U.S. Navy awards Lockheed Martin $149M contract to upgrade shipboard electronic-warfare system

SALINA, N.Y. — The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) an initial contract of $149 million for its shipboard electronic-warfare system.

Under the contract, workers at the Salina plant will focus on production of surface electronic-warfare improvement program (SEWIP) block 2 systems, the defense contractor said in a news release issued Thursday.

The deal with the Bethesda, Maryland–based firm also includes four additional option years to upgrade the fleet’s electronic warfare capabilities so ships can respond to “evolving threats.”

Under the “full-rate production” contract, Lockheed Martin will provide additional systems to upgrade the AN/SLQ-32 systems on U.S. aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and other warships with “key capabilities.”

The effort will help to determine if the electronic sensors of “potential foes” are tracking the ship, the defense contractor added.

“The SEWIP Block 2 System is critically important to the Navy’s operation, and we are proud to continue to provide this capability to the warfighter,” Joe Ottaviano, electronic warfare program director, said in the company’s news release. “Threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Our electronic-warfare systems give the warfighter information to enable a response before the adversary even knows we’re there.”

The system is the first sensor to be “fully compliant” with the Navy’s product-line architecture strategy, which “facilitates the rapid introduction” of new technology into the fleet, Lockheed Martin said.

Block 2 provides an upgraded antenna, receiver and “improved interface” with existing ship-combat systems.

Lockheed Martin describes Block 2 as the “latest deployed improvement in an evolutionary succession of ‘blocks’ that the Navy is pursuing for its shipboard electronic-warfare system, which will incrementally add new defensive technologies and functional capabilities.”

The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin the design and development contract for this program in September 2009.

Since then, it’s awarded the defense contractor a low rate initial production (LRIP) contract for an additional 38 units, 22 of which have been delivered to the Navy “on schedule so far,” the company said.

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