WASHINGTON, USA: U.S. government workers and others may soon be able to trade their laptops for a secure flash drive sized for a key ring, Lockheed Martin Corp, the world's biggest aerospace company, said Tuesday.

Lockheed said its new "IronClad" brand USB drive would pack an entire operating system, software, settings and files onto a flash drive that could be used with virtually any computer in the world.

The operating system runs directly off the flash drive. As a result, a user's files never touch the borrowed computer's hard drive and the device leaves no trace where it was plugged in, the company said.

Each device is fully encrypted and designed to act as a "node" in an organization's computer network. Managers control their security policies, track their status and location and determine what may be installed on them.

The drives are built to be tamper proof in a solid metal casing that protects against heat, cold, sand and water. Lockheed says it could remotely send a self-destruct command if the gizmo were ever lost or stolen.

The drives will sell for $350 with 8 gigabytes of storage and $450 with 16 gigabytes via the U.S. government's General Services Administration schedule. The schedule is a kind of catalogue that lets any U.S. federal agency or department buy equipment or technology at a specified price.

In addition, Lockheed will charge a service fee of $199 per device per year for its network management system, said Matthew Kramer, a spokesman for Lockheed's Information Systems & Global Services business unit.

"For now, we see federal agencies and large organizations as the ideal users because of the network that sits behind IronClad," he said. "Further down the road, we think it'd great for anyone who'd love to swap a laptop for a drive the size of a stick of gum."