New contract could help Lockheed on future deals

OWEGO — A $30 million contract Lockheed Martin won from the Navy for work on cockpits could position the defense contractor for a number of other large deals on the horizon.

Lockheed’s Owego site will perform work for the new contract, which involves upgrades to cockpits on multiple C-130T aircraft. The five-year deal will help extend the lifespan of the aircraft for another two or three decades, says John Aebli, director of avionics products for Lockheed.

The C-130T is a multi-role long-range aircraft that provides logistic support and air-to-air refueling, according to the Naval Air Systems Command.

The deal is the first involving a new set of Defense Department standards known as the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE), which involves large levels of openness and modularity. Theoretically, it means defense customers could complete some aircraft upgrades in the future themselves, Aebli says.

Because the C-130T contract is the first to implement FACE, it has been drawing major interest from other branches of the military and potential international customers. Lockheed expects a number of major contract opportunities in the future to mandate the standards, including one involving work on an Army version of the Blackhawk helicopter.

Winning the C-130T deal puts the company in a solid position to compete on those contracts in the future, Aebli says.

The C-130T contract itself is solid win for the Owego site, he adds. The work will sustain the site’s workforce of 2,700 throughout the life of the deal.

The project involves completely modernizing the aircrafts’ cockpits and replacing gauges and dials that could be decades old, Aebli says. Upgrades will include high-performance, high-resolution displays and new navigation, surveillance, and communication equipment.

The additions will bring the aircraft up to modern standards and allow them to fly through commercial airspace. That will help eliminate delays and extra costs caused by having to fly around major cities and take longer, less efficient routes, Aebli says.

Under the initial contract, Lockheed will deliver nine upgraded cockpits. The company will then be in a position for a follow-on award that would involve another 18 cockpits.

After that, the hope is to move to large-scale production, Aebli says.

The contract helps the Owego site expand beyond its traditional expertise in helicopters, an area where it has a long history of work.

“We’re leveraging the legacy that we’ve had here and growing it into new markets,” Aebli says.

The new cockpit work will have applications for both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, he notes.

Aebli doesn’t expect any new hiring as a result of the C-130T work.

Lockheed (NYSE: LMT) employs about 120,000 people worldwide and generated net sales of $46.5 billion 2011. The company earned about $2.7 billion last year and also employs 1,900 people at a plant in Salina.

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com