Reaching New Heights

摘要

For Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., and Britain's BAE Systems PLC, the celebrating is over. In late October the three firm team, led by Lockheed Martin, won the competition with Boeing Co. to pursue the next phase of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program-potentially worth $200 billion, the biggest defense contract ever in terms of dollars. But now comes the hard part. In previous phases of the project, the partners successfully designed and demonstrated an experimental version of the futuristic, single-air-frame-design fighter that will be used in three variations by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines, as well as by the United Kingdom. Now the program enters what is known as the System Development & Demonstration (SDD) phase.