Lockheed Martin technology chief Dr Ray O Johnson

Today, as the prime contractor on NASA’s Orion program, the developer of the F-35 Lightning, and the driving force behind a host of other advanced engineering projects this tradition continues.

And on a recent visit to the UK, the firm’s Chief Technology Officer Dr Ray O Johnson met The Engineer to discuss some of the technologies and the trends that are shaping the future of the firm and the defence sector in general.

Directed energy weapons – and in particular lasers – have been a priority area for military researchers in recent years.

As previously reported in The Engineer, US defence firm Raytheon began publicly demonstrating the weapons back in 2010, whilst in 2012, Europe’s MBDA demonstrated a 40kW laser that successfully hit airborne targets at a range of over 2,000m.

Meanwhile, later this summer a laser weapon will be deployed for the first time aboard a ship, when the US Navy developed LaWs system begins sea-trials in the Persian gulf aboard the curiously-named USS Ponce, an amphibious vessel that has been in service since 1971.