Lockheed Martin has submitted to the U.S. government its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) team proposal for the decade-long JSF Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract. Company officials delivered the proposal package one day ahead of the Feb. 8 deadline.

"We are extremely proud of the proven capability, flight performance and supportability our team has designed into this JSF," said Dain Hancock, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. "But a proposal is more than a document describing an aircraft. It is a corporate commitment to providing our multiple customers with a superior-quality weapon system that exceeds expectations, on time and on cost."

Tom Burbage, executive vice president and general manager of the Lockheed Martin JSF program, expressed confidence in the proposal's content and in the progress made by the JSF X-35 demonstrators.

"We assembled and integrated the truly awesome intellectual and design talent of virtually three quarters of the worldwide fighter development knowledge base to produce a winning proposal," Burbage said. "I'm confident we've succeeded. Our concept-demonstration aircraft, the X-35, continues to validate our overall design and performance offering, ensuring a low-risk EMD program."

Delivering the proposal represents more than four years of effort, said Harry Blot, vice president and deputy program manager of the Lockheed Martin JSF.

"We believe we've submitted an offering that meets or exceeds every government requirement for lethality, survivability and supportability; all for less than the government's cost targets. We are demonstrating the commonality that is so important to providing an affordable, superior fighter. And we've slashed by 50 percent the cost of operating and supporting the JSF compared to fighters it will replace."

Describing the details of the proposal, Frank Cappuccio, Lockheed Martin JSF vice president and the point man for managing the proposal preparation said, "We wanted to make the proposal as easy to evaluate as possible. We had a wonderfully talented team and preparation went very smoothly. It is a fully electronic and completely hyper-linked document allowing the evaluator to move freely around the proposal. If the reader wants more details on a particular subject, a click of a mouse brings a more in-depth explanation. It may be the very first end-to-end electronically integrated proposal of this magnitude. We think it's a winner."

Lockheed Martin produces the world's most advanced and successful fighter aircraft, including the F-22, F-117 and F-16. The company, in partnership with Northrop Grumman and BAE SYSTEMS, is in competition to build the JSF for the United States and Great Britain. The Joint Strike Fighter is the "beyond the next generation" fighter with technology advances that will serve the United States and its allies well into the 21st century. Government selection of a single contractor for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase is set for 2001.

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SOURCE: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company