Mil-Tech

England’s Desert Hawk III UAV contract awarded to Lockheed Martin

England’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) awarded Lockheed Martin a $5.1 million contract for additional Desert Hawk III unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Desert Hawk III’s improved payloads maximize target detection and recognition by providing 360-degree daytime and nighttime coverage in a common turret package. These latest generation payloads also include a Lockheed Martin-developed navigation system that delivers more refined target position information and improved image stability to the troops.

Awarded by the MoD’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) organization, the latest contract calls for Lockheed Martin to deliver the Desert Hawk III air vehicles which as a result of ongoing obsolescence management and technology advancements in this area feature enhanced 360-degree infrared and 360-degree, 10-times zoom electro optics – later this year.

“We are extremely pleased with the enhanced capability that these new payloads bring to Desert Hawk III and the British Army,” says Duncan Robbins, program manager for mini-UAV systems, MoD DE&S. “Desert Hawk’s latest enhancements allow it to operate more effectively in difficult conditions and provide our soldiers with greater situational awareness in a very timely manner.”

“The battle-proven Desert Hawk III can operate in high winds, extended altitude and extreme temperatures, making it very effective in areas such as Afghanistan,” says Mark Swymeler, a vice president for Lockheed Martin’s Ship and Aviation Systems line of business. “Unlike some other UAVs, it is extremely quiet and virtually undetectable beyond 150 meters.”

Equipped with steerable, plug-and-play imaging payloads, the Desert Hawk has provided the British Army with greater situational awareness capabilities in Afghanistan since 2006.

The eight-pound Desert Hawk III features an open architecture environment and consists of a light weight, hand-launched, ruggedized air vehicle with snap-on Plug and Playloads, a portable ground station, and a remote video terminal. The snap-on payload capability allows a single operator to swap sensors on the air vehicle in less than one minute to meet immediate and rapidly changing mission requirements.

Lockheed shows off simulator for new fighter

Employees of a key supplier to Lockheed-Martin are getting a chance to fly one the aircraft builder’s newest fighter jet, if only in a conference room.

Lockheed is taking an F-35 simulator to suppliers and military bases around the country. The idea is to let them get a better feel for the end product they make parts for, or one day might fly. On Wednesday, the tour came to Fatigue Technology Inc. south of Seattle, which makes aircraft fasteners and fittings.

The simulator, about the size of a small car, doesn’t move. But its realistic cockpit and video screens accurately show what a real pilot would experience, including flying at more than the speed of sound, dropping bombs and firing missiles.

The $323 billion F-35 program – the biggest of its kind – has been strongly criticized by lawmakers and defense officials for doubling in costs in the past decade. Lockheed says it’s negotiating to bring the costs down.

Missile Shield at $10 Billion Sets Up Boeing-Lockheed Showdown

Boeing Co. will compete for the first time to keep its U.S. missile defense work as Lockheed Martin Corp. seeks to wrest away an order for as much as $10 billion.

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency is preparing to take bids on a contract that Boeing has held since 1998 to design, build and operate the arsenal of satellites, radar and high- speed interceptors intended to shoot down enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles in space. The new order will be for management and maintenance.

The contest gives the companies a shot at a decade-long program as the Pentagon reins in spending increases. Riding on the outcome is Boeing’s future as a so-called systems integrator directing projects through suppliers, said Philip Finnegan, an analyst at consultant Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia.

“For Boeing, what’s at stake in the missile defense program is not just the revenue, although that’s important,” Finnegan said. “It’s also one of the contracts Boeing based its reputation on.”

Bid requests may be issued by the Pentagon as soon as next month, allowing the companies to submit their proposals ahead of a decision next year. The rivals showed off their technology and announced new partners last week in Huntsville, Alabama, at the U.S. Army’s annual Space & Missile Defense Conference.

Boeing’s current missile-defense contract is worth as much as $18 billion for the 10 years ending in 2011, Jim Schlueter, a spokesman for the Chicago-based company, said by e-mail.

“We brought the system into existence,” Greg Hyslop, a Boeing vice president, said in an interview. “We know the ground-based midcourse system better than anybody, how it works and the different pieces that come together to make it work.”

‘Traditional Rivalry’

Orders to manage programs that pull in other contractors are prized in the industry because they offer higher profit margins and the technology risks are spread across several companies. Boeing and Lockheed have a “traditional rivalry” in that business, Finnegan said.

Four of the top five U.S. defense contractors are part of the fray. Boeing, second only to Lockheed in size, has signed up No. 3 Northrop Grumman Corp. Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed is teamed with Raytheon Co., the fifth biggest in the U.S.

“Cost is a major factor,” Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, head of the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters on Aug. 18 in Huntsville. “But before we get to cost, bidders have got to demonstrate they’ve the capacity and capability, and also an ability to do upgrades.”

The contract will be for $5 billion in the first five years, followed by an equal amount for the next five, he said.

Line of Defense

The Ground-Based Midcourse Defense project is “our only line of defense” against intercontinental ballistic missiles, O’Reilly said.

When completed by the end of this year, the system will include 30 ground-based interceptor missiles, of which 26 will be in Alaska and 4 in California; satellites; a sea-based radar platform and a command and control center that coordinates all the elements.

The interceptors can strike enemy missiles as much as 200 miles (322 kilometers) above Earth at a speed of 15,000 miles an hour, the Pentagon said.

In the 12 years that Boeing has had the contract, it has overseen testing and development of interceptors made by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Virginia; warheads by Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon; and command and control software made by Los Angeles-based Northrop.

More Competition

A Pentagon-wide effort to end no-bid contracts drove the decision to open up the contract for competition, Richard Lehner, a Missile Defense Agency spokesman, said by e-mail.

That opened the door for Lockheed and its team as Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s push to save $100 billion from Pentagon budgets over five years sharpens competition for contracts and spurs new alliances to win major weapons orders.

A victory for Lockheed would give the world’s largest defense contractor a role in every U.S. anti-missile system. The company builds land-based interceptors to destroy short- and medium-range missiles, and the Aegis radar mounted on U.S. Navy ships that can track missiles as well as aircraft.

“We can improve the existing system and we have some very strong concepts,” Mathew Joyce, a Lockheed vice president, said in an interview in Huntsville.

Spending Cuts

Boeing and Lockheed both were stung by Gates’s 2009 move to cap output of the F-22 fighter, for which Lockheed is the prime contractor and Boeing is a supplier.

While Gates has said he wants to prune Pentagon bureaucracy and health spending without chopping into weapons, those savings may not be enough to meet his goals, said Cai Von Rumohr, a Cowen & Co. analyst in Boston.

“In every other defense spending downturn, if you’re looking to save money, they almost always look at the weapons account,” Von Rumohr said in an Aug. 19 Bloomberg Television interview. He rates Boeing as “outperform” and Lockheed as “neutral.”

Boeing, whose defense operations accounted for almost half of its 2009 sales, surged 19 percent to $64.60 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading this year through Aug. 20, compared with Lockheed’s drop of 2.9 percent to $73.20.

Northrop is responsible for computer software that controls the interceptor missiles.

Northrop, Boeing

After expressing interest in challenging Boeing on the missile-defense contract, Northrop “decided that our probability of a win increased if we partnered with Boeing,” Karen Williams, a vice president, said in an interview.

Lockheed announced last week new teammates including Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems Inc., Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Florida, and closely held Oregon Iron Works Inc.

It also faced a setback. Missile defense chief O’Reilly said last week that a $400 million contract for a medium-range interceptor missile is being withheld until Lockheed fixes a flawed safety device. Lockheed must show in its bid for the new work that corrective steps are being taken, he said.

Losing the missile-defense contract may be a bigger blow to Boeing, with its weaker defense portfolio, than to Lockheed, the developer behind the $382 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, said Finnegan, the Teal Group consultant.

In 2009, the Pentagon curtailed the $159 billion U.S. Army Future Combat Systems program managed by Boeing that Defense Secretary Gates said had grown unwieldy. New U.S. orders for Boeing military aircraft are mostly drying up, with the exception of F/A-18 jets for the Navy and the aerial-refueling tanker for which Boeing’s chief competitor is Airbus SAS.

With Boeing depending on international contracts for C-17 military transports and F-15 fighters to keep factories humming now that the Pentagon isn’t buying those aircraft, holding onto the missile-defense program is pivotal, Finnegan said.

“In the long term, Boeing needs to have advanced systems work,” he said.

www.bloomberg.com

Defense jobs face shift from wartime footing

Central Florida’s two biggest military contractors – Lockheed Martin Corp. and Harris Corp. – have received billions of dollars in contracts during the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, yet their employment levels have remained nearly at a standstill.

Although both companies have made many new hires — engineers, technicians and financial analysts, to name a few — they say the added employees have generally been offset by retiring baby boomers and other forms of attrition.

As a result, after more than eight years of war-time work on multibillion-dollar military systems, their work-force totals in Central Florida are almost unchanged — or, in Harris’ case, down about 7 percent.

If the number of people working for the two companies hasn’t grown during almost a decade of war-time spending, what might happen in leaner times, as the Pentagon ratchets back its $700 billion-a-year budget?

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The answer to that question matters a lot in tourism-dependent Central Florida, which continues to look to high-wage, high-technology companies to provide badly needed economic diversification.

Lockheed and Harris say they have managed their work forces efficiently and conservatively as the U.S. has fought wars in two far-away countries, resisting the urge to over-hire or over-react to the ebb and flow of military orders.

Even before U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned last year that the war-time spending “spigot” would soon be closing, Lockheed was working on cost savings, said Ken Ross, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Global Training & Logistics in Orlando.

“We feel that really we got the jump on this,” he said. “We’ve been looking for ways to do things much more affordably for our customers.”

Lockheed has closely matched its staff to its current workload and the program bids it expects to win, Ross said. (Lockheed’s Central Florida operations have received contracts worth about $1 billion so far this year.)

“We have not been in a situation yet where we’ve been able to really staff up,” he said. “But we have been able to fill the openings we have.”

Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed has about 4,500 workers in its Orlando missiles and fire-control unit and nearly 2,000 in its simulation-training operation. Melbourne-based Harris employs more than 6,500 in Melbourne and Palm Bay.

They each make high-tech systems considered key to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, such as missiles and weapons-firing equipment for Apache helicopters (Lockheed Missiles & Fire Control), high-tech armored-vehicle training for tank and convoy personnel (Lockheed Global Training), and fighter-jet avionics and battlefield-command satellite communications (Harris).

Their wide-ranging operations for the military have sustained their work forces despite the nation’s economic woes — no small feat, say experts, given the loss of more than one million jobs nationwide in the Great Recession.

“If their employment base has been stable through all of this, then they are certainly better off than many industries that have been in decline,” said Paul Taibl, vice president of the Business Executives for National Security, a Washington-based defense-and-intelligence think tank. “This would have to be a case of the cup half full.”

There are some signs of cracks forming in the local employment picture, however.

Lockheed laid off 90 engineers last month in its Orlando missiles and fire-control operation — the first layoffs there in a decade. The company cited competitive pressures and shifting military requirements, among other factors. During the past year or so, Lockheed has also trimmed nearly 100 jobs from its local high-tech training and information-technology operations.

Harris streamlined its work force last year, laying off more than 100 people and eliminating another 300 jobs vacated by retirement or other attrition.

Both companies say no further job cuts are planned. And even with the layoffs, they have each continued to fill certain openings, often with newly minted engineering graduates.

“We take a long-term view of work-force development,” said Craig Vanbebber, spokesman for Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control. “That applies to recruiting and mentoring college students. All of those initiatives have continued on track.”

Lockheed Missiles & Fire Control units in Orlando and Texas are working on new technologies that could eventually lead to job growth, he said. For example, the Orlando unit recently won a $1.1 million contract to develop “wearable robotics” — computerized hydraulic “suits” that enable soldiers to carry extraordinary amounts of gear on the battlefield.

Harris said it expects its employment to remain stable for the foreseeable future. In many cases, it moves workers from programs that are winding down to others in which activity is picking up, spokesman Jim Burke said.

He cited as an example a non-military program, Harris’ Census Bureau communications systems, in which the workload has subsided as the government’s nationwide census wraps up its collection phase.

“Some of those employees are shifting onto new programs that are ramping up, which we’ve won during the past year,” he said. “That has always been one of our strengths employment-wise.”

So far this year, Harris has won more than two-dozen military and non-military government contracts worth more than $1 billion combined. More than one-third of the programs are tied to its Melbourne and Palm Bay operations, including satellite commmunications, missile-defense radios and fighter-jet avionics.

But both Harris and Lockheed will be challenged in the months and years ahead as more Pentagon budget cuts take effect, said Taibl, the Washington think-tank official.

“Overall, the outlook for defense spending will be either flat or on a slow decline,” he said. “What we’re seeing right now is probably the tip of the iceberg in terms of cuts the Pentagon is going to have to make.”

www.orlandosentinel.com

Smarter Communication

Conceding that commercial cell phone makers can develop new technology faster, cheaper and perhaps better than can big defense companies working under Pentagon contracts, defense giant Lockheed Martin has decided to use commercial smart phones as the heart of its new battlefield communication system.

The system, which Lockheed calls MONAX – for mobile network access – is intended to bring third-generation wireless network cell phone service to soldiers in combat.

But there’s a lot more happening here than just phone calls. The aim, said program director Glenn Kurowski, is to make the deluge of information that is collected by aircraft, sensors, satellites and soldiers readily available to troops who need it on the battlefield.

The smart phones are operated by touch screens and are armed with “apps,” small computer programs that display information on maps, play videos, display photos, and make it possible to receive and use information ranging from intelligence reports to biometric identification data.

For all that it’s designed to do, MONAX is surprisingly simple in concept for a military communications system.

From the user’s perspective, simply slide a smart phone – iPhone, Android or other commercial smart phone – into a plastic sleeve that enables it to connect to a private military 3G network, then start communicating.

The smart phones are “unmodified,” Kurowski stressed. Using off-the-shelf phones keeps costs lower, eliminates the need for substantial training and enables the military to use existing apps, he said. The phones cost several hundred dollars.

The phone’s sleeve contains a battery for extended use, an antenna and radio components that enable the smart phone to connect to the MONAX network. The sleeve, which Lockheed calls a “Lynx sleeve,” costs about $1,100.

Compared to the cost of traditional military radios, which Kurowski said can range from $3,000 to $18,000 apiece, a smart phone and sleeve is a bargain.

From the network operator’s perspective, MONAX requires setting up at least one base station and an antenna to broadcast the network’s wireless signal, Kurowski said. A single base station can provide service to hundreds of smart phones, Lockheed says.

Each base station costs about $300,000.

Lockheed says its base stations provide substantially better coverage than competing technologies.

“MONAX provides large pancake-sized coverage areas whereas competing technologies provide dot-sized coverage areas,” Kurowski said.

“The large coverage area is a function of many things,” he said. A key one “is the nature of the waveform itself.” Others include “propagation, noise cancellation, operating frequency and error correction characteristics.”

Together, they give the MONAX system “an order of magnitude longer range than most systems,” Kurowski said.

The base stations could be located on the ground, in vehicles or in aircraft, he said. Aerostats are attractive platforms because they can remain tethered at useful altitudes to provide broad coverage, he said.

Mounted on an aerostat, a base station would provide coverage in an area 70 kilometers in diameter, he said.

It takes only a few hours to set up a one-base-station network, Lockheed said. A multibase-station network, of course, takes longer.

The network is protected by 256-bit encryption, which is good enough for transmitting sensitive and even secret information, Kurowski said. However, the military might not be comfortable transmitting highly classified information over the network, he said.

And if one of the system’s sleeves gets lost, captured or stolen, it can be remotely disabled, Kurowski said.

By building a communication system around widely used and popular commercial technology, Lockheed believes it is anticipating a trend that will increasingly influence U.S. military acquisition.

Tighter acquisition budgets, the changing nature of conflict, and the fast pace of innovation in commercial communications and information technology are “driving our customer to new thinking, new solutions and new tactics in the field,” said Macy Summers, vice president of strategic development for Lockheed’s Information Systems & Global Solutions division.

Lockheed wants to use its capability as a systems integrator to adapt low-cost, technically advanced, commercial off-the-shelf products for military use, he said. Smart phones seem like a good place to start. The Army is already emphasizing them with its Apps for the Army competition, aimed at rewarding Army personnel and employees for developing smart phone applications useful to the Army.

And the military’s predominantly young work force has grown up with cell phones, smart phones and ubiquitous wireless connectivity. Young people entering the military “are used to information on demand,” Kurowski said. They suffer “technological culture shock” when the don the uniform and are handed paper maps and walkie-talkies, he said.

Convinced that there will be a market for MONAX, Lockheed developed the system with its own money, not on a government contract.

As a business move, Lockheed’s MONAX “makes perfect sense,” said Greg Giaquinto, a senior aerospace and defense analyst for Forecast International. There is money to be made if Lockheed can establish itself as a vendor of communications gear that meets the military’s needs and is familiar to the technologically savvy young people entering the service.

President Barack Obama may have set the stage for Lockheed’s move, Giaquinto said. When the commander in chief insisted on keeping his BlackBerry – although a more secure version than a typical BlackBerry – “that opened up the door for something like this,” Giaquinto said.

The only potential drawback to MONAX, he said, may be security.

“The biggest issue is that all of these devices are computers that can be hacked into.” Lockheed might want to develop an upgraded version with tougher security standards set by the National Security, Giaquinto said.

Lockheed Martin And Adaptive Digital Informed About An Agreement

See the PowerRating of LMT now and learn how it rates on a 1-10 scale. The higher the PowerRating, the greater potential short-term gain based on historical data.

Global security company Lockheed Martin and Adaptive Digital Technologies have inked an agreement to introduce Lockheed Martin’s voice compression technology Time Domain Voicing Cutoff (TDVC) to commercial markets, Lockheed Martin announced on Friday.

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

According to the company, TDVC is a speech-coding algorithm that delivers high voice quality while operating at lower bit rates than standard voice codecs of comparable quality. It is suitable for voice over Internet protocol wireless communications as well as other markets.

TDVC vocoder was developed for military applications where it provided a low bandwidth, high voice-quality coding scheme to combat harsh communication environments. It is expected to find the same success in the commercial communication arenas due to the continuing need for more bandwidth to accommodate the increasing number of users and data.

Adaptive Digital is a developer of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms and custom solutions for VoIP, telephony, audio and video applications.

For full details on Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT) LMT. Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT) has Short Term PowerRatings at TradingMarkets. Details on Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT) Short.

Lockheed Martin Awards QP Semiconductor Preferred Supplier Status

QP Semiconductor informed it has been given Preferred Supplier status by Lockheed Martin Corporation. This recognizes QP Semiconductor as a qualified supplier, allowing Lockheed to expand its business relationships with QP Semiconductor for all of Lockheed Martin’s subsidiaries and locations.

The award is for maintaining 100 percent quality performance and 100 percent on time delivery during the past two years in support of multiple Lockheed Martin programs. What is more, the company demonstrated excellent communication with Lockheed Martin as well as consistent annual growth.

“QP Semiconductor’s dedication to excellence coupled with their responsiveness and cooperation with Lockheed Martin makes them an outstanding performer,” informed Teresa Scanlan, director of Risk Management and Technology Development at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “They are a clear choice for the Preferred Supplier Program.”

QP Semiconductor has supported Lockheed Martin on multiple programs leading to receipt of preferred supplier status. This most recently includes the complete re-engineering and on-time delivery of three custom circuit designs. A custom chipset enabled a major Lockheed program to avoid substantial cost increases and schedule delays threatened by obsolescence and diminishing manufacturing sources (DMS) conditions.

“This award clearly affirms our integrated circuit design expertise in analog, logic and memory, as well as quality and service responsiveness,” said Russ Johnson, president of QP Semiconductor. “It also sets our course toward achieving a far more strategic relationship using our product families to support Lockheed’s core and adjacent markets. With over 400 products successfully re-engineered and 3500 DSCC listings, we are alone in our category with the depth and breadth of products and services needed by companies like Lockheed Martin.”

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, produce, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

About QP Semi

QP Semiconductor, an e2v company, is the only semiconductor company offering a full range of technologies, circuit design and producing capabilities providing exact replacements and extending the life of classic integrated circuits (ICs). Its market focus is extending the life of both new and existing military/aerospace electronics systems. With a proven ability to bring semiconductor products back to life for over 20 years, it is the largest fabless semiconductor manufacturer serving the mil/aero and high reliability industries and is among the largest makers of high-reliability hermetic ICs. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California with sales representation internationally. For more information, please visit “www.qpsemi.com”.

About e2v

e2v is a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of specialized components and subsystems. e2v is organized into four divisions: High performance electron devices and subsystems, advanced CCD and CMOS imaging sensors and cameras, specialist semiconductors and a range of professional sensing products. They enable innovative systems for medical & science, aerospace & defense, and commercial & industrial applications. With 1700 employees in 6 manufacturing plants through Europe and the US, and sales and support offices in 4 key global territories, as well as a network of distributors and representatives covering other key territories, e2v has a true global presence. e2v is listed on the main market of London Stock Exchange (e2v.l). For the year ended 31 March 2009, the Company achieved sales of GBP 232m. Further information is available from “www.e2v.com”.

LGS Named Subcontractor on Lockheed Martin Team for $31 Million DARPA Contract for Cyber Protection

LGS Innovations, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU and Euronext Paris) dedicated to serving the U.S. government community, informed that it was named a subcontractor on the Lockheed Martin team that was recently awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The $31 million Military Network Protocol contract calls for Lockheed Martin to develop new cyber assurance procedures that will improve security, and deliver dynamic bandwidth allocation and policy-based priorities at the individual and unit levels.

The LGS Internet Research Department will work as a part of the Lockheed Martin’s Infrastructure team whose goal is to define, design, develop, and test the common elements used in the DARPA solution.

“Our country’s increasing dependence on information technology has made cyber security one of the most critical challenges facing the U.S. military today,” informed Dom Imbesi, Director Internet Research Department at LGS. “LGS is pleased to be a part of Lockheed Martin’s strong team working to address and solve these challenges.”

In developing this new protocol for military networks, Lockheed Martin’s team will develop router technologies that will include strong authentication and self-configuration capabilities to improve security, reduce the need for trained network personnel and lower overall life cycle costs for network management.

The Internet Research Department is the R&D division of LGS dedicated to the fields of Computer Network Operations (CNO) and Information Assurance (IA). The department has a rich heritage of achievement as formerly being a part of the renowned Bell Labs and can utilize the technical expertise and resources of Bell Labs to provide cutting-edge ideas and technology to solve today’s toughest cyber security problems. The LGS capabilities run the full spectrum of CNO activities: Network Reconnaissance, Host Fingerprinting, Attack Planning, Payload Delivery, and Battle Damage Assessment. The department also performs leading-edge Information Assurance research and development with a specific focus on mission assurance, external exposure assessment and predictive analysis.

About LGS Innovations

LGS, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, designs and delivers Transformed Communications and R&D-based technology solutions to the U.S. government community. Leveraging the world-class R&D of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, with global reach and expertise, LGS challenges itself to solve the unsolvable and deliver secure, reliable, standards-based solutions to its customers. LGS, is headquartered in Herndon, Va., in the US and with offices in Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey and North Carolina. For more information about LGS visit www.LGSinnovations.com.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Pacific.

Lockheed Martin and Adaptive Digital Technologies Sign Marketing Deal for Vocoder Technology

Companies to collaborate to deliver ultra-low rate voice coding technology to the VoIP Market

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Adaptive Digital Technologies have inked an agreement to introduce Lockheed Martin’s voice compression technology Time Domain Voicing Cutoff (TDVC) to commercial markets. TDVC is a robust speech-coding algorithm that delivers superior voice quality, while operating at much lower bit rates than standard voice codecs of comparable quality. TDVC is highly suitable for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) wireless communications as well as other markets.

“Through joint marketing, development and distribution, we look forward to working with Adaptive Digital to provide advanced voice compression technology,” informed Larry Easton, Director of Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services-Defense’s Ventures organization. “Adaptive Digital’s expertise in all facets of voice communications offers us an opportunity to bring our TDVC technology to a wider set of customers and applications.”

Lockheed Martin’s TDVC vocoder was originally developed for military applications where it provided a much-needed low bandwidth, high voice-quality coding scheme to combat harsh communication environments. TDVC is expected to find the same success in the commercial communication arenas due to the continuing need for more bandwidth to accommodate the increasing number of users and data.

“I anticipate this technology being ported across many platforms and not only wireless and VoIP but eventually leveraged into wideband applications,” informed Brian McCarthy, president of Adaptive Digital Technologies. “TDVC is a codec that will give wireless and IP communication service providers the means to minimize bandwidth demand while continuing to provide the high quality of service their customers expect.”

Adaptive Digital is a leading developer and provider of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms and custom solutions for VoIP, telephony, audio, and video applications. Recognized internationally for its world class, carrier-grade G.168 echo cancellation, and first-rate voice communication software, Adaptive Digital’s consumers include British Telecom, Cisco Systems Inc., Cantata Technology, Digium®, General Dynamics, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, Sonus, and Texas Instruments. Adaptive Digital is a member of ARM’s Connected Community, ARM’s Solution Center for Android (SCA), and boasts twelve years as a strategic member of Texas Instruments’ Third Party Developer Network.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation informed 2009 sales of $45.2 billion.

China Performs Missile Defense Test

The U.S. government informed that it awarded the defense producer, Lockheed Martin, a contract to build the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles for Taiwan. The agreement is part of an arms package that the United States agreed to sell to Taiwan in 2008 (eTaiwan news, January 7). The Indian government also recently declared that it was expanding its anti-ballistic missile system to include an anti-satellite program (ASM) (Space News, January 4). Following these announcements the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced on January 11 that it had successfully tested a “ground-based, midcourse missile interception technology.” The Chinese government made the announcement via a short news report featured in the official Xinhua News Agency, which stated that a missile defense test was carried out “within its [Chinese] territory.” Xinhua informed that “the test has achieved the expected objective,” adding that it was “defensive in nature and is not targeted at any country.” No further details of the test were released through official channels, except for a statement made by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Jiang Yu. Jiang informed that “the test would neither produce space debris in orbit nor pose a threat to the safety of orbiting spacecraft” (Xinhua News Agency, January 11; January 14; January 19; China Review News, January 15).

While the announcement by the Chinese government is a welcome improvement to Beijing’s muted response following the anti-satellite (ASAT) test in January 2007, Chinese officials failed to offer any explanation about the interceptor or intention of the recent test. “We did not receive prior notification of the launch,” informed Pentagon spokeswoman Major Maureen Schumann. “We detected two geographically separated missile launch events with an exoatmospheric collision also being observed by space-based sensors. We are requesting information from China regarding the purpose for conducting this interception as well as China’s intentions and plans to pursue future types of intercepts,” Schumann said (AFP, January 12).

Beijing’s refusal to provide further details about the missile defense test was followed by the release of a series of analysis by Chinese military experts assessing the possible aims, motives and targets of the test. For instance, a recent article in Liao Wang—a weekly news magazine published by Xinhua—described the missile defense test as one that Beijing was forced to undertake. Without directly pointing a finger at the United States, the article’s author emphasized that if it were not for some Western power developing anti-ballistic missile systems, militarizing space, and undertaking strategic defense planning deep in China’s airspace and sea-lanes, it would not have been necessary for China to embark on the anti-missile interception test. The article was written by Wu Tianfu, a professor at the Second Artillery Corps Command College, the premier educational institution for the PLA unit that controls China’s strategic missile forces. In the article, Wu emphasized that the success of China’s ground-based mid-course missile defense (GMD) test demonstrates that the Chinese military has made significant strides in the development of “hit-to-kill,” rapid, precision-strike, guided and missile identification technologies (Wen Wei Po [Hong Kong], January 19).

According to Yang Chengjun, a senior Chinese military strategist, “China needs an improved capability and more means of military defense as the country faces increasing security threats.” Yang noted that, “compared with a previous test of anti-satellite technologies, the missile interception system is more advanced as the targets are moving objects and the satellite was flying within a preplanned orbit” (English.sina.com, January 12). A PLA military analyst cited by the Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Pao, suggested that India may be the likely target of the missile defense test. The report noted that India’s Agni missile has a range of 5,000 kilometers, which can reach Beijing. Moreover, the analyst added that while anti-missile technology is proliferating throughout East Asia, it is necessary for Beijing to develop its own anti-missile technology to enhance China’s homeland security (Ta Kung Pao [Hong Kong], January 18).

The editor of the Taiwan-based Defense Technology Monthly, Bi Yuan-ting, explained that the motive behind the test is probably directed at countering the ballistic missile threats facing China. Bi also believes that the reason behind Beijing’s unprecedented announcement may be to convey a political signal to the United States linking the test with the recent U.S. announcement of arms sales (BBC [Chinese], January 12). Arthur Ding, a research fellow and China specialist at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, agreed that the test is meant to send a “political signal to the United States and to other countries that China is prepared for air operations, full-scale operations by whatever country” (AFP, January 12).

According to China’s National Defense University professor, Senior Colonel Du Wenlong, the midcourse interception method was selected because the exoatmosphere offers a smoother flight environment for the missile. Du noted at that stage in trajectory, the warheads that are carried by the incoming missile have not been released yet and therefore an interception at that point could neutralize the threat completely. Du also indicated that during this flight period there could be multiple interception points as well. In an interview with the Chinese newspaper Global Times, Senior Colonel Wang Mingzhi, pointed out that the mid-course interception system is different from the PAC missiles, adding that mid-course interception is at a higher altitude and is subsequently more effective. Contrary to some Western assessments of the test, Chinese experts claim that the missile defense system tested was not the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile system (China Review News, January 15; Xinhua News Agency, January 14; January 19).

In the final analysis, this test appears to be an important milestone in Chinese defense capabilities and demonstrates the growing maturation of its missile defense system. It is also apparent that the test has clear implications for the military modernization of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) which may challenge U.S. strategic posture in the Asia-Pacific region (See “Advances in PLA Air Defense Capabilities Challenge Strategic Balance in Asia,” China Brief, October 23, 2008; China Times, January 12).