Hauppauge defense firm gains $5.7M Navy contract

The defense electronics and software firm Orbit International Corp., of Hauppauge, said one of its units has a new $5.7 million U.S. Navy contract to supply a component of a gunfire control system for guided missile destroyers.

The company said the Navy has already placed a $1 million initial order on the new contract, with another order expected soon for about $547,000. More orders are expected later this year and next year.

The contract is part of the Navy's $16.6 billion AEGIS Modernization Program, which will upgrade 84 older ships in a 20-year refitting schedule, a 2010 Congressional Research Service report says.

Orbit's Integrated Combat Systems subsidiary, based in Louisville, Kentucky, was awarded the new base contract for its MK 110 Signal Data Converter -- which Orbit said is a major component of the Navy's MK 160 Mod4 Gunfire Control System / Gun Computer System.

The new contract shows that Orbit's “electronics group continues to receive orders not only for its legacy hardware but for new equipment as well," Mitchell Binder, president and chief executive of Orbit, said in a prepared statement. Binder said the company's backlog, as of March 31, was more than $21.1 million and the new order will increase the backlog, positioning Orbit "for continued strong operating performance in 2012.”

In early trading Monday Orbit stock was up a penny to $4.44.

Photo shows Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Kidd, USS Dewey and USS Pinckney shown in a 2010 Navy photo underway in the Pacific Ocean. Upgrades of this destroyer class will include Orbit International components.

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