http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded A Lockheed Martin F-35B Short Takeoff/Vertical Landing Lightning II test aircraft recently completed the first-ever Vertical Takeoff May 10 Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. VTOs are one of the many capabilities required for the fielding an F-35B aircraft.† While not a combat capability, VTOs are required for repositioning of the STOVL in environments…

ATK, the nation’s largest rocket motor producer, has successfully completed the first U.S.-based testing of the High Performance Green Propulsion thruster technology for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The testing was conducted at ATK Defense Group’s test facility in Elkton, Md., in April 2013. The ATK test facility is capable of assessing high-fidelity performance…

Northrop Grumman has invited one of the nation’s top cybersecurity research institutions – the University of Southern California – to join its Cybersecurity Research Consortium. USC’s leadership in big data, computer science and informatics will expand the consortium’s breadth of research to further advance solutions to counter the newest and most pressing cyber threats to…

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Raytheon a contract to build rapidly deployable air traffic control systems that can be delivered anywhere in the world and then be fully operational controlling flights within six hours. The contract, with a potential full value of $260 million, calls for one Engineering and Manufacturing Development unit plus production…

Raytheon marked its five-decade heritage as the maker of Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) technology that has allowed U.S. and international defense forces to track objects in total darkness, often from long distances. Over the span of 50 years, the devices have shrunk in size and weight – from several hundred pounds to less than two…

A Raytheon Standard Missile-3 Block IB fired from the USS Lake Erie destroyed a complex, separating short-range ballistic missile target with a sophisticated separating mock warhead. Despite stressing conditions designed to challenge the missile’s discrimination capabilities, the SM-3 successfully engaged the target using the sheer kinetic force of a massive collision in space. “Combatant commanders…

Lockheed Martin’s second-generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system achieved its fourth intercept since May 2012. The system successfully launched and guided a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IB missile to engage a sophisticated, separating short-range ballistic missile target. During the Missile Defense Agency test, U.S. Navy sailors aboard USS Lake Erie (CG-70) used the Aegis BMD…

The latest in a series of Lockheed Martin F-35A high angle of attack testing was recently completed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.  The testing accomplished high AOA beyond both the positive and negative maximum command limits, including intentionally putting the aircraft out of control in several configurations. This included initially flying in the stealth…