Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company has signed a contract with the U.S. Air Force to supply additional C-130J training systems at Little Rock AFB, Ark. and for training site activation at Keesler AFB, Miss. This is the exercise of a contract option agreed to earlier this year by the Air Force's Training System Program Office at Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio.

The $29 million option calls for delivery of a C-130J Avionics System Management Trainer to Little Rock in November 2003, and a C-130J Weapon System Trainer to the base in February 2004.

The contract also includes all management tasks associated with activating C-130J training at Keesler and maintaining concurrency between the training system and the C-130J aircraft. The centers will provide both aircrew and maintenance training for active-duty Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command personnel. Design, development, production and operation of the training system is conducted by a team comprising LM Aero, Lockheed Martin Information Systems in Orlando, Fla., BAE Systems Flight Simulation and Training in Tampa, Fla., and Flight Safety International of St. Louis.

The Little Rock facility will eventually house the Weapon System Trainer (WST, a full-motion, full-mission simulator) as well as a cockpit procedures trainer, an avionics systems management trainer and an integrated cockpit systems trainer. Keesler will have a single WST. The training devices will be built by BAE Systems. In addition, Lockheed Martin will provide full contractor logistics support for both facilities, which are scheduled to be ready for operation by the end of 2004.

Little Rock AFB will be the formal C-130J training unit and will also provide system-wide engineering support to the Air Force fleet through the Training System Support Center. Keesler AFB will primarily support continuation training.

Known as the C-130J Maintenance and Aircrew Training System (or J-MATS), this program represents the third C-130J training system that LM Aero has been selected to provide. Earlier this year Lockheed Martin received a contract to build the National Training Center in Pisa, Italy, for the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (AMI, the Italian Air Force) and already has a facility in operation for the Royal Air Force at RAF Lyneham in the United Kingdom.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company is a leader in the design, development, systems integration, production and support of advanced military aircraft and related technologies. Its customers include the military services of the United States and allied countries throughout the world. Products include the F-16, F-22, C-5, C-130J, C-141, F-117, U-2 and Joint Strike Fighter, among other renowned aircraft.

LM Aeronautics is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation . Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and support of advanced-technology systems, products and services. The corporation's core businesses are systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services.

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company