Lockheed wins $33 million Aegis contract

Lockheed Martin Corp. said yesterday that its Moorestown unit had been awarded a $33 million contract to equip the Japanese destroyer Chokai with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system.

The Chokai will become the second of four destroyers in the Japanese Self Defense Force to get the Aegis capability developed at the sprawling Moorestown complex, where 5,500 of Lockheed Martin's more than 12,500 Philadelphia-area employees work.

The first, the destroyer Kongo, is being outfitted now and is scheduled to participate in missile-defense tests later this year.

The Aegis system is active on 83 ships belonging to the United States and its allies. It integrates radar detection of targets with identification of threats and launch of defensive missiles. It also exchanges information with other missile-defense operations.

In a separate announcement, U.S. Rep. Jim Saxon (R., N.J.) said the House had passed and sent to the Senate a bill that would spend $22 million for additional research and development at Moorestown on the signal-processor component of the Aegis system.