Lockheed Martin To Offer Universal Helicopter Equipment Package

Lockheed Martin will offer a universal, highly adaptable and affordable mission equipment package (MEP) to meet requirements for the Joint Multi-Role/Future Vertical Lift (JMR/FVL) rotary wing program, with potential applications for other customers and platforms, the company announced today.

The Lockheed Martin MEP will integrate proven solutions from three of the Corporation's business areas and more than 30 years of experience integrating mission equipment components and subsystems into a wide variety of U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and international rotary- and fixed-wing programs. The product will be an affordable, dependable solution for multiple customers due to its open architecture and future airborne capability environment (FACE(TM)) software design.

"Working with the JMR customer, we look forward to providing a highly adaptable package that can be applied across multiple platforms," said Ed Whalen, Lockheed Martin Rotary Wing capture lead. "The U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin have invested billions of dollars to create advanced technology mission equipment packages, such as that in the F-35 Lightning II. The JMR program offers the opportunity for the U.S. Army to leverage this investment and many others in its vertical lift program through open architectures and Lockheed Martin's advanced avionics, sensors and weapons."

To improve the affordability and growth potential of the mission equipment package throughout its life cycle, Lockheed Martin is incorporating the DoD's FACE-software standards into the cockpit and mission systems. The use of the FACE standard for the software design will provide the U.S. Army unprecedented flexibility for reuse across multiple aviation platforms, the statement said.

Lockheed Martin's new product leverages the corporation's proven success in developing, manufacturing, integrating, fielding and sustaining the M-TADS/PNVS, HELLFIRE, F-35 Electro-optical Targeting System, Target Sight System, SH/MH-60, Merlin and A-10. The JMR/FVL solution will apply technologies, processes and lessons learned from the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter.