Lockheed Martin Orincon Corporation (originally ORINCON Corporation International) is a systems integration and

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

company that supports

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

's position in the

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance ISTAR stands for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employing its sensors and managing t ...

(ISR) industry.

History

Orincon was established in 1973 in San Diego by

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

professors Dr. Daniel Alspach and Dr. Harold Sorenson, and UC Irvine professor Dr. Jim Meditch. Operations began in 1975 with three government contracts. During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, Orincon helped design the SOSUS tracker system to follow the Soviet Ballistic Missile Submarine. Convinced of the significance of SOSUS, Alspach wrote, "I see this as part of the chain that ended the Cold War. The SOSUS was so successful, that the Russians had to spend tremendous amounts of money trying to quiet their

sub Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB Computing and technology * , an HTML tag for subscript * SUB designate ...

s to avoid detection. At the same time, they spent a great deal trying to counter U.S. President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

technology. This, with the inherent inefficiencies of their

socialistic Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

economic system An economic system, or economic order, is a system of Production (economics), production, resource allocation and Distribution (economics), distribution of goods and services within a society or a given geographic area. It includes the combinati ...

, broke the bank and led to the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

." Indeed, Soviet spies John Anthony Walker and Jerry Alfred Whitworth in the U.S. Navy revealed to the Russians that their submarines were noisy, and thus, easily detectable. This knowledge led to the development of "quieting" technology that Russia later sold to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In 1990, Orincon's primary business was

antisubmarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are typic ...

; however, the U.S. Navy deprioritized antisubmarine warfare technology spending in anticipation of the end of the Soviet Union. Despite the hardship of transformation in the 1990s, Orincon grew by 25 percent in 1998. In fact, until Lockheed Martin acquired Orincon in June 2003, Orincon experienced growth every year since its inception. Orincon's customers have included, but are not limited to, the United States Navy, Department of Transportation, National Cancer Research Institute, and the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

. Orincon developed the Intelligent Vehicle Sensor as part of its Airport Classification and Tracking System (ACATS). From 1990 to 1998, there were five fatal ground collisions on U.S. airport runways, and in 1996, there were 280 near misses. The sensor was installed at Long Beach Airport to track airplanes on the ground to avoid

runway incursion A runway incursion is an Aviation accidents and incidents, aviation incident involving improper positioning of vehicles or people on any runway, airport runway or its Critical_area_(aeronautics), protected area. When an incursion involves an ''a ...

External links

UCSD Alumni Profile: Daniel L. Alspach

Lockheed Martin official website
{{Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin