FORT WORTH, Texas, Nov. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) F-16 Auto Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS) team was presented a 2015 Aviation Week Program Excellence Award for its role in managing part of the F-16 Auto GCAS program.

"I am extremely proud of the work this F-16 Auto GCAS team has done," said Susan Ouzts, vice president of Lockheed Martin's F-16 program. "The team worked closely with our U.S. Air Force partners to refine this game-changing capability and help deliver it to the warfighter. Auto GCAS has already saved numerous pilots and will save many more in the future as the system is implemented more broadly across the global F-16 fleet."

Aviation Week presented the award to the F-16 Auto GCAS team in the "Sub-System Level R&D/SDD" category.

The F-16 Auto GCAS system is designed to significantly reduce controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents, a leading cause of fatalities in both civil and military aviation. U.S. Air Force officials acknowledged earlier this year that the first operational Auto GCAS "save" occurred during a late-2014 combat mission involving an F-16C.

Auto GCAS was developed by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), also known as Skunk Works®, in collaboration with the Office of the Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, and the Air Force Test Center in a joint research effort.

The F-16 Auto GCAS system is currently being integrated into the U.S. Air Force's F-16 fleet and the Air Force and Lockheed Martin plan to develop similar systems for use in the F-22 and F-35.

About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that – with the addition of Sikorsky – employs approximately 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

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SOURCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company