LM Completes Milestone for US Navy's Surface Ship Electronic Defense

(Syracuse, N.Y., July 28th, 2010) -- The U.S. Navy approved Lockheed Martin's [NYSE: LMT] preliminary design for a system to defend surface combatants from anti-ship cruise missile threats.

The preliminary design review for the Navy's Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement (SEWIP) Block 2 upgrade program is a significant milestone under the initial $9.9 million design contract awarded to Lockheed Martin last November. The contract includes options totaling nearly $167 million, if exercised.

"Successfully completing this critical milestone further validates our low-risk path for improving the surface navy's electronic warfare capabilities," said Carl Bannar, vice president of Lockheed Martin Radar Systems. "By using commercial-off-the-shelf components, Lockheed Martin will provide additional cost savings and ease of maintenance to the Navy."

Under the program, the Navy is pursuing an evolutionary succession of enhancements to its AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare (EW) system. A series of block upgrades will allow for the incremental addition of new technologies and functional capabilities.

Lockheed Martin is providing a modular solution for Block 2, based on its Integrated Common Electronics Warfare System, demonstrated at sea in 2008. This approach uses commercial-off-the-shelf electronics and provides the Navy with the latest surface ship EW capabilities, as well as enhanced flexibility to upgrade the technology to address emerging threats.

Source : Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT)