Lockheed Martin : War is good for business

Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) reported Q1 '07 earnings of $690 million, or $1.60 a share, up tear to Date (YTD) on $591 million, or $1.34 a share a rise of 17% .

LMT are the US No. 1 defense contractor, with $26.6 billion in 2006 Defense Department prime contract awards, said sales in the three months ended March 31 increased less than 1% to $9.28 billion from $9.21 billion.

Lockheed's expects yearly earnings to increase 35/40 cents a share for an annual $6.20 to $6.35 a share in 2007.

GPS Wars

In a little noticed announcement last week the U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a $6 million contract to develop and integrate a demonstration payload that will temporarily transmit a third civil signal on a modernized Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellite.

This new contract directs Lockheed Martin and its navigation payload supplier ITT in Clifton, N.J. to provide an on-orbit demonstration capability for the new civil signal. The signal, located on the L5 frequency (1176MHz) will comply with international radio frequency spectrum requirements. The Block IIR-M spacecraft with the demonstration payload is planned for launch in 2008.

No explanation has been given for this trial but the further separation of military and cicil signals suggests and attempt to improve the capacity in certain situtations to switch off / deny (or interfere) with the civilian signal - which boat drivers(sic) of the Royal Navy it appears, rely on for navigating in Iraqi/Irani waters.

GPS modernised replacement satellites lifted on schedule

The Boeing Delta II 7925-9.5 rocket is the powerful and reliable workhorse of the satellite placement industry. It has a Boeing first stage booster powered by a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine and nine Alliant Techsystems (ATK) solid rocket boosters.

An Aerojet AJ10-118K engine powers the storable propellant restartable second stage.

A Thiokol Star-48B solid rocket motor sends the third stage prior to spacecraft deployment.

Blasting off at 2:50 p.m. EDT, Sept. 24th with a nine-and-a-half-foot-diameter Boeing payload fairing containing the second replacement GPS IIR-15 (M) spacecraft, this giant workhorse lifted off from Space Launch Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, successfully delivered to orbit earlier today a replenishment Block IIR Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite for the U.S. Air Force.

These modernized GPS satellites incorporate improvements to provide :

1. Greater accuracy on the ground for users
2. Increased resistance to interference - i.e defence in space from attack

GPS provides military and civilian users three-dimensional position location data in longitude, latitude and elevation as well as precise time and velocity (across land, space) . The satellites orbit the Earth every 12 hours, emitting continuous navigation signals. The signals are so accurate, time can be figured to within one millionth of a second, velocity within a fraction of a mile-per-second and location to within 100 feet.