Lockheed builds data farm to house AF flight testing

The farm will connect with the Joint Strike Fighter U.S. Reprogramming Lab’s storage of software and data from F-35 mission tests.

Lockheed Martin Corp. will create a data repository for the Air Force under a contract modification worth $24.1 million.

As a result, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., of Fort Worth, Texas, will develop a data farm for the Joint Strike Fighter U.S. Reprogramming Laboratory that will be located at Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County, Fla., according to a March 9 Defense Department announcement.

The data farm will connect with the lab’s prime mission equipment that is used to store software and data from F-35 aircraft mission data testing, the announcement said.

Ninety-five percent of the work, which is expected to be completed in November 2014, will be performed at Fort Worth, Texas, and the rest in Orlando, Fla.

The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Md., ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology’s 2011 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.