LI unit of Lockheed Martin wins contract for up to $147M

Lockheed Martin’s unit at Mitchel Field has won a Department of Defense contract worth as much as $147.4 million to work on the navigation system of submarine-based Trident II D5 missiles in the United States and United Kingdom arsenals.

“Lockheed Martin has been the Navy’s prime contractor for the Trident submarine navigation system since 1955,” a company spokeswoman said in an email. “We provide both the U.S. and U.K. Trident II navigation subsystem engineering support services.”

The spokeswoman said the contract “sustains existing jobs” at Mitchel Field, where Lockheed employs about 200.

The aerospace giant, based in Bethesda, Maryland, also makes the new F-35 fighter jet, missile-defense systems, laser weapons and spacecraft such as NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, designed to carry humans to the Moon and Mars.

The basic Trident contract, whose funding was allocated in fiscal 2016, is worth $72.5 million. But incentives and other factors could bring the value as high as $147.4 million, according to the Defense Department, which announced the contract Tuesday.

Ninety-seven percent of the work will be allocated to Mitchel Field with the remainder going to sites in Florida and Virginia.

The contract is scheduled to run through Sept. 30, 2017, but could be extended through Sept. 30, 2018 if all options are exercised.

The contract includes software modernization and training systems development and support.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.