SALINA — Lockheed Martin’s Salina plant will work on a new $36 million radar contract the defense contractor won.
The U.S. Air Force awarded the contract as the next phase in its three-dimensional expeditionary long-range radar program. The new radar will serve as the Air Force’s main long-range, ground-based system for detecting and tracking aerial targets.
At the end of the current, 15-month technology development phase, the Air Force plans to award a production contract, according to Lockheed.
“Our … technology is mature, focused on not just performing now, but evolving and extending system life as required,” Mark Mekker, director of ground-based surveillance radar for Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems and Sensors business, said in a news release. “We can offer that radar to the U.S. Air Force today.”
Lockheed’s facility in Moorestown, N.J. will perform additional work on the radar project.
Lockheed employs about 2,300 people in Salina and another 2,900 at a plant in Owego. The company has 123,000 employees worldwide. It generated net sales of $46.5 billion in 2011 and earned about $2.7 billion.
The company eliminated more than 200 jobs at the Salina plant in the past two years.
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com