The Lockheed Martin Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) platform is a reconnaissance aircraft airframe, for the United States Army and Navy. The aircraft will be able to detect troop movements, intercept enemy communications and radar transmissions, and communicate with other aircraft. It will have synthetic aperture radar, electro-optical and infrared detection instrumentation. Lockheed/BAE/Northrop F-35 Lockheed Trident missile C-130 Hercules; in production since the 1950s, now as the C-130J Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is an aerospace manufacturer formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. ... A military aircraft used for monitoring enemy activity, usually carrying no armament. ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... The term communications is used in a number of disciplines: Communications, also known as communication studies is the academic discipline which studies communication. ... This long range radar antenna (approximately 40m (130ft) in diameter) rotates on a track to observe activities near the horizon. ... The surface of Venus, as imaged by the Magellan probe using SAR Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar in which sophisticated post-processing of radar data is used to produce a very narrow effective beam. ... Image of a small dog taken in mid-infrared (thermal) light (false color) Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than visible light, but shorter than microwave radiation. ...

The Army intends to acquire 34 units, with 19 going to the Navy. The initial contract, awarded on August 3, 2004, is valued at $79 million, but total contract value through 2010 will be $879 million. Beyond that, the total program cost could reach $7 billion, with only 20-30% going to the platform vendor. The ACS will be used to replace three existing Army and Navy platforms—the RC-7 ARL, RC-12/RU-21 Guardrail, and EP-3E Aries II. Testing will begin in 2006, and full-rate production will begin in 2009. While the Army has fully committed, the Navy has not as of yet, and may instead opt for a modified version of the Multimission Maritime Aircraft. August 3 is the 215th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (216th in leap years), with 150 days remaining. ... This is a list of aviation-related events from 2004: Events January 2 - Several British Airways flights from London Heathrow Airport to Washington D.C. and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are cancelled due to security fears. ... 2010 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The de Havilland Canada DHC_7, popularly the Dash 7, is a turboprop powered regional airliner with STOL capabilities. ... The C-12F Huron provides logistics support between Navy air stations. ... The Lockheed EP-3E Orion Aries II is a turboprop-based signals reconnaissance aircraft, operated by the United States Navy. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2009 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Artists rendering of the MMA The Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) is intended to search for and destroy submarines, conduct shipping interdiction, and also possibly engage in an ELINT role. ...

The Lockheed Martin entry beat a consortium of Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics Gulfstream, using the G450 platform. The competing entry attempted to play up nationalist sympathies, and give the impression of a security risk by using a Brazilian airframe, provided by EMBRAER, using their more affordable, reliable, and cost effective (the latter two being subjective) ERJ 145 platform—Gulfstream's airframe did have longer range and could fly at higher altitudes but the acquisition and operational costs (main requirements of DoD for ACS platform) of ERJ145 were considered much more attractive. Both electronics packages were equivalent and had no major influence in this decision. It was later decided that the ERJ145 would not suffice due to weight constraints [1] and thus, while Lockheed will retain the system integrator role, the platform entry is to be re-bid among several larger aircraft. The Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of a 1994 merger between Northrop and Grumman. ... Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is located in Savannah, Georgia, USA, and has been a unit of General Dynamics since 2001. ... The Gulfstream G400 is a private jet aircraft produced by Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, Georgia, a General Dynamics company. ... Embraer, the Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A. is a Brazilian company, founded on August 19th, 1969, by the Brazilian government. ... A system integrator is a person or company that specializes in integrating systems. ...

EMBRAER was to produce the first five airframes in Brazil (based upon the commercial ERJ 145), while final assembly on following units would have taken place in Jacksonville, Florida, to satisfy Department of Defense workshare requirements. Electronics integration will be conducted by Lockheed Martin at an unannounced site. The Embraer ERJ 145 is a twin-engined regional jet plane with 50 seats. ... The Jacksonville skyline and the Acosta Bridge. ... State nickname: Sunshine State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush (R) Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ...

Lockheed has faced criticism from the Department of Defense, and specifically, the U.S. Army, for not being able to properly forecast weight issues with the system. The Army claimed in an August 11, 2005 article in The Wall Street Journal that Lockheed could potentially lose the contract if they did not resolve the issue. The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated as DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ... August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... The Wall Street Journal is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with a worldwide average daily circulation of more than 2. ...

External links

Globalsecurity.org ACS entry