Fri, Aug 29, 2003
General Atomics, the
folks who build the Predator, one of this century's gleaming
aviation success stories, and Lockheed Martin have teamed to
jointly pursue the U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance
(BAMS) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) program. BAMS UAV is a
$2 billion 'opportunity' to provide the U.S. Navy with a persistent
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability.
The BAMS UAV program will expand the U.S. Navy’s
capability to conduct broad area maritime surveillance and
complement the transition from the Navy’s current P-3 system
(bottom) to the next generation Multi-mission Maritime
Aircraft (MMA). Lockheed Martin’s integrated avionics mission
system expertise, along with unmanned aircraft such as
GA-ASI’s Predator B – Extended Range (right), provides
a low-risk solution to meet the Navy’s operational
requirements for persistent ISR missions, passing real-time
information to a variety of networked littoral and battle group
assets within the maritime infrastructure.
"Our two companies bring together complementary capabilities to
provide a low-risk and highly reliable systems solution to the U.S.
Navy’s maritime surveillance needs," said Jennifer E. Smith,
vice president, Business Development of the Lockheed Martin
Maritime Systems & Sensors Tactical Systems line of business.
"The Lockheed Martin/GA-ASI team’s BAMS UAV solution will
extend the war fighter’s ability to sense and counter enemy
positions over vast areas around the world."
Thomas J. Cassidy, Jr.,
president and chief executive officer of General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems, Inc., added, "The U.S. Navy deserves the type
of performance provided by the Predator B to dramatically extend
the capabilities of their maritime patrol aircraft fleet in order
to meet its future network-centric war fighting capabilities.
Predator B – Extended Range, based on the combat-proven
Predator system, offers the lowest possible risk to the U.S. Navy
at a fraction of the cost of competing systems. Working with
Lockheed Martin, our team will provide the best possible solution,
meeting the Navy’s highest expectations."
An award for the engineering manufacturing demonstration phase
award is slated for June 2004.
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