Military

LOCKHEED MARTIN RECEIVES ALMOST $23 MILLION TO CONTINUE PRE-DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PHASE OF E-2C RADAR MODERNIZATION PROGRAM

SYRACUSE, NY, December 3rd, 2002 -- Lockheed Martin received a $22.9 million contract to continue the pre-System Development and Demonstration (SD&D) phase of the Radar Modernization Program (RMP) for the U.S. Navy's E-2C Hawkeye aircraft. Lockheed Martin leads the industry team designing and developing the Hawkeye's next-generation radar to replace the company's AN/APS-145 airborne radar by 2010. In March, Lockheed Martin announced it had received advanced funding from Northrop Grumman-Integrated Systems to begin the pre-SD&D phase. The E-2C Advanced Early Warning (AEW) radar program team at Lockheed Martin's Syracuse, N.Y., facilities began to develop preliminary concepts for several new radar systems planned to meet the U.S. Navy's RMP Littoral Surveillance mission. As the radar prime contractor, Lockheed Martin also will support Northrop Grumman-IS in a System Requirement Review of the E-2C Hawkeye in January 2003. A follow-on award for radar system SD&D under the RMP initiative is anticipated in the summer of 2003 following completion of the requirement review. Lockheed Martin's team for the RMP SD&D phase includes Northrop Grumman-Electronic Systems and Raytheon-Electronic Systems.

"This bridge contract will help us keep forward momentum so that we're fully ready to jump into SD&D next year," said Dick Evans, Lockheed Martin's director of airborne radar programs.

Lockheed Martin currently makes an average of five AN/APS-145 radar systems a year in Syracuse and has the capability to build up to 10 systems a year. The new RMP radar will be built to fit into a space only slightly larger than the one for the AN/APS-145, despite the new system's added capability and complexity.

Evans said that during the SD&D phase the company will produce five radar systems that will be used by the Navy for qualification, reliability and flight testing. This will be followed by a full-scale production program to equip the 75 aircraft in the E-2C fleet by 2020.

A leader in the design, development and integration of radar systems, vessel traffic and port safety, simulation and training systems and other complex electronic systems, Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems (NE&SS) - Radar Systems serves a wide range of customers. These include all branches of the U.S. armed services, including the Coast Guard, as well as other agencies within the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Transportation and State, and defense and transportation departments of countries on six continents. NE&SS-Radar Systems employs over 3,000 people with facilities in the U.S. and three other countries, and is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced-technology systems, products and services. The corporation's core businesses are systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services.

Ellen Mitchell, 315-456-3296; cell, 315-427-0967
[email protected]