Lockheed wins $260M contract for Aegis

The U.S. Navy announced today that it will award Lockheed Martin $260 million for Aegis Weapon Systems to equip three Australian air warfare destroyers and one Spanish F-100 class frigate.

Lockheed's Moorestown, N.J., plant, which employs about 4,700, will produce the weapons, touted by the Navy as the next-generation Aegis weapon systems and among the first to include 100 percent commercial off-the-shelf hardware and a fully open architecture computing environment.

"Aegis has earned an international reputation for itself based on high quality and superior performance at sea," said U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R., N.J.), whose district includes Lockheed's Moorestown facility. "Locally, this contract will provide work for existing Lockheed Martin employees in Moorestown who design and build the Aegis equipment."

Today's contract is a modification to a June 2006 award of $85 million for Australia's AWD long lead materials. The modification covers the production phase for the Aegis weapon systems for the three Australian destroyers and for Spain's fifth Aegis-equipped ship.

The Aegis weapon system is currently deployed on 81 ships around the globe. It is the foundation for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense.