Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin aerospace technology advances
Name
Institution

Abstract
Lockheed Martin is a public-traded American company dealing with aviation, security, and advanced technology. It is headquartered in Washington D.C around Maryland area. It is one of the largest military contractors in the world having over 97,000 employees all over the world. It has some subsidiaries, for instance, Lockheed Martin Aerospace systems Integration Corporation, hellfire Systems, Lockheed Martin Canada Inc., Lockheed Martin Engine Investments LLC, Lockheed Martin UK Limited and others (Felder, 2018). As of 2016, it had total revenue of forty-seven billion dollars a major success compared to the past years. There are military aircrafts developed by this company that has been commissioned by the US Airforce, US Marine Corps and US Coastguard (Felder, 2018). They include C-130J Super Hercules, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning, h-60 Black Hawk and S-92 helicopter. In recent years, Lockheed Martin has largely secured military contracts from many countries due to their advanced fighter jet technology. These deals have made it be a global competitor with companies like Boeing Corporation and many others. Lockheed has five major divisions in its operation; information systems, aeronautics, space systems, missiles control, rotary and mission systems.

Lockheed Martin’s aerospace technology advances
Introduction
Lockheed Martin is a merger of Martin Marietta and Lockheed Corporation.

Despite the success this ventures, the now known Lockheed Martin would not have been what we have today owing to the challenges experienced during the formation time. The talks for the merging were initialized in August 1994 where both parties agreed to relocate the headquarters to Bethesda, Maryland which was prior owned by Martin Marietta (Kumar & Nair, 2017). Merger talks were terminated on March 15, 1995, after approval of the two companies’ shareholders (Kumar & Nair, 2017). The two companies brought in their technologies after the merger. Lockheed products included P-3 Orion, Trident missile, F-22 Raptor, F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-4AR Fighting hawk and C-130 Hercules cargo military aircraft while Martin Marietta products were Sandia National laboratories, Titan rockets, Viking 1 and two landers (Kumar & Nair, 2017).
The Success of the Company and its growth
Martin managed to acquire defence electronics and system intergration at around $9 million in 1996. The company opted for a merger in 1998 with Northrop Grumman for $8.3 billion. However, this move was barred by government concerns over potential unrestrained economic strength about twenty-five percent of the department of the defense budget (McMullen et al., 2017). This has always been a protocol under the ministry of defense so that it allows exercising of control among those in contract with the department of defense. In 2001, the company won one of the largest fighter aircraft procurement contracts, the production of 3000 F-35 Lightning II jets since the F-16 order. In 2006, the company won a nine billion dollar contract from NASA Constellation program to build a space-bound astronaut capsule designated as Orion for the Ares I rocket. This has in fact been one of the major projects of undertaken by the company (McMullen et al., 2017). The fact that it was a contract with NASA meant that the company’s reputation had increased opening up more room for many investors.
A perfect indication of the growth of reputation which created more opportunities came up in 2012. It was in this year when Lockheed’s vice president announced a deal closure with the Indian government to purchase 6 C-130J Hercules cargo military aircrafts to be commissioned in the Indian Air Force (Petrescu et al., 2017). On July 2013 Lockheed Martin reported that it was partnering with Dream Hammer Technologies to use the company’s advanced software for integrated control and command of Lockheed Unmanned Aerial vehicles (Petrescu et al., 2017). Later that year it teamed up with Bell helicopters to develop the complex future vertical uplift that was integrated into the V-280 Valor tiltrotor. In 2014 Lockheed Martin finalized a military purchase contract with the South Korean government to procure 40 F-35 Lightning II for delivery in the next seven years.
F-35 Lightning II
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a member of single-seat stealth all-weather combat capable multirole fighters. It is the most recent model of the F series combat aircrafts securing the fifth generation fighter jets. It has three models by takeoff and landing, F-35A with conventional takeoff and landing, F-35B equipped with Vertical takeoff and landing that had its debut in July 2015 by the US Marine Corps. F-35C that has been commissioned by the US Navy due to the special takeoff and landing capability of catapult-assisted take-off with arrested recovery it only operates on US Navy aircraft carriers (Sangid et al., 2017). This fighter jet has been in production since its development in 2006 with a total of two hundred and sixty-five units being deployed. It gained popularity due to its state of the art low maintenance stealth technology, and it’s integrated sensor fusion and avionics that improve pilot situation awareness and reaction during missions. Precision strikes attained due to cutting-edge technology that improves target identification which leads to efficient weapon delivery.
F-22 Raptor
The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is a member of single-seat tactical aircraft belonging to the fifth generation stealth twin-engine fighter jets. It was primarily developed for air superiority part of the US Air Force Advanced Tactical Weapons Program. It first flew in 1997 but was introduced in service in 2005 having a total of one hundred and ninety-five units produced (Sangid et al., 2017). This special type of combat aircraft has signal intelligence capabilities, electronic warfare and ground attack. It is also the only known fighter jet that can supercruise without utilizing fuel-inefficient afterburners technology. It also achieves high operating altitude to maximize its stealth capabilities. The Raptor’s composition mainly titanium alloys can withstand heat and stress of continuous supersonic flight.
Conclusion
Martin Marietta and Lockheed Corporation merged to form the formidable Lockheed Martin that is currently respected as a giant aviation company. In as much as many challenges existed during its early days, the company was able to thrive. The resilience saw the company raise to glory by being contracted for NASA Are I project before getting into a contract with the Indian government for a deal on cargo military crafts. These indications have managed to keep on giving the company a brand name that has allowed it to keep on being the best and indeed it has managed to leave behind a stable legacy.

References
Felder, W. N. (2018). Progress toward the Application of Practical Drag Reduction Technologies to Legacy Transport Aircraft. In 2018 AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting (p. 0319).
Kumar, L. J., & Nair, C. K. (2017). Current trends of additive manufacturing in the aerospace industry. In Advances in 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing Technologies (pp. 39-54). Springer, Singapore.
McMullen, S. A., Henderson, T., & Ison, D. (2017, May). Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University multispectral sensor and data fusion laboratory: a model for distributed research and education. In Next-Generation Spectroscopic Technologies X (Vol. 10210, p. 102100T). International Society for Optics and Photonics.
Petrescu, R. V., Aversa, R., Akash, B., Bucinell, R., Corchado, J., Berto, F. … & Petrescu, F. I. (2017). Lockheed martin-a short review.
Sangid, M., Matlik, J. F., Keskin, A., Thacker, B. H., Bichon, B. J., Ball, D. L. … & Saraf, V. (2017). Integrating ICME Practices into Design Systems and Structural Analysis. In 55th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting (p. 0874).