By Ann Roosevelt
Lockheed Martin [LMT] received contracts totaling $1.06 billion for fiscal year 2011 missile production for the U.S. Army as well as sales to international partners, a company executive said.
Work has begun on the FY ’11 contracts, Mike Trotsky, vice president, air and missile defense systems for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said yesterday at a lunch with reporters. The work includes production of PAC-3 missiles, launcher modification kits, spares and other equipment as well as program management and engineering services.
Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on the PAC-3 Missile Segment upgrade to the Patriot air defense system, which includes the PAC-3 missile, missile canisters, fire solution computer and enhanced launcher electronics. Raytheon [RTN] is prime contractor for the Patriot air and missile defense systems and integrator for the PAC-3 missile weapon system prime contractor.
Lockheed Martin produces the missiles for five international countries: the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan.
Middle Eastern nations continue to express interest in PAC-3 missiles, but the recent anti-government and popular uprisings in the area have not led to more buying.
“We continue to receive interest from the Middle East,” Trotsky said. “Saudi [Arabia] is considering the next air and missile defense buy, Kuwait is a patriot customer and is also considering upgrading their system and Qatar has expressed in PAC-3 as well,” he said. That’s where the company interest lies.
“We’re dealing with the established countries, military users and through the (Foreign Military Sales) channels, government to government, and those really haven’t changed much,” he said.
There’s also international interest in the Patriot Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missile, Trotsky said. Earlier this month the company reported a successful ripple fire test of two missiles intercepting a target high above White Sands Missile Range, N.M. (Defense Daily, March 3).
The PAC-3 MSE missile was selected as the primary interceptor for the U.S.-German-Italian Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) in 2006.