16 Dec 10. The LONGBOW Limited Liability Company, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, marked the delivery of the 400th LONGBOW Fire Control Radar (FCR) at a ceremony held today at a Lockheed Martin facility in Orlando, FL. The combat-proven LONGBOW FCR is fielded with the U.S. Army and eight international customers. The LONGBOW FCR is a true battlefield force multiplier, said Col Shane Openshaw, U.S. Army program manager for Apache. The system s advanced air and ground targeting capabilities provide critical support for ground troops while limiting the aircrew s exposure to threats. As operational missions change, the LONGBOW FCR continues to meet the needs of the Warfighter, said Jerry Garman, LONGBOW LLC president and director of LONGBOW programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. High system reliability and low-cost, two-level maintenance ensures the fire control solution is readily available to the Apache aviator. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command awarded the initial LONGBOW FCR production contract in 1995. Work is performed at Lockheed Martin facilities in Orlando and Ocala, FL, and Northrop Grumman facilities in Baltimore, MD. Delivery of an additional 25 systems currently contracted will be complete in 2012. For more than a decade, the LONGBOW FCR has provided Apache aircrews with target detection, location, classification and prioritization. In all weather, over multiple terrains and through any battlefield obscurant, the radar allows automatic and rapid multi-target engagement. The LONGBOW FCR integrates with the LONGBOW HELLFIRE missile, enhancing the Apache s lethality fourfold and increasing survivability sevenfold.
15 Dec 10. The Lockheed Martin A2100 commercial communications satellite fleet has achieved a major milestone by accumulating 300 years of successful in-orbit operations. The A2100 satellite series, designed and manufactured at Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS), currently consists of 37 commercial communication satellites featuring 1400 transponders with an accumulated lifetime of over 11,000 years of successful operations in orbit. The first A2100 satellite, GE-1 (now known as AMC-1), was launched Sept. 8, 1996 and has surpassed 14 years of service life. BSAT-3b, the most recent A2100 spacecraft, was launched Oct. 28, 2010 for the Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT) of Japan. The satellite was handed over for operation to B-SAT on Dec. 8, 2010. “The easy-to-fly A2100 satellite’s tremendous versatility and reliability are based on an incremental approach to implementing new technology, enhancing spacecraft performance while assuming very low risk to the overall mission,” said LMCSS President Joseph Rickers. “We’re extremely proud of the A2100’s Mission Success record and are confident we can continue to provide the same engineering excellence, manufacturing quality and high level of customer satisfaction to our programs and customers around the globe,” continued Rickers. Throughout its 52-year history, Lockheed Martin has built 98 commercial communications geostationary earth orbit satellites which have achieved a total of 921 in-orbit years.