Lockheed wins Aegis work on foreign ships

Lockheed Martin has won a $260 million contract from the Navy to install next-generation Aegis Weapon Systems onboard three Australian destroyers and a Spanish F-100 class frigate.

The four vessels will be among the first to have the new Aegis systems that use 100 percent commercial hardware and a fully open architecture computing environment.

Under the contract, Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., will synchronize its production of the systems for Australia and Spain with the Navy's own Aegis modernization program. The latter calls for delivery of the first fully open-architecture Aegis Weapon System to the cruiser Bunker Hill in 2008.

Aegis open architecture has many advantages, including easy integration of existing systems and a reduction in costs, said Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Surface/Sea-Based Missile Defense Systems business.

The Aegis Weapon System is a premier naval surface defense system and the foundation for Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, key component of the sea-based Ballistic Missile Defense System. The Aegis Weapon System is currently deployed on 81 ships around the globe, with more than 25 additional deployments planned.

Lockheed Martin has about 140,000 employees and had annual sales of $39.6 billion in 2006. The company ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.