Lockheed Martin was selected by the Air Force Space Command, Space and Missile Systems Center to continue providing support and evolutionary growth to the command's premier weather satellite receiving stations. If all options are exercised, the contract is valued at $47 million over the next nine years.

The MARK IVB System is a recently redesigned global satellite weather system, capable of supporting the military forces beyond 2020 with all currently defined satellites. Its leading edge technologies provide for flash updated satellite changes and full system redundancy with significant growth opportunity as many more satellites are added to the world's multi-national weather constellation.

"We are proud to continue to support the Air Force by providing near real- time weather data," said John Mengucci, president of Mission & Combat Support Solutions for Lockheed Martin's Information Solutions & Global Services business area. "This program is a major component of readiness for the Global Information Grid as the global-distributed architecture allows low latency and high availability environmental and weather data to be available to the warfighter." Mengucci added that the architecture is currently being layered for inclusion into the Air Force's Global Command and Control System, making it the first weather system to be fully net-centric and machine-to-machine capable.

The MARK IVB System supplies data to all Coalition Operation's Centers, every Air Expeditionary Force, every Air Expeditionary Wing, all Army Battalions Forward, all Navy Task Forces, all Marine Companies Forward, and every Marine Expeditionary Force.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin 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 2006 sales of $39.6 billion.

For additional information, visit our website: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin