ORDER UP! LOCKHEED MARTIN COMPLETES FIGHTER JET DELIVERY.Byline: Daily News PALMDALE - 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. has delivered the last of five F/A-22 Raptors meant for the initial operational tests and evaluations. The fighter jet, delivered to the Air Force Nov. 26 at Marietta, Ga., will get additional work at Lockheed Martin's Palmdale plant before it goes to 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. . ``The delivery of Raptor 11 completes the five-ship Raptor fleet required by the Air Force for DIOT&E (Dedicated Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (testing) Initial Operational Test and Evaluation - (IOT&E) The first phase of operational test and evaluation conducted on pre-protectional items, prototypes, or pilot production items and normally completed prior to the first major production decision. ),'' said Ralph Heath, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. executive vice president and F/A-22 program general manager. Once at Edwards, Raptor 11 will be assigned to the Air Force Operational Test & Evaluation Center detachment there. The Air Force last month replaced its top two generals for the F/A-22 program, which faces possible cutbacks. Congress has set a cost limit on $37 billion on the program, but the Air Force said it faces a potential cost overrun Noun 1. cost overrun - excess of cost over budget; "the cost overrun necessitated an additional allocation of funds in the budget" cost - the total spent for goods or services including money and time and labor of $690 million. The F/A-22 Raptor is built by Lockheed Martin in partnership with Boeing, powered by Pratt & Whitney engines, and made from parts and subsystems provided by about 1,200 subcontractors and suppliers in 46 states. Principal aircraft production activities take place at Lockheed Martin facilities in Marietta, Ga.; Meridian, Miss.; Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas, 18th-largest city in the United States[1], and voted one of "America’s Most Livable Communities. ; and Palmdale, as well as at Boeing's plant in Seattle, Wash. The engines are built in East Hartford East Hartford, urban town (1990 pop. 50,452), Hartford co., central Conn., on the Connecticut River opposite Hartford; settled c.1640, inc. 1783. East Hartford is a trucking and warehousing center, with bulk oil storage and distribution. , Conn. The Raptor's low-observable control surface edges, antennas and radomes are built in Palmdale. The Raptor will replace the aging F-15 Eagle as America's premier front-line fighter jet, starting in 2005. The previous week, Edwards F/A-22 completed its flight test goals for 2002 with the launch of an AIM-9 Sidewinder The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range, air-to-air missile carried by fighter aircraft and recently, certain gunship helicopters. It is named after the Sidewinder snake, which detects its prey via body heat and also because of the peculiar snake-like path of flight the anti-aircraft guided missile over White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), formerly known as the White Sands Proving Grounds, is a rocket range in New Mexico operated by the United States Army. The range covers an area of almost 3,200 mi² (8 287 km²), approximately three times the size of Rhode Island, making it in New Mexico. The test demonstrated the aircraft's ability to fire the heat-seeking missile at high speed. The F/A-22 was flying at Mach 1.4 - 1.4 times the speed of sound - at 24,000 feet when it fired at a radio-controlled, unmanned Vietnam-era Phantom fighter jet traveling several miles away at Mach 1 at 14,000 feet. The missile was able to track the target and pass close enough to it that had it been armed with explosives, the missile would have detonated, officials said. This was the first of two targeted live-fire tests the F/A-22 program will conduct involving the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. The second AIM-9 missile launch test is scheduled for next year, said Rick Salazar, Avionics/Armament flight-test lead at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. The F/A-22 carries the missiles inside doors on its fuselage, which reduces the size of the image the plane presents to enemy radar. The doors automatically open and extend the missile when a target is in range. The missile automatically retracts once the target is out of range. The New Mexico test was monitored from the F/A-22 Combined Test Force's control rooms at Edwards Air Force Base. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) An F/A-22 Raptor from Edwards Air Force Base fires a Sidewinder sidewinder, common name for a rattlesnake, Crotalus cerastes, found in the deserts of the SW United States. This 2-ft (60-cm), pale yellow and pink snake is named for its curious method of locomotion. missile on Nov. 22 over White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. |
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