A key Lockheed Martin [LMT] executive is “bullish” on the company meeting a 2020 operational testing (OT) goal for its newly awarded Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) program.
Lockheed Martin Vice President of Integrated Warfare Systems and Sensors Brad Hicks told reporters during a press conference in Washington Thursday the radar’s discrimination technology is already pretty mature. The challenge, Hicks said, will be integrating the massive radar. Once complete, the two-phased array radar will be 30 feet tall and roughly the size of four semi-truck trailers. 
Hicks said Lockheed Martin has been working on LRDR on its own funding since the request for proposals (RFP) was issued in January. He said the company had its first videoconference with MDA and that agency officials were coming to Lockheed Martin’s Moorestown, N.J., facility next week for a review.
Hicks also said Lockheed Martin has built plenty of margin into the schedule to deal with “unknowns,” though he declined to specify how much. Hicks said Alaska’s wet season, in addition to its cold winters, provides a challenge to the LRDR’s ground foundational work. Clear Air Force Station, Alaska, is located 75 miles southwest of Fairbanks and 287 miles north of Anchorage.
Lockheed Martin last week beat out Raytheon [RTN] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] to win a $784 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for LRDR, a ground-based system designed to differentiate between ballistic missile threats and decoys (Defense Daily, Oct. 21). Neither Raytheon nor Northrop Grumman responded to requests for comment by press time Thursday on whether they planned to protest the contract award.