ORLANDO, FL, 17-NOV-00 --

Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems' Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) successfully completed its third and final contractor flight test at Eglin Air Force Base November 13. Two earlier tests were also successful.

The WCMD tail kit, installed on a Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW), was dropped from an F-16 flying at 15,000 feet and 0.85 Mach. Following release, the weapon guided to the target area and dispensed its submunitions well within the 100-ft. requirement.

WCMD is an inexpensive tailkit that converts existing tactical munitions dispensers (CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition, CBU-89 Gator Mine, and CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon) into autonomous, all-weather weapons which are then redesignated as CBU-103, 104, and 105, respectively. With a unit price of under $10,000, WCMD provides a ver low cost way to significantly improve the effectiveness of cluster munitions.

WCMD tail kits are assembled at Lockheed Martin Assembly Services in Americus, Georgia. These kits were assembled to the same specifications as those that will be assembled in the system's full rate production phase.

The tests are an early demonstration that our technology insertion program is working, said David Seckinger, WCMD program director at Lockheed Martin. We used the BAE Systems inertial measurement unit and General Technologies' missile guidance and control assembly in these kits and demonstrated that the system we will build in full scale production will perform well for the Air Force.

This test followed shortly after WCMD achieved Required Assets Available (RAA) status for the F-16 and B-52. There are 150 units at Barksdale Air Force Base for the B-52 and 130 units at Hill Air Force Base for the F-16. We are excited about the delivery and installation of these first WCMDs, providing the Air Force's first fighter and bomber capabilities, said Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Severs, Air Force WCMD program manager. After our successful contractor drops, we are starting a government test program that should provide us with additional confidence prior to moving ahead with a recommendation for full rate production. The first government test unit was dropped during the same mission as the final contractor drop. It was also a success.

The program was initiated in 1995 as one of the Air Force's first streamlined, acquisition reform programs. The program completed the final phase of development test last December.

The Air Force plans to procure 40,000 tail kits by FY2005 and integration is now complete, underway, or planned on the B-52, B-1, B-2, F-15, F-16, and F-117. To date, Lockheed Martin has delivered and installed 280 Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) lot 1 tailkits. Delivery and installation of 676 LRIP 2 units is currently underway, while delivery of the first of 2990 LRIP 3 units is expected next spring. A Milestone 3 Full Rate Production decision is planned for first quarter CY 2001. Production will be complete in 2007.

Located in Dallas, Texas and Orlando, Florida, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, a world leader in electro-optics, smart munitions, advanced combat, missile, rocket, and space systems, is an operating element of Lockheed Martin System Integration business unit based in Bethesda, Maryland.