After much deliberation and examination, Lockheed Martin has decided to nix their plans to offer a clean-sheet or from the ground up design for the T-X program headed by the US Air Force. The expected pivot is to go ahead with the original plan of moving forward with the T-50A as their answer to replace the aging T-38 trainer fleet from service. Lockheed Martin has been in deliberation for nearly months on end to offer a clean-sheet design for the upcoming T-X competition but decided that the risk does not warrant the reward.
Defense companies Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have been awarded contracts from the United States Air Force to further develop a radar subsystem. The new Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (also known as JStars) will undergo technological development from the manufacturers over the next year and a half. The two companies were selected by the Air Force because both are based in the United States, and they felt those were the only ones capable of delivering what was needed.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $54.3 million contract by the United States Army to upgrade the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TDAS/PNVS) on their AH-64E Apache helicopters.
Lockheed Martin was recently awarded a $528 million contract by the Missile Defense Agency to produce and deliver for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, also known as THAAD, system. These new interceptors are intended to support a growing number of U.S. Army THAAD units. In 2011 the United Arab Emirates were the first international partner to award a contract for the procurement of the THAAD system and since then Lockheed Martin marked a milestone by delivering its 100th THAAD interceptor earlier during the year in 2015.
Airbus Defense and Space has recently completed factory acceptance testing for its new TRS-4D naval radar system, which is fully expected to be used aboard the US Navy's Freedom Variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) beginning with LCS 17. Unlike previous iterations of the TRS-4D, this new version for the US NAVY will rotate instead of staying fixed.
