Lockheed Martin Missiles And Fire Control Wins Two Department Of Defense Nunn-Perry Awards
DALLAS, TX, March 20th, 2000 -- Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, located in Dallas and Orlando, has won two of the prestigious Department of Defense (DoD) Nunn-Perry Awards for its outstanding performance on the DoD Mentor-Protégé program, which partners established contractors with small disadvantaged businesses. The Nunn-Perry Awards are presented to DoD Mentor-Protégé Teams that have excelled in the areas of quality technical assistance, return on investment and Protégé development. The award was established in 1995 in honor of former Senator Sam Nunn, who sponsored the legislation that created the DoD Mentor Protégé Program, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry, for his commitment to the program's implementation. Twelve Nunn-Perry Awards were presented this year.
The awards were presented to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control on Friday, March 17, at the annual DoD Mentor-Protégé Conference at the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia. Accepting the awards on behalf of Lockheed Martin was Robert B. Coutts, executive vice president, Systems Integration, for Lockheed Martin Corporation.
"Selection of our Missiles and Fire Control team for two Nunn-Perry Awards is a tremendous accomplishment indicative of Lockheed Martin's corporate commitment to partner with small disadvantaged businesses," Coutts said. "These awards also recognize our focus on providing customers high quality, cost effective solutions even as we assist our partner Protégé companies in becoming world-class operations. I congratulate our Protégé partners, Técnico Corporation and T/J Technologies, along with our Systems Integration employees in Dallas and Orlando for their dedication to making this Defense Department program a success."
In Dallas, Missiles and Fire Control's small disadvantaged business partner, Técnico Corporation of Chesapeake, Virginia, worked with the company to produce composite midsection housing tubes for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile, the new missile being produced by Missiles and Fire Control - Dallas for the U.S. Army's Patriot air defense system.
"Técnico had chosen to diversify into a very high technology arena: composite materials fabrication," said Harry Karegeannes, vice president for Materials and Facilities at Missiles and Fire Control - Dallas. "They were utilizing advanced fabrication processes, including one process that they licensed from NASA."
Karegeannes said Lockheed Martin provided a full-time project manager, who split time between Técnico and Dallas, providing composites manufacturing technology support to Técnico. "We also hired a contract engineer to be trained as a Técnico project manager who will stay on with that company after this program ends," Karegeannes added. Lockheed Martin provided Técnico with several large pieces of manufacturing equipment to support the composite manufacturing business, including an autoclave, lathe and several milling machines.
The results have included a significant increase in manufacturing capacity and quality of the Técnico composites program. "Técnico has significantly increased their manufacturing system through this Mentor-Protégé program, and we have gained a highly qualified, quality-focused subcontractor," Karegeannes said. Because of its involvement and commitment to the program, Técnico has expanded into the manufacture of hyperbaric chambers, which has led to the company providing hyperbaric chambers under contract to the U.S. Navy.
In Orlando, Protégé partner T/J Technologies of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was instrumental in working with Missiles and Fire Control - Orlando to discover that nitride/carbide ultracapacitors can economically extend the life of batteries.
"Missiles and Fire Control and T/J Technologies have solved a dilemma," said Dr. Les Kramer, director and Engineering Fellow at Missiles and Fire Control - Orlando. "By applying modern materials technology to the fabrication of capacitors, we have developed the ultracapacitor, a type of capacitor which has energy storage capabilities well beyond the conventional electrolytic capacitors used in both military systems and consumer electronics. However, unlike batteries, the ultracapacitor can deliver very high power in a very small package; and we can do it economically compared to other ultracapacitors."
Because of the cost and performance advantages associated with ultracapacitors, Missiles and Fire Control - Orlando teamed with T/J Technologies through an Air Force-funded Mentor-Protégé research program to exploit ultracapacitors for military applications.
"We have successfully demonstrated that T/J Technologies' nanotechnology can be transitioned from the laboratory to an actual piece of deployed military hardware," Kramer said. Over the past 22 months, scientists and engineers from both companies have successfully scaled up the fabrication process that produced working prototype ultracapacitors. As a result, the Air Force recently funded a second phase of the program to continue fabrication development.
"The first phase was extremely successful, and we have even greater expectations from the second phase," according to Kramer. Since developing those initial prototype devices, numerous other potential applications associated with electric propulsion systems, improved communications radios, high power radar and smaller power sources have been identified for both military and commercial systems. The future looks very bright for this power source technology, and Lockheed Martin is currently planning several electronic system improvements for missiles and avionics based on these ultracapacitors.
Located in Dallas and Orlando, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control develops, manufactures and supports advanced combat, missile, rocket and space systems. The company is organized in seven program/mission areas: Strike Weapons, Air Defense, Anti-Armor, Naval Munitions, Fire Control and Sensors, Fire Support and Product Development.
Craig Vanbebber (Dallas): (972) 603-1615
Nettie Johnson (Orlando): (407) 356-2211
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
