Lockheed Martin has manufactured and delivered the 1,000th payload for the Nulka decoy program, a joint effort between the U.S. and Royal Australian navies that uses a hovering decoy to lead an incoming missile away from a ship.

Nulka is an integral part of a ship's layered defense system against incoming missile threats. It is installed on several classes of U.S. Navy and Canadian navy ships, as well as on every Australian surface combatant.

"This joint effort has yielded extraordinary benefit and has fostered an exceptional spirit of cooperation between the U.S. and Australian navies," says Ed Settle, the U.S. Navy's program manager for the Joint U.S. / Australia MK 53 (Nulka) decoy program.

Lockheed Martin has worked with BAE Systems Australia, the Nulka decoy prime contractor, since 1994. The payloads are manufactured by Lockheed Martin in Marion, Mass., and the decoys are assembled by BAE Systems in Australia.

"Our commitment to Nulka goes beyond the investments we've made in this program over the years," says Donna Edwards, Lockheed Martin's Nulka program manager. "We know that every payload we manufacture must perform flawlessly to help keep our sailors safe."

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 136,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's 2009 sales from continuing operations were $44.5 billion.

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SOURCE: Lockheed Martin