ORLANDO, Fla., May 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Marine Corps awarded Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) a $24 million contract to provide four new systems and upgrades to 36 of its gunnery trainers for M1-A1 main battle tanks and LAV-25 Light Armored Vehicles.

Marine Corps gunnery trainers, called Combat Vehicle Training Systems, include Lockheed Martin's Advanced Gunnery Training System (AGTS). AGTS is a simulator designed to train individuals, crews, platoons and companies in precision gunnery skills, allowing trainees to transition quickly to live fire or combat gunnery.

"With AGTS, we developed an agile, affordable solution that offers unique configurations for users to train for their critical missions anytime, anywhere," said Jim Craig, vice president of training systems at Lockheed Martin Global Training and Logistics. "The new systems and upgrades will provide effective gunnery training for years to come."

The new features being deployed on the systems include an upgraded, more realistic visual image-generation system – Lockheed Martin's Scalable Advanced Graphic Engine – as well as upgrades that reduce the number of instructors required to staff training exercises.

Additional upgrades include driver stations for the LAV-25 trainers, trainer usage data and record-keeping capabilities and an upgraded ability to fire M1-A1 weapons in closed-hatch mode to protect from snipers and improvised explosive devices. The base order also includes updates to the instructional system that will allow greater flexibility in training exercises.

Lockheed Martin originally developed the AGTS architecture more than 15 years ago. Since then, more than 200 AGTS systems and upgrades have been delivered to the U.S. Department of Defense, with an additional 180 delivered to foreign partner nations.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion.

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SOURCE Lockheed Martin