Lockheed Martin,
Baltimore: Lockheed Martin recently received a $6.3 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to provide engineering support services for MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) work on the U.S. Navy's Ticonderoga Class guided missile cruiser modernization program and the Turkish navy's MEKO Track IIA and IIB frigates.
The latest MK 41 VLS baseline VII launch control system combines commercial off-the-shelf technologies and open architecture software elements. Originally designed by Lockheed Martin in the early 1980s, MK 41 VLS has gone through numerous system upgrades and baseline improvements to introduce new capabilities, integrate new missiles and lower the total cost of ownership.
“The MK 41 is the world's most reliable below-deck, multi-mission naval missile launching system with a launch success rate of more than 99 percent,” said Dan Schultz, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Integrated Defense Technologies line of business. “The flexibility and open system architecture of the MK 41 VLS baseline VII enables Lockheed Martin to maintain and continuously upgrade its customer's systems as technology evolves. We have already demonstrated baseline VII's portability to other computer processors and operating systems, and we are ready for the next generation tactical computing environment fielded for the Navy's DDG Modernization and CG(X) programs.”
The recent contract modification was to the MK 41 VLS Design Agent Contract originally awarded in 2004. The work will be performed at Lockheed Martin's locations in Baltimore, MD and Ventura, CA.
The multi-missile, multi-mission MK 41 launcher has revolutionized the way world navies think about sea-launched weapons. No other naval missile launcher is capable of firing missiles for every threat in naval warfare, including anti-air, anti-submarine, ship self-defense, land attack and ballistic missile defense. More than 11,000 MK 41 VLS missile cells have been delivered or are on order. MK41 VLS systems are either in service or on order by 12 navies around the world for 186 ships in 19 different ship classes.
Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2007 sales of $41.9 billion.
