PARIS AIR SHOW, Le BOURGET, France, June 18, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Longbow International (LBI), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has teamed with Bell Helicopter, a Textron company (NYSE:TXT), to develop the Cobra Radar System (CRS) for the AH-1Z Cobra helicopter. The Cobra Radar System will complement the war fighting, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities of the AH-1Z Cobra at an affordable procurement and life cycle cost.
The Cobra Radar System consists of a new pod-based millimeter wave radar that can be mounted on a wingtip or stores position of the AH-1Z Cobra helicopter. The Cobra Radar System will be integrated with the existing M299 launcher and AGM-114L RF Hellfire fire-and-forget missile.
"The addition of the Cobra Radar System acts as a force multiplier for the AH-1Z Cobra. The integration of the Cobra Radar System with the Hawkeye Target Sight System (TSS), and the RF Hellfire fire-and-forget missile significantly improves the platform's combat effectiveness," said Jim Puritz, Longbow International Cobra Radar System program manager at Lockheed Martin.
"Using its Longbow heritage, the Cobra Radar System is designed to achieve high performance at low cost," added Gene Thompson, vice president of the Longbow International joint venture at Northrop Grumman. "The system automatically searches, detects, classifies, and prioritizes multiple moving and stationary targets on land and in the air while operating in adverse weather and battlefield obscurants."
Target location is immediately available to the Target Sight System or for transmission to other aircraft or command and control centers and for fire-and-forget engagement with the AGM-114L RF Hellfire missile. The Cobra Radar System automatic rapid search capability significantly adds to the operator's situational awareness.
The Cobra Radar System is also capable against littoral targets that are detected and then displayed on the map display where they are passed to the Target Sight System for transfer to other platforms or engagement with the Hellfire II missile armed with a blast fragmentation warhead.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are equal partners in Longbow International and jointly produce the Longbow Fire Control Radar and missile subsystems and M299 Launcher. The joint venture is under contract to manufacture the Longbow Weapon System for the Apache AH-64D and the Comanche RAH-66 helicopters.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. is a global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced-technology systems, products, and services. The Corporation's core businesses are systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services. Lockheed Martin had 2000 sales of more than $25 billion.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a $15 billion, global aerospace and defense company with its worldwide headquarters in Los Angeles. Northrop Grumman provides technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in defense and commercial electronics, systems integration, information technology and non-nuclear shipbuilding and systems. With 80,000 employees and operations in 44 states and 25 countries, Northrop Grumman serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers.
Bell Helicopter is a division of Textron Inc., a $13 billion, global, multi-industry company with market-leading businesses in aircraft, automotive, industrial products, fastening systems, and finance. Textron has a workforce of over 70,000 employees and major manufacturing facilities in 30 countries. Textron is among Fortune magazine's "Global Most Admired Companies" and Industry Week magazine's "Best Managed Companies."