LOCKHEED DELIVERS LASER TURRET SHELL IS KEY FOR WEAPONS SYSTEM.Byline: Daily News EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - 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. said it has delivered the turret that will hold a laser on a Boeing 747 being built to shoot down missiles. Assembled at Lockheed Martin Space System's Sunnyvale plant, the flight turret will be installed on the nose of a 747 being readied for tests at Edwards Air Force Base. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and 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. are developing the airborne laser with the Air Force and the Missile Defense Missile defence is an air defence system, weapon program, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception and destruction of attacking missiles. Originally conceived as a defence against nuclear-armed ICBMs, its application has broadened to include shorter-ranged Agency. Lockheed Martin is responsible for creating the system that will point, focus and fire the laser. Northrop Grumman is providing the high- energy laser. Boeing is responsible for supplying the modified 747-400 freighter aircraft, developing the battle management system and putting together all the components. If the military can get the weapon to work well enough for service, the airborne laser aircraft will patrol in pairs at more than 40,000 feet and inside friendly territory, scanning the horizon for missiles. When a missile is detected, a tracking laser beam will illuminate it, and computers will measure the distance and calculate its course and direction. A second high-energy laser, fired in a three- to five-second burst from the nose turret, will hit the missile's relatively fragile fuel tank casing, weakening metal already under high pressure from the ignited ig·nite v. ig·nit·ed, ig·nit·ing, ig·nites v.tr. 1. a. To cause to burn. b. To set fire to. 2. To subject to great heat, especially to make luminous by heat. rocket fuel. The aim is to destroy missiles shortly after launch while they are still far from their targets. The program comes in response to American military officials' conclusion that some 30 nations have ballistic missiles comparable to the Scuds that Iraq fired against Israel and against American forces during the 1991 Gulf War. Lockheed Martin's flight turret assembly mechanism includes the flight turret ball containing a telescope beam director plus a lightweight shell that covers and protects the optics when they are not in use. The flight turret ball arrived at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Lockheed Martin Space Systems is one of the 4 major business divisions of Lockheed Martin. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. From a rich history of major companies Lockheed Martin has brought them together to offer design, integration, and production of: When an individual or a company is involved in a large-scale project, a contractor is often hired to see that the work is done. L3-Brashear of Pittsburgh, Pa. Sunnyvale workers tested it and installed the other components before shipping it to Edwards. Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin delivered beam control and fire control components. The cost of developing the laser-armed jet has more than doubled in cost to $2 billion and could go up millions more, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a congressional audit released this year. Defense officials did not adequately plan for and could not fully anticipate the complexity of developing and demonstrating critical technologies needed for the airborne laser, the General Accounting Office report said. Edwards hosts the ground and flight test work. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) A Lockheed Martin engineer inspects the turret ball window on the flight assembly for the laser. |
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