ROYAL NAVY MERLIN HELICOPTER TO LAND AT LOCKHEED MARTIN
UK SITE AT LANGSTONE TECHNOLOGY PARK, HAVANT
15 September 2003
HAVANT,
United Kingdom, Oct 15, 2003 – One
of the Royal Navy’s latest Merlin
helicopters is to land at the
Lockheed Martin UK site in Langstone
Technology Park, Havant, 11.00 on
Wednesday 15 October 2003.
Media
are invited to witness the event and
talk to the aircrew.
The
pilot, Lieutenant Commander Nick
Dunn, the Commanding Officer of 814
Naval Air Squadron, will then be
giving a talk to Lockheed Martin and
AgustaWestland personnel about the
aircraft’s success and roles during
its first-ever operational
deployment in support of recent
operations in Iraq.
Four
Merlins from 814 Squadron based at
RNAS CULDROSE were deployed to the
Gulf earlier this year onboard HMS
ARK ROYAL and RFA FORT VICTORIA and
the mission proved the versatility
of the Merlin as the world’s most
sophisticated maritime helicopter.
Lt Cdr Dunn said:
“The Merlin proved to be an
amazingly versatile, multi-mission
aircraft. It could undertake force
protection duties for the British
taskgroup, battle-picture management
for UK and US forces, it could do
stretcher or troop transfer at the
same time and also had the range.
No other British helicopter could do
all this at the same time.”
Bill Widner,
Acting Group Managing Director of
Lockheed Martin UK Ltd Integrated
Systems said: “We are truly
honoured that the Royal Navy has
come here today to give us feedback
on how the Merlin performed in the
Gulf. Many of our employees have
worked on the programme for more
than a decade and this will be their
first opportunity to hear from
front-line pilots how the system
performed in action. We and our
partners at AgustaWestland take
great pride in this fantastic
aircraft.”
Lockheed Martin UK Ltd at Havant is
the Merlin Mk1 prime contractor and
is partnered with AgustaWestland for
the next phase of the programme
which seeks – in a low risk and
cost-effective proposition - to
sustain the exceptional performance
of the weapon system for the
foreseeable future.
Lockheed Martin
UK, a unit of Lockheed Martin
Corporation, is a leader in systems
integration working on major
programmes spanning the aerospace,
defence, civil and commercial
sectors with significant
capabilities in the transport
infrastructure market. In the UK,
Lockheed Martin has annual sales in
the range of £400-600 million
working with more than 75 business
partners. Lockheed Martin employs
approximately 1,000 people at over
10 UK facilities including London,
Havant, Southampton, Yeovil,
Swindon, Hertford, Bristol and
Cornwall.
***
Headquartered in
Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin
employs about 125,000 people
worldwide and is principally engaged
in the research, design,
development, manufacture and
integration of advanced technology
systems, products and services.
Contact Lockheed Martin UK:
Jeremy Greaves, on: +44(0)23 9244
3977
(mob) +44(0)7887 506338 email:
jeremy.greaves@lmco.com
or
Chris Trippick +44(0)207 798 2856
(mob) +44 (0)7905 356 646 or email:
chris.trippick@lmco.com
For additional information on the
Lockheed Martin Corporation, visit
our Web site:
www.lockheedmartin.com
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