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Lockheed Martin Achieves Development Testing Milestone for MH-60R Helicopter

OWEGO, NY, September 26th, 2002 -- Lockheed Martin has successfully completed the second of four major testing milestones required prior to the U. S. Navy's MH-60R Multi-Mission helicopter entering Operational Evaluation in 2004. The joint Lockheed Martin/ Navy test team for the MH-60R completed the critical mission test known as Development Testing Phase IIC (DT IIC), two days ahead of schedule, moving the program closer to fleet introduction in late 2005. The combined test team, consisting of U.S. Navy pilots, engineers and aircrew and Lockheed Martin, completed 151 test flights, 494 flight hours and 1,540 ground hours on two prototype MH-60R aircraft from July 2001 to July 2002. The testing was conducted at the Naval Air Station and the Air Combat Environmental Test and Evaluation Facility (ACETEF), both in Patuxent River, MD.

"Completion of DT IIC is a significant event in the continued development of the MH-60R," said Jeff Bantle, vice president, Helo Systems at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, NY, where the missions systems are developed. "I'm very proud of the tremendous team effort involving the Navy, Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky and Telephonics during this test period to successfully complete this milestone ahead of schedule."

The main focus of the DT IIC test was to test critical naval at-sea mission systems, especially the Multi-Mode Radar (MMR), Electronic Support Measures (ESM) and Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) interrogator. The multiple modes of the MMR were of special interest during this phase, with evaluations conducted on the periscope detect mode, short/long range search, target designate and the Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar mode.

In addition to these primary test events, DT IIC provided data flights on acoustics, data link and mission scenarios testing. During these tests, the AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Dipping Sonar was exercised in deep and shallow water acoustic flights. The Anti-Submarine Warfare/Anti-Surface Warfare non-acoustic 2005 mission scenarios also were flown. ESM, IFF and radar information was data linked from the MH-60R aircraft to the ship ground station.

Angela Hoosier (607) 751-3436, e-mail: angela.hoosier@lmco.com