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Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said on Sunday that his company would nearly double production of their javelin missiles as the U.S. has sent hundreds of the weapons to aid Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. “Right now, our capacity is 2,100 Javelin missiles per year. We’re endeavoring to take that up to 4,000 per year, and that will take a number of months, maybe even a couple of years to get there because we have to get our supply chain to also crank up,” Taiclet said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We’re starting now to ramp it up because...

Joe Biden: “Before Russia attacked, we made sure Russia had javelins and other weapons...”

Artist's concept of a ship-mounted laser weapon The US Navy has shot down its first drone representing a subsonic cruise missile using an all-electric high-energy laser. At the US Army’s High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, the Lockheed Martin Layered Laser Defense (LLD) weapon disabled the engine on a drone, which then parachuted to earth. Sponsored by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) and conducted in partnership with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) and Lockheed Martin, the February 2022 test was intended not only to...

First use of high-speed missiles by Russia in Ukraine sparks renewed urgency for U.S. development. With the first claimed use of a hypersonic weapon by Russia in the invasion of Ukraine, attention is again focusing on defense contractors in the U.S. that are trying to develop their own. Among U.S. defense contractors notable for their efforts are Lockheed Martin (LMT) , Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Raytheon (RTX). The three were picked by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency last November to develop an "accelerated concept design of the Glide Phase Interceptor," to stop incoming vehicles. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are also...

“At night, Bruce L. Jackson is president of the U.S. Committee to Expand NATO, giving intimate dinners for Senators and foreign officials. By day, he is director of strategic planning for Lockheed Martin Corporation, the world's biggest weapons maker.”

House Republicans are calling for President Joe Biden to provide military aircraft to Ukraine, so they can establish a no-fly zone on their own. In a press conference after hearing from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said their is bipartisan support for sending fighter jets to Ukraine.McCarthy and Republicans also praised Zelensky and the Ukrainian people while highlighting their resistance to Russian aggression. GOP lawmakers called for Biden to impose more sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) also spoke, calling on Biden to step up and take away...

Germany plans to buy up to 35 US-made F-35 fighter jets and 15 Eurofighter jets, a parliamentary source said Monday, as part of a major push to modernise the armed forces in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin would replace Germany's decades-old Tornado fleet, according to media reports confirmed by the source. Tornados are the only Luftwaffe planes capable of carrying US nuclear bombs stationed in Germany that are a key part of NATO deterrence.

TOKYO -- Despite fielding a smaller army, Ukrainian forces have put up a tougher response than anticipated to Russia's invasion thanks in no small part to the multitude of Javelin missiles provided by Western nations. Measuring 1.2 meters in length, the Javelin can be transported and fired by a single soldier. Yet the weapon, made by American contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, has enough firepower to pierce tank armor from 2.5 km away. The traits have made the Javelin the weapon of choice for repelling tank invasions in urban settings. A Javelin operator can covertly approach and engage a target...

A quiet supersonic plane designed and built by NASA to usher in a new era of superfast air travel made a pitstop in Texas to perform crucial structural testing ahead of a debut flight later this year. NASA's X-59 made the switch between Lockheed Martin facilities in late December, moving the plane between Palmdale, California and Fort Worth, Texas to take advantage of specialized equipment available in the Lone Star State to make sure the speedy vehicle won't face too much stress in mid-air. "In Fort Worth, they've got the perfect facility with a full control room and all the...

The agency said Feb. 7 it awarded a contract valued at up to $194 million to Lockheed to develop the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), an essential element of the overall Mars Sample Return campaign being developed by NASA and the European Space Agency. The MAV will be transported to Mars on a NASA-led Sample Retrieval Lander, which will also carry an ESA-developed rover. That rover will pick up samples of Martian rock and regolith cached by Perseverance and return them to the lander. Perseverance may also return some samples to the lander on its own. Those samples will be loaded...

With a range of 11,830 km and the capacity to carry 207,000 pounds of fuel, the KC-46 can refuel over 64 different types of aircraft and allow dozens of jets to remain airborne for up to 12 hours Israel’s Defense Ministry has signed an agreement with the US government to acquire 12 Lockheed Martin CH-53K helicopters and two additional Boeing KC-46 refueling aircraft. The US Defense Department’s Procurement Delegation signed the letters of acceptance (LOAs) with Israel on Thursday evening to replace the Israel Air Force’s CH-53 Yasur heavy-lift helicopters and Ra’am (Boeing 707) tanker aircraft that are required for...

HELSINKI/WASHINGTON — Finland has chosen U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighters to replace aging F/A-18 combat jets and plans to order 64 planes with weapons systems in a $9.4 billion deal, the government said on Friday. Lockheed Martin competed in a tender for the deal with Sweden’s Saab, U.S. rival Boeing, France’s Dassault and Britain’s BAE Systems. The procurement from Lockheed, including weapons as well as service and maintenance until 2030, is estimated to cost 8.378 billion euros ($9.44 billion), the government said. The construction of hangars and other equipment will add a further 777 million euros, and 824...

Brig. Gen. Terryl Schwalier was stunned when he read the account of the June 25, 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that appeared in my recent book, Countdown to Crisis: the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran. I was writing many years after the fact, drawing on sources from inside Iranian intelligence but also on published U.S. government reports. It was those U.S. reports that prompted General Schwalier to contact me a few months ago. “You paint a picture of significant government awareness that “Iran was up to something” in the months prior to the Khobar Towers attack,” he wrote...

The companies will "complete an accelerated concept design" of a glide phase interceptor capable of tracking and targeting hypersonic missiles as they travel toward their target. The interceptors will be designed to integrate with the Pentagon’s existing Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system. Further details on the contract were not made public, but Reuters reported the companies received separate contracts with a total value of $60 million. "Multiple awards allow us to execute a risk reduction phase to explore industry concepts and maximize the benefits of a competitive environment to demonstrate the most effective and reliable Glide Phase Interceptor for regional...

MYSTERY surrounds a UFO-like aircraft that was seen being towed into a top-secret US military base. According to reports, it was spotted at Lockheed Martin’s secretive Helendale radar-cross section (RCS) measurement facility in the Mojave Desert, California. The mystery craft was spotted being towed into a top-secret base in a California base The mystery craft was spotted being towed into a top-secret base in a California base A short video of the unidentified aircraft first emerged on TikTok and then the location was tracked down by internet sleuth Ruben Hofs. The footage shows what looks like an inverted stealth aircraft...

A Lockheed Martin honcho refuses to explain a video splashed on social media showing a UFO saucer-like aircraft being wheeled into a top-secret US military base. "I can't [speak about it]," said a grinning Jeff Babione, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works Vice President and General Manager when asked about the extraterrestrial tech... ..Babione was asked about security protocols at Skunk Works' facility. "We're good," Babione said, according to The Drive. Another chat between Defense One's Tara Copp and Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown tried to get answers about the object. But Brown only said that he was...

SpaceX emerged as the federal government's preferred aerospace contractor during the Trump years, and the aforementioned leaked emails outline a concerted effort by United Launch Alliance, a chief SpaceX competitor jointly owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to sour SpaceX's relationship with the Biden administration. The document itself included photos of Musk with President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, claimed that Musk "has had some controversial opinions about the coronavirus pandemic," and contained a lengthy section detailing Musk's staunchly anti-union past. "This is very helpfull!!!!" Solomon wrote in response. "I...

After getting drafted in the mid-1960s as the Vietnam War intensified, I saw all my fellow Soldiers as “olive drab green.” Despite my childhood immigration from Nicaragua, going back there didn’t cross my mind. Nor did fleeing to Canada like about 125,000 draft dodgers. Ironically, my father who came to California from Nicaragua in the 1940s was also conscripted and saw combat in Europe for two years. Following the war, he returned to Central America for me and my mother so we could move to San Francisco and pursue the American dream. I worked hard in the corporate and government...

SBIRS is part of the Defense Department’s missile warning network that detects ballistic missile launches. It includes a combination of two infrared sensors in highly elliptical orbit and five satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit. Lockheed Martin has been the SBIRS primary contractor since the mid-1990s. The fifth satellite launched May 18. The sixth and final SBIRS is in production and projected to launch in 2022. The five-year sole-source contract is for operations and maintenance of the SBIRS mission control center at Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado, and other operations centers at Peterson Air Force Base and Greeley Air National Guard...

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin tossed its executives to the woke wolves recently for training to help them check their white, male, and heterosexual privilege according to internal documents posted to Twitter Wednesday afternoon. Writer and Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo posted screenshots of the documents that he says were part of a "three-day white male reeducation camp" that Lockheed Martin executives attended via Zoom. The training program was hosted by White Men As Full Diversity Partners, one of many woke consulting firms that have popped up in a new and insufferable cottage industry as companies bend to the will of...