Lockheed Martin boards Navy training task order

A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. won a $150 million task order from the Navy to deliver training support to surface ship combat systems sailors.

The task order involves developing and maintaining new training materials and systems, training course instruction, maintenance and logistics support for training equipment, as well as international program support. The team comprises 12 companies and includes both international and small-business partners.

Distance learning will be a key component of the support, Lockheed Martin officials said. Some of it will be done on the Web and some will be shipboard modules.

A goal of the program is to make training more flexible. A sailor, for example, will get initial apprentice training in the classroom, then go to a ship. Through training on the job and via computer and Web, the sailor will progress in expertise. After that, the sailor will go back to the classroom for journeyman training, and then be deployed again. This will happen throughout a sailor's career.

Program support is offered at the Navy's Center for Surface Combat Systems/Aegis Training and Readiness Center headquarters in Dahlgren, Va., and 14 detachments in the United States and Japan.

Lockheed Martin has about 135,000 employees and had annual revenue of $37.2 billion in fiscal 2005. The company ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.