Lockheed Martin was awarded a $247 million Lot 2 follow-on production contract for Arrowhead(TM), the Army's Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) system for the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Program Executive Office- Aviation January 26, and authorizes production of 97 Arrowhead systems for the U.S. Army and foreign military sales customers.

"Arrowhead will provide greatly enhanced capabilities in target acquisition/designation and night pilotage for our Apache aviators," said Bob Gunning, Arrowhead program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "This award ensures the continued fielding of a technically superior system that focuses on increasing performance and reliability while reducing support costs."

The Lot 2 deliveries will begin in July 2006. The Army's first unit equipped with Arrowhead will be fielded in June 2005. The U.S. Army intends to buy 704 Arrowhead systems to outfit its AH-64 Apache fleet by 2011.

Lockheed Martin's Arrowhead provides a new electro-optical targeting and pilotage system to Apache crews that will maximize safe flight in day, night and adverse-weather environments, continuing a 20-year legacy of the Apache's current TADS/PNVS first fielded in 1983. Arrowhead's forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors use advanced image processing techniques to give pilots the best possible resolution to avoid obstacles such as wires and tree limbs during low-level flight. The roll-out of the first Arrowhead system under the Lot 1 contract comes almost twenty five years to the day of signing the first TADS/PNVS production contract.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation reported 2004 sales of $35.5 billion.

For additional information, visit our web site:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin