Singapore, May 20, 2005 (UNI)

American powerhouse Lockheed Martin is targeting India as a major market for its wide range of warfare machinery, including F-16s.

Top officials gave an overview of the corporation's range of jets, submarines and surveillance crafts for the Asian market, emphasising the need to capture a share of the Indian market, where the armed forces have a large number of fleet renewal programme.

Lockheed Martin is aware of India's plan to buy six to eight submarines, said Mr Karl T Holt, regional director for International Programs.

The company would also be making offers of fighter jets F16 and airborne surveillance crafts P3 to India, he said at the IMDEX Asia 2005, a six-day maritime defence exhibition and conference held here since May 17.

Holt and Daniel Howard, Lockheed Martin's senior advisor for Asia and Pacific Affairs were scheduled to visit India this month.

Among Lockheed Martin's latest development is the Millennium Gun, a part of its efforts to validate and qualify new naval cannon technology.

The gun's capabilities, including its high rate of fire and air-bursting Advanced Hit Efficiency And Destruction, were tested by the US Navy early this month.

The Millennium Gun fires 35-mm ammunition at 1,000 rounds per minute, Lockheed Martin officials said.

In April, the company completed the first live shipboard tracking exercise with its SPY-1F multifunction phased array radar system aboard the Norwegian firgate Fridtjof Nansen.

The Aegis-based system identified and tracked multiple live targets during a three-hour window of fault-free operation at Navantia's Ferrol, Spain, shipyard.1