There are plenty of drone variants available, but Lockheed Martin is pushing the boundaries of drone warfare thanks to their Transformer TX drones, which will be able to transport cars to and from the battlefield.
The Transformer TX is being developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division, and the drone will be able to transport cars, storage containers, and even pods filled with soldiers.
It started out in 2010 with a concept that would attach to cars, but evolved into a solution to ferry larger pieces of tech to the battlefield remotely. It will use a pivoting ducted fan propulsion system with no exposed rotor, and this should allow it to take off and land vertically in an area about half of that of a helicopter.
Currently, the team is finalizing its design before building a working prototype. If DARPA accepts the prototype, the drones could be delivered for flight by 2015.
[via IEEE Spectrum via Gizmodo via The Verge]
Lockheed Martin flipped the switch on its first (still Earth-bound) GPS III satellite earlier this year, and it's now announced that it's completed functional testing on the satellite's key electronic systems. In a press release, the company says those systems, ranging from navigation and control to communications, are all "functioning normally and ready for final integration with the satellite's navigation payload," and that the satellite remains on track for deliverly to the Air Force in 2014. As previously detailed, the satellites themselves are promising to deliver a range of improvements over current GPS technology to civilian and military users alike, including three times greater accuracy and an eight-fold increase in anti-jamming capabilities, which Lockheed Martin says is designed to "outpace growing global threats that could disrupt GPS service."
Filed under: GPS
Via: The Verge
Source: Lockheed Martin
Wondering who would be the first to concoct a Kickstarter for governmental wishes? We suppose it's Lockheed Martin. Today, the aforementioned outfit has launched an initiative "aimed at expanding its collaboration with Silicon Valley companies to meet the diverse technology needs of the federal government." Called the Lockheed Martin Silicon Valley Alliance, the hub will reportedly "provide the federal government with greater visibility into innovative technology solutions developed locally," even going so far as to suggest that a game developer could use their resources in order to improve the realism of a military simulation system. It sounds as if Lockheed will end up being the middleman between aspiring companies and entities like the Department of Defense and NASA, essentially ensuring that whatever is built meets federal requirements. Those interested in venturing down such a rabbit hole can give the source link a look, but as always, we'd caution you to register at your own risk.
Source: Lockheed Martin
I receive a terse invite from Lockheed Martin that asks me to take a "glimpse into the future," but it doesn't mention whose future it is. I could write about what I know of the American defense contractor on the back of a postage stamp, but a cursory Google search fills in some of the blanks. The company reportedly receives around 7 percent of the US military budget on its own - and with that, my imagination runs rampant about what I'm likely to see. Dreaming of playing with laser pistols, intelligent cyborgs and giant robots, I tell them I'm coming.
A few days later, I turn up at the Honourable Artillery Company in London's glitzy financial district, a miniature castle that's dwarfed by the gleaming skyscrapers that surround it. In a way, the landscape is telling, since the occupants of those buildings can shoulder some of the blame for the current financial crisis - while across the street, Lockheed Martin is preparing its cost-cutting response.
Two hulking vehicles guard the entrance off a small courtyard, and through a window I see a plush room full of red velvet and leather, stuffed with computers and pensive, well-dressed operators. I wonder if I'm being vetted as I amble inside, my now-sodden socks and matted hair marking me out as unthreatening -- just as long as I promise not to get out my camera. As I'm ushered inside and the tour begins, I'm expecting to see jetpacks and robots, but the reality is much different. Not even this industry is immune to the world's financial problems, and my tour would reveal that its future lies decidedly in our past.
Continue reading What's Past is Prologue: a look inside the future of Lockheed Martin
Sure, it's not the first elite cybercrime-fighting team we've heard of, it's also not everyday you hear the likes of Intel, Lockheed Martin and AMD buddying up on research. The companies are looking to address the "complex problems" in cyber security, with the private, non-profit group (which also includes Honeywell and RSA/EMC) aiming to work somewhere between government-funded security research and commercial products already out there. The Cyber Security Research Alliance is already in talks with NIST, and plans to launch a security research symposium early next year. The CSRA will also start tracking cyber security R&D, "prioritize" those aforementioned challenges, and hopefully come together for the greater good.
Continue reading AMD, Intel and RSA team up, form the Cyber Security Research Alliance
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Mobile, AMD, Intel
AMD, Intel and RSA team up, form the Cyber Security Research Alliance originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NASA has always used the desert as its own personal playground, and we'd imagine that its team had a blast in Arizona yesterday, as a mock parachute compartment of the Orion spacecraft was dropped from 25,000 feet above Earth. The dart-shaped object experienced free fall for 5,000 feet, at which point, drogue chutes were deployed at 20,000 feet. This was then followed by pilot chutes, which then activated the main chutes. As you'd imagine, these things are monsters: the main parachutes -- three in all -- each measure 116 feet wide and weigh more than 300 pounds. Better yet, the mission was successful.
Naturally, all of this is in preparation for Orion's first test flight -- currently scheduled for 2014 -- where the unmanned craft will travel 15 times further than the ISS and jam through space at 20,000 mph before returning to Earth. Yesterday's outing is merely one in a series of drop tests, and yes, it's important to remove any unknowns from the situation: eventually, humans will be along for the ride.
NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation for Orion spacecraft originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aerial drone designers have been pushing hard to get devices that can stay airborne for days. After all, what's the point of having an observer that routinely lets its guard down? Lockheed Martin must have this question forever etched in its collective mind, as it just completed tests of a modified Stalker drone that was continually charged by laser power beamed from a ground-based source. The LaserMotive-built test was admittedly conducted in a wind tunnel, not a wind-swept battlefield, but it kept the drone aloft for more than 48 hours and was so efficient that it might even have gone indefinitely, if it weren't for staff intentionally bringing the trial to a halt. The true test is coming next, when Lockheed Martin and LaserMotive fly the drone on laser power outdoors. Should the Stalker sail the friendly skies for long enough, it could help usher in an era of UAVs that can spot intruders at all hours -- a little too close to the aircraft's name for comfort, perhaps, but potentially vital for Special Operations troops that might not have to put themselves in danger. You can check the underpinnings of both the laser power system and the Stalker in videos after the break.
Filed under: Robots
Lockheed Martin Stalker drone stays airborne 48 hours using laser power, all-seeing eye gets literal (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkSUAS News, The Verge | Lockheed Martin | Email this | Comments If you’ve seen the action flick Act of Valor, you may remember the small handheld UAV that was used to keep an eye on enemy placement. Lockheed Martin makes a little UAV called the Stalker Unmanned Ariel System that is similar to the UAV used in that movie. Typically, the little Stalker is powered by a battery and has a relatively short usable time before the battery runs out of power.
Lockheed Martin has announced that in cooperation with a company called LaserMotive, the Stalker has been able to fly with no stops for over 48 hours. The way Lockheed Martin and LaserMotive pulled this off is very cool. The Stalker was fitted with proprietary equipment to be able to gather power from a laser beam as it flew.
The test was conducted indoors in a wind tunnel and the Stalker flew him for over 48 hours. Lockheed says that the test could have continued and was only stopped because the aircraft had passed the endurance goals the team set. In fact, at the end of the test, the little aerial vehicle had more power in its battery than it did when the test started.
We spend hundreds of hours on board a variety of airplanes each year, most often en-route to a trade show or product launch event, but occasionally we have a rare opportunity to hop on board military aircraft, to test out unrelated products, or, even more unusually, to take a seat behind the yoke. Sadly that's not what we're doing today -- well, not exactly. We are taking a closer look at the F-35 fighter jet at Lockheed Martin's Fighter Demonstration Center just outside our nation's capital, but, being in the middle of a corporate complex, there's no actual Lightning II on hand. We were able to take a simulated ride, however -- this isn't your ordinary 4D sickness-inducing amusement park thrill. The F-35 is by far the most advanced Lockheed jet to date, with updated radar, all-internal weapons, improved tracking systems, 360-degree infrared coverage with a visor readout, and a full-stealth design, not to mention the incredibly capable glass cockpit powered by more than 9.3 million lines of software code, and an overall smoother experience for pilots that could end up spending shifts of 12 hours or longer in flight.
The F-35 has already seen plenty of field time in the US, with more than 500 flights already in 2012, and it's set to make its way to the UK armed forces next week and the Netherlands later this year, but while the aircraft is quite familiar to the pilots tasked with flying it, the public hasn't had an opportunity to experience Lockheed's latest airborne warrior. We flew a simulated mission within a grounded duplicate of the flyable F-35 cockpit, and the capabilities and improvements are quite clear -- you definitely don't want to encounter an F-35 from a previous-generation aircraft. The dual 8 x 10-inch touch-enabled displays combine to give you 8 x 20 inches of real estate, with dedicated modules for the weapons systems, targeting, and navigation easily accessible -- you can also move them to different panels depending on your current objective. A pair of joysticks at the left and right side provide direct access, letting you move a cursor to track enemy crafts or ground-based targets as well, and a very slick heads-up-display mounted in the helmet provides infrared mapping and instrument readouts. Overall, it seems to be an incredibly powerful system. Unfortunately, the mock-up on display here isn't accessible to the public, but you can join us for a behind-the-scenes look just after the break.
Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets, Transportation
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter cockpit demonstrator hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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