Mitchel Field unit of Lockheed wins $79.9M missile contract
Lockheed Martin's Mitchel Field unit was awarded a contract for upgraded navigation systems on Trident II D5 ballistic missiles. Credit: U.S. Navy
Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Mitchel Field unit has won a Defense Department contract worth $79.9 million, the latest in a series of deals to provide navigation hardware and software design, testing and installation for nuclear-capable Trident II D5 missiles.
More than three-quarters of the work (with a value of about $60 million) will be done at Mitchel Field with the remainder going to Lockheed units in Oldsmar, Florida, and Manassas, Virginia.
The deal’s funding will be coming from the Navy ($71.7 million), the United Kingdom ($6.5 million) and the fiscal 2017 evaluation and research and development budget of the Defense Department ($1.7 million).
The sole-source contract, with an expected completion date of Dec. 31, 2018, would be worth a maximum of $87.3 million if a one-year option is exercised.
The latest contract calls for Lockheed workers to repair and modernize the inertial navigation systems of the ballistic missiles used by U.S. and United Kingdom submarine forces.
Trident II D5 missiles, first deployed in 1990, can travel more than 4,000 statute miles with a full payload. Nuclear-armed submarines are part of a U.S. triad deterrent strategy that also includes land-based missiles and aircraft.
Lockheed, with a workforce of almost 100,000, employs about 200 people at Mitchel Field, a former U.S. Air Force base that was decommissioned in 1961.
Lockheed, based in Bethesda, Maryland, has been the Navy’s prime contractor for the Trident navigation system since 1955.
The aerospace giant also makes the 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.
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.
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