Winners Announced February 25th

The Lockheed Martin Low Cost Autonomous Attack System (LOCAAS) has been selected as a finalist in the Missiles and Military Aviation category of the Flight International Aerospace Industry Awards 2004. The final winners will be announced at a ceremony on the evening of February 25 at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia hotel in Singapore during the Asian Aerospace show. This is the second consecutive year that the Aerospace Industry Awards committee has selected LOCAAS for recognition.

The Missiles and Military Aviation category acknowledges the most prominent developments in all spheres of aerial warfare, including transport, surveillance and combat aircraft and missiles and weapon systems. The key criteria for the award includes genuine technological advancement and "fitness for purpose."

The LOCAAS system was nominated and selected for its series of flight demonstrations that proved the effectiveness of the system in loitering over a battlefield area and discriminating targets from other vehicles. LOCAAS is designed as a smart, extended-range munition that can be used to take out high-priority targets in heavily defended areas.

"The entire LOCAAS team sincerely appreciates this recognition from such a well respected and authoritative international media organization," said Randy Bigum, vice president -- Strike Weapons at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

"Our flight tests have demonstrated how LOCAAS operates in an environment where there is a fairly high degree of uncertainty about the target's location and the system's ability to distinguish the actual targets from lower priority targets and non-targets. LOCAAS proved that it can clearly find, fix, identify, track, target and attack complex targets in difficult scenarios."

LOCAAS carries a multi mode, explosively formed penetrator warhead. The warhead can be detonated as a long rod penetrator, an aerostable slug or as fragments, based on the hardness of the target. Target aim point and warhead mode are automatically determined by the Lockheed Martin-developed Laser Detection and Ranging (LADAR) seeker, using demonstrated Automatic Target Recognition algorithms. LOCAAS can be dispensed from the Air Force SUU-64 tactical munition dispenser, and potentially from an internal weapons bay carriage, munition ejector rack system, or external pylons.

LOCAAS represents the next step in capability for the US Air Force, following other successful Lockheed Martin Strike Weapons programs such as the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), currently in Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP), and the combat-proven Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD). The LOCAAS program has potential application with the F-16, F/A-22, F- 35, B-1 and B-2 aircraft. The LOCAAS LADAR seeker technology has been selected by the U.S. Army in its transformational acquisition program, called Non Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS), for its Loitering Attack Munition.

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com