Lockheed Martin has manufactured and delivered the 1,000th payload for the Nulka decoy program, a joint effort between the US and Royal Australian navies that uses a hovering decoy to lead an incoming missile away from a ship.
Nulka is an integral part of a ship’s layered defence system against incoming missile threats.
It is installed on several classes of US Navy and Canadian navy ships, as well as on every Australian surface combatant.
“This joint effort has yielded extraordinary benefit and has fostered an exceptional spirit of cooperation between the US and Australian navies,” Ed Settle, the US Navy’s program manager for the Joint US / Australia MK 53 (Nulka) decoy program, said.
Lockheed Martin has worked with BAE Systems Australia, the Nulka decoy prime contractor, since 1994.
The payloads are manufactured by Lockheed Martin in Marion, Massachusetts, and the decoys are assembled by BAE Systems in Australia.