Lockheed Martin gets $78.6M Navy contract

Lockheed Martin says it has won a $78.6 million contract from the Navy to modernize weapons systems on destroyers and cruisers outfitted with the Aegis weapons and missile-defense systems.

The work will be performed at Lockheed Martin's Maritime Systems & Sensors Division, based in Moorestown. Spokesman Ken Ross said the Aegis program employs about 1,000 of the 5,000 employees at the facility, and will not require any additional hiring. The work is scheduled to be completed in 2011.

Ross said Lockheed Martin would update the Aegis Weapon System and the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System on as many as 15 Ticonderoga-class cruisers and up to 62 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers.

Kevin Kenney, the Navy's program manager for Aegis production, said the work will improve the ships' defensive capabilities and "set the stage for full combat system modernization on all of the Navy's Aegis destroyers."

Ross said Lockheed Martin makes the radar, computing infrastructure and control systems for Aegis, though not the missiles themselves. The program includes new tactical computing equipment, upgraded consoles and displays, and a secure voice communication system.

The new equipment will be installed starting in 2012, Ross said. The Navy has already begun to upgrade seven Aegis-equipped cruisers under an earlier phase of the modernization program, developed by Lockheed Martin under a separate, $200 million Navy contract.

Ross said that installing the first-phase Aegis upgrades would cost about $225 million to $250 million per ship, with the worked performed by Lockheed Martin or subcontractors.

Development of the Aegis system began in 1969, and it has been deployed at sea since 1983, Ross said. In addition to U.S. ships, Aegis is used by the navies of Japan, Norway, South Korea and Spain.