reason why the Army is preparing to spend $4.2 billion on aerostats today. Aerostats are also already in use along the U.S. southern border, however, where Customs and Border Protection uses them to monitor both aircraft and surface vehicles crossing over from Mexico and moving within the Gulf. The Army may be ordering more aerostats for this purpose as well. And, of course, there's the Poland order for $1.2 billion. It's entirely possible that at least some of the $4.2 billion the Army is awarding to RTX Corp and the other aerostat companies will go to fund the production of aerostats that Poland will eventually pay for. One word of caution: Because the U.S. Army contract names RTX as just one of 10 companies bidding on contracts to build "lighter than air systems, tethered systems, and elevated sensors," it's possible other awardees will actually win some (or even all) of the monies on offer. I personally think it's much more likely, however, that the company that's been building aerostats for the Army from the beginning will win the lion's share of this work. I'd further postulate that contracts awarded to RTX will run through the company's Raytheon threat-detection division, which according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence earns a 9.7% operating profit margin on its revenue. If I'm right about this, then $4.2 billion times 0.097 implies RTX is now in the running to earn on the order of $400 million in incremental profit from this contract. Granted, spread over 10 years, it's probably not enough to move the needle much on a company that already earns $8.6 billion in operating profit. But it's better than a sharp stick in the eye, so to speak -- which would also be hazardous to blimps. Before you buy stock in RTX, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and RTX wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $682,965!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 842% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 165% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of March 24, 2025 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends QinetiQ Group Plc and RTX. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. RTX May Bag a $4.2 Billion Big-Blimp Bonanza was originally published by The Motley Fool
