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A July 2016 test of the LRASM from a MK-41 launcher on the Navy’s Self Defense Test Ship. Lockheed Martin Photo Lockheed Martin has elected not to include its Long Range Anti-Ship Missile in the Navy’s competition to field an over-the-horizon missile for the Littoral Combat Ship and frigate, company officials confirmed to USNI News on Wednesday. “After long and careful consideration, Lockheed Martin has decided to withdraw from the U.S. Navy Over-the-Horizon Weapon System (OTH-WS) competition. As the current OTH-WS request for proposal process refined over time, it became clear that our offering would not be fully valued,” read...

RIYADH // Lockheed Martin said on Sunday it inked a US$28 billion deal with Saudi Arabia to supply a wide range of military equipment and set up a facility to assemble about 150 S-70 Black Hawk helicopters. The deal is part of an estimated $110bn of defence agreements signed on Saturday between the US and Saudi Arabia, where President Donald Trump is leading a high-level delegation on his first international trip since taking office. The Lockheed deals will create 18,000 skilled jobs in the US and thousands of jobs in Saudi Arabia as both countries seek to be active in...

Proposed Helicopter Would Replace MH-6/AH-6 Little Bird if Adopted. Lockheed Martin has released a new promotional video showing the S-97 Raider light tactical helicopter demonstrating many of its unique performance capabilities. The S-97 Raider, if adopted by the U.S. military, would replace the aging family of MH-6/AH-6 Little Bird helicopters widely used since the Vietnam conflict as special operations and observation/light attack helicopters. The MH-6/AH-6 family first flew in 1963 making it a legacy platform that has been continuously updated for expanded roles. Most airframes in U.S. service are now aging and, because a light tactical helicopter is subjected to...

During his congressional hearing yesterday, Director James Comey of the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not face any heat from regarding a review which was released of his “professional history and relationships.” The review includes connections to Lockheed Martin, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Holdings, and financial ties to his brother, Peter Comey at the DLA Piper law firm. Per Breitbart News: These concerns focus on millions of dollars that Comey accepted from a Clinton Foundation defense contractor, Comey’s former membership on a Clinton Foundation corporate partner’s board, and his surprising financial relationship with his brother Peter Comey, who works at...

Opening his first official week in office, President Donald Trump warned business leaders Monday that he would impose a “substantial border tax” on companies that move their manufacturing out of the United States, while promising unspecified advantages to companies that manufacture domestically. “All you have to do is stay,” he said during a morning meeting in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin were among the executives who attended the meeting. The gathering kicked off a jam-packed day for the new president, including an evening reception with lawmakers from both parties and...

A trio of Connecticut Democratic lawmakers is calling President-elect Donald Trump’s calls for finding an alternative to the F-35 a “total nonstarter.” “Any suggestion that there is a substitute for the F-35 is a total nonstarter,” Reps. Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro and John Larson said in a statement Friday. “This is a program that has been vetted ad nauseum by the Pentagon, the Congress and independent experts. There is simply no aircraft in production today that can compare with the F-35’s advanced avionics, networked capabilities and integrated stealth.” On Thursday, Trump took aim at the F-35 fighter jet for the...

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to meet .....with the chief executives of two defense contractors he has criticized over project costs. Dennis Muilenburg, of Boeing Co, and Marillyn Hewson, from Lockheed Martin Corp, arrived at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort where he is spending Christmas. ... Trump has complained about the companies in Twitter broadsides and speeches for costs he said are too expensive, sending defense shares tumbling. Trump has said Boeing's costs to build replacements for aging Air Force One planes - one of the most visible symbols of the U.S. presidency - are too high and urged the federal...

Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin offered to shift manufacturing of F-16 fighter jets from Fort Worth to India if it wins a big contract to build hundreds of planes for the country. Now some are wondering whether the Trump administration will allow such a deal to proceed. “What will be the U.S. policy posture now that the new president-elect is in the mix?” one high-level official at an American defense firm in India told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Is he going to continue the policy of engaging in India on co-production and co-development? All of...

For the first time in history, the F-35B took off from a ship with a full-load of weapons. Integrating the F-35B will change tactics on-board amphibious assault ships The Marine Corps F-35B Short-Take-Off-and-Vertical-Landing Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter took off from a Navy amphibious assault ship for the first time with a full load of weapons -- in preparation for its planned deployment in 2018. The aircraft flew from the Navy's first America-Class Amphibious Assault Ship, the USS America, to Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz., where it dropped live precision guided weapons on mock targets in the desert. The F-35B dropped...

PARIS --- Congressional notification of possible fighter sales announced by the DSCA on Nov 17 highlight a substantial and unexpected increase in the price of Boeing fighters approved for export, even as they reach the end of their production run. These prices are also much higher than those of their foreign competitors, and are compounded by the fact that the US dollar’s exchange rate has surged against the currencies of the two buyer nations over the past two years, as these proposed deals were being reviewed by various US government agencies. According to the Nov. 17 Congressional notifications, the price...

Army ATACMS missile launch. “Outranged and outgunned” by Russian and Chinese missiles, the US Army wants a new long-range artillery rocket of its own. The nascent Long-Range Precision Fires program could do much more than replace the 25-year-old ATACMS missile, however. LRPF could become a linchpin of what the Army is calling Multi-Domain Battle, extending ground-based artillery’s reach not only to unprecedented ranges — hitting distant targets once reserved for airstrikes — but out to sea. Why does the Army need to do this? Since 1991, when the Soviet Union fell and ATACMS entered service, the Army has largely neglected...

It has come out that James Comey accepted positions and financial compensation for working as a general counsel for Lockheed Martin. Comey worked for Lockheed and in one year, the first year Lockheed would become a major Clinton Foundation donor, Comey was paid $6 million in 2010. The same year, Lockheed Martin won 17 private contracts from the State Department. Guess who ran the State Department in 2010? Hillary Clinton. Lockheed Martin also joined the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt and the group paid Bill Clinton $250,000 for a speech in the year, 2010. To take it a step...

The United States on Wednesday began notifying lawmakers that it has approved $7 billion in long-stalled sales of Boeing Co (BA.N) fighter jets to Kuwait and Qatar, and more than $1 billion in Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) jets to Bahrain, sources familiar with the decision said. The sales had been pending for more than two years amid concerns raised by Israel, Washington's closest Middle East ally, that arms sold to Gulf Arab states could be used against it, and criticism of Qatar for alleged ties to armed Islamist groups. U.S. officials began notifying lawmakers informally about the sale of 36...

NEW DELHI—India is being offered blueprints to advanced combat aircraft by the world’s aerospace companies, a move unthinkable even a decade ago, as New Delhi gets ready to place another multibillion-dollar air force order. India’s aging military jet fleet desperately needs an upgrade, which analysts say may spur it to place an order worth more than $10 billion in the next year. Hoping for an edge, and encouraged by a recent law that allows 100% foreign ownership of local defense firms, jet-fighter makers such as Lockheed Martin Corp. , Boeing Co. and Saab AB are rushing in with offers to...

The office of Connecticut’s governor says Sikorsky Aircraft has committed to keeping its headquarters in the state and adding jobs in an agreement that involves $220 million in state incentives. […] The deal calls for Sikorsky to build nearly 200 CH-53K King Stallion helicopters in Connecticut for the U.S. Navy until at least 2032. The incentives pledged by Malloy’s office include grants and tax exemptions. …

Boeing formally challenged a decision by the Danish government to pick Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet over its own Super Hornet, saying on Thursday the choice was based on a "flawed evaluation process". Boeing said it had submitted a request to the country's ministry of defence that would require it to provide all materials related to the procurement evaluation and decision announced in June. "We believe the ministry's evaluation of the competitors was fundamentally flawed and inaccurately assessed the cost and capability of the F/A-18 Super Hornet," said Boeing vice president Debbie Rub. In May Boeing challenged the Danish government's...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A review of FBI Director James Comey’s professional history and relationships shows that the Obama cabinet leader — now under fire for his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton — is deeply entrenched in the big-money cronyism culture of Washington, D.C. His personal and professional relationships — all undisclosed as he announced the Bureau would not prosecute Clinton — reinforce bipartisan concerns that he may have politicized the criminal probe. These concerns focus on millions of dollars that Comey accepted from a Clinton Foundation defense contractor, Comey’s former membership on a Clinton Foundation corporate partner’s board,...

Lockheed Martin, the aerospace company, have filed a patent for a new kind of 3D printer. The patent, filed on April 4 by inventor David G. Findley, describes a new way of 3D printing which would use a pre-ceramic polymer and nanoparticle filler to create synthetic diamond objects of pretty much any shape you can dream up. “[The] method includes depositing alternating layers of a ceramic powder and a pre-ceramic polymer dissolved in a solvent. Each layer of the pre-ceramic polymer is deposited in a shape corresponding to a cross section of an object. The alternating layers of the ceramic...

In 2007, India began an official tender process for 126 multi-role, medium-range combat aircraft (MMRCA) with Paris-based Dassault at a cost of about $11 billion. It was the world’s largest fighter jet deal at the time. Since then the deal has unraveled. Negotiations stalled over price and quality and, ultimately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi opted to purchase only 36 “ready to fly” aircraft from Dassault. Even this more modest version of deal has yet to fully fructify. Since the original bid, the Modi government has added a “made in India” component as part of all future acquisitions. Amidst the French...

The F-35 is sleek and stealthy, thanks to internally-carried weapons, but that limits the operational payload and the jet’s air-to-ground capability, correct? To some extent, that is true, but here’s an alternative view. “It’s a bomb truck, capable of carrying 14,000 pounds–that’s 3,000 pounds more than my F-18s,” said Lt. General Jon Davis, head of aviation for the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC). In fact, the F-35 has seven external weapons stations (see diagram). Their use is not part of the initial operating capability (IOC) for either the USMC F-35Bs or the U.S. Air Force F-35As. But a total of nine...