AMSTERDAM and PARIS Becoming a public company isn’t a bed of roses, as EADS and Thales are discovering. Complying with reporting requirements last week, they had to tell stockholders that the bottom line sank well into the red last year. However, the future may be brighter.

WASHINGTON The Airborne Laser’s first attempt to shoot down a ballistic missile will likely occur a year later than planned because of problems assembling the Boeing 747-based weapon. U.S. Air Force officials had hoped for ABL’s most anticipated test event to occur next year, but that schedule no longer seems feasible to the Missile Defense Agency, which only recently took the project’s management.

NEW YORK In a sharply worded legal brief, Northrop Grumman Corp. is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to declare that state’s tough anti-takeover laws unconstitutional and to block TRW Inc. from disrupting Northrop’s attempt to acquire it.

LONDON Scrambling to shave procurement costs, the British Defense Ministry is scrutinizing a raft of guidedweapons programs for the air force and army for potential cuts, at the same time as it attempts to protect key weapons procurement programs.

DALLAS Bell Helicopter Textron will essentially stop work on the BA609 civil tiltrotor program until flight tests of the military V-22 prove that tiltrotor technology is safe, and lay a foundation for introduction of a commercial version.