The recent Air & Space Conference near Washington, D.C., was an incredible display of some of the finest defense technologies in the world. Lockheed Martin (LMT 1.23%) showed off several products, including a giant three-dimensional long-range radar system, which will be used by the Air Force for mobile, long-range surveillance and ballistic missile defense.

The Motley Fool's roving reporter Rex Moore was at the conference, and talked with Lockheed's director of ground-based surveillance radar, Mark Mekker. In this first of four installments, Mekker explains exactly what this 3-D system is capable of.