Original vintage 1960s Lockheed Missiles & Space Division advertisement for the MIDAS (Missile Defense Alarm System) program, which the company produced for the United States Air Force - "This is all MIDAS would ever see...should an all-out missile attack be launched against us, MIDAS would report it instantly - doubling the warning time we'd get from the present system."
 
Dimensions: Approx. 6.5 inches wide by 9.5 inches high.
 
The U.S. Air Force's MIDAS Program
The U.S. Air Force Air Defense Command MIDAS system of 12 early-warning satellites, which provided limited notice of Soviet nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches between 1960 and 1966.  Originally intended to serve as a complete early-warning system working in conjunction with the USMIL’s Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, cost and reliability concerns limited the project to a research and development role.  
 
MIDAS provided crude infrared early-warning coverage of the Soviet Union until the project was replaced by the Defense Support Program, and represented one element of the U.S.'s first generation of reconnaissance satellites that also included the CORONA and SAMOS series.  Though MIDAS failed in its primary role as a system of infrared early-warning satellites, it pioneered the technologies needed in successor systems.
 
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite.  The event, while a scientific triumph, also signified that the Soviet Union now had the capability to attack the United States with nuclear ICBMs.  To give an early warning of any Soviet sneak ICBM attack, the governments of the United States, Canada, and Denmark (with the authority over Greenland, where the main radar station was built at Thule Air Base) agreed to build the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS).  This system would use radar to detect incoming ICBM warheads and give about 20 minutes of warning of an ICBM attack.
 
However, this system was hampered by the inherent limitations of radar systems and the curvature of the Earth.  Due to the location of the Soviet Union on the other side of the Northern Hemisphere, the potential Soviet ICBM sites were thousands of miles over the horizon from the BMEWS radar stations that were under construction at Thule and Clear Air Force Station, Alaska (and later on, in England), and the BMEWS stations, as huge as they are, could not detect the ICBM warheads immediately after their launching.  Only when the warheads had risen above the horizon could they be detected and warnings passed on by the U.S. Air Force.
 
Accurate calculations had already shown that the BMEWS system would give just ten to 25 minutes of warning in the case of an ICBM attack.  The MIDAS system, as planned, would extend this warning time to about 30 minutes, giving the extra time needed for all of the Strategic Air Command's nuclear-armed heavy bombers to take off from their air bases, and hence proving to the Soviet government that it could not destroy these bombers in a sneak attack.
 
Hence, the Soviets would be deterred from launching such an attack by a valid threat of nuclear retaliation. In addition, the MIDAS system should have been able to confirm radar detections from BMEWS of a thermonuclear attack, hence reducing the chances of an accidental nuclear false alarm from the radar system.
 
Lockheed Missiles & Space Division
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC) was a unit of the Lockheed Corporation "Missiles, Space, and Electronics Systems Group."  LMSC was started by Willis Hawkins who served as its president.  After Lockheed merged with Martin-Marietta the unit became known as "Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space."  Located in Sunnyvale, California adjacent to Moffett Field, it operated a major satellite development and manufacturing plant.
 
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace company that employs more than 110,000 people worldwide.  The defense powerhouse focuses on the design, development, and manufacturing of advanced technological systems.  Serving the U.S. and International customers, Lockheed Martin offers products and services in many sectors such as aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, Communications, and more.
 
Missiles and Fire Control
The Missiles and Fire control sector provides air and missile defense equipment, and its major programs include the Patriot Advanced capability (PAC-3) and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), USMIL Special Ops and more.  The MFC sector has contracts with multiple U.S. Government classified programs.
 
Aeronautics
The Aeronautics sector focuses on researching, developing, and manufacturing advanced military aircraft, and it produces and provides support and sustainment services for the aircraft that they design and continue to upgrade.  Some of the most famous aircraft include the C-130J Hercules, U.S. Air Force's F-22 fleet, and the Block 70F-16 for the Royal Bahraini Air Force.