HIDING BOMBER IN SKY ROBOT STEALTH CRAFT BEING TESTED BY RADAR.Byline: Daily News The first round of testing - to determine how detectable it is by radar - has been completed on a full-scale model made by Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. of the proposed X-47B experimental robot bomber. Testing of the craft's radar cross section Radar cross section (RCS) describes the extent to which an object reflects an incident electromagnetic wave. It is a measure of the strength of the radar signal backscattered from a "target" object for a given incident wave power. , or the image it would present to enemy radar, will continue throughout 2006 at Lockheed Martin's Helendale Measurement Facility west of Barstow. Company officials said this is one of only two radar cross section ranges in in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . The model also functions as a design tool, not simply a demonstration device. It is built in modular configuration so it can be changed to refine the aircraft's stealthiness stealth·y adj. stealth·i·er, stealth·i·est Marked by or acting with quiet, caution, and secrecy intended to avoid notice. See Synonyms at secret. . Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. is leading the development of the X-47B for the Defense Department's joint unmanned combat air-systems program. ``The configuration that we are ultimately targeting was developed by the X-47B team as part of the ... program. Later in the program, components from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Pratt & Whitney will be integrated and tested,'' said Frank Alvidrez, program manager for Lockheed Martin. Northrop Grumman provided the initial shape of the aircraft and the proposed aerodynamic features, including control surfaces and gear and payload (1) Refers to the "actual data" in a packet or file minus all headers attached for transport and minus all descriptive meta-data. In a network packet, headers are appended to the payload for transport and then discarded at their destination. door arrangements. While Lockheed Martin built the model, Northrop Grumman will use the test data to improve the X-47B's design for being stealthy stealth·y adj. stealth·i·er, stealth·i·est Marked by or acting with quiet, caution, and secrecy intended to avoid notice. See Synonyms at secret. or less likely to be observed. ``It allows us to test our signature level, refine it and retest - all on the same vehicle. This is a first in the industry,'' said Rick Ludwig, Northrop Grumman's business-development director for unmanned systems. Pratt & Whitney will provide the inner structure of the exhaust module in later tests. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) A full-scale model on a pole is being used to test and also refine the stealthiness of the proposed X-47B experimental robot bomber, above. At left, a full-scale model of a stealthy robot bomber, built by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Palmdale, is being tested with radar near Barstow. Lockheed Martin |
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