Lockheed Martin Prepares Australia’s First Aegis Weapon System For Post-Production Testing

MOORESTOWN, N.J., March 30 /PRNewswire/ — Four antennas destined for Australia’s first Air Warfare Destroyer were recently installed in Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT)’s Aegis Production Test Center, marking the full system’s transition from production to testing.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090330/PH90392 )

Testing on the first Air Warfare Destroyer Aegis shipset will begin in early May and complete in November. When testing concludes, the full Aegis Weapon System will be ready for installation in HMAS Hobart, the first of three Australian Air Warfare Destroyers under contract.

Lockheed Martin’s Production Test Center replicates a ship’s superstructure and allows for the first integration of all the subsystems of the Aegis Weapon System, including the SPY-1D(V) radar, illuminators, all computing hardware, and the cabling that will be used in the final ship installation. In its Production Test Center, Lockheed Martin conducts testing concurrently with each subsystem’s installation, as well as with the entire completed Aegis Weapon System, in order to ensure the system is ready for the rigors of sea before it ever leaves land.

“The land-based testing with HMAS Hobart’s Aegis Weapon System continues our enduring best practice of the ‘build a little, test a little’ philosophy which has underpinned the Aegis Program from its beginning,” said Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Surface/Sea-Based Missile Defense Systems line of business. “This process is critical to the exacting reliability that Aegis continually delivers.”

Upon completion of the testing, the Aegis Weapon System will be shipped to ASC Shipyard in Adelaide, Australia, when the shipyard is ready to install the system. The Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyer will be the most advanced and complex warships ever built in Australia and will introduce the Aegis Weapon System to the Royal Australian Navy.

The Aegis Weapon System is the world’s premier proven naval defense system. Its precision S-band SPY-1 radar and missile system seamlessly integrate with its own command and control. Its ability to detect, track and engage targets ranging from sea-skimming cruise missiles to ballistic missiles in space is unmatched.

The 91 Aegis-equipped ships currently in service around the globe have more than 1,100 years of at-sea operational experience and have launched more than 3,500 missiles in tests and real-world operations. In addition to the U.S. and Australia, Aegis is the maritime weapon system of choice for Japan, Norway, South Korea and Spain.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

For additional information on Lockheed Martin Corporation, visit: http://www.lockheedmartin.com

SOURCE Lockheed Martin