VALLEY FORGE, Pa., Sept. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced today that its IS&GS-Defense product line achieved the highest possible rating for maturity of its engineering and management processes. The Maturity Level 5 rating was established after a rigorous, third-party Capability Maturity Model^® Integration (CMMI^®) for Development, Version 1.3 evaluation of Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense's businesses processes, ensuring they are repeatable, consistent and predictable, and focused on continuous improvement and eliminating unnecessary costs.

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"This achievement for Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense is a critical discriminator in this increasingly competitive marketplace," said Gerry Fasano, President of Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense. "Our CMMI Level 5 rating confirms that we use world-class processes to meet their complex needs and objectives of our customers. This rating is important for our large programs that develop and integrate custom software and custom hardware."

CMMI is recognized as the standard for independent benchmarking of industry maturity in critical technical and managerial areas. Customers, including the Department of Defense, often use the CMMI compliance in determining a company's ability to successfully meet requirements throughout the lifecycle of a program.

IS&GS-Defense provides a full spectrum of defense services and solutions for the U.S. military and international customers. Employing more than 10,000 people at 200 sites worldwide, IS&GS-Defense provides software development, operations and maintenance, information technology services, engineering services and general site services.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 120,000 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 net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.

For additional information, visit: www.lockheedmartin.com/us/isgs.html

For a detailed view of The Standard CMMI^® Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI(SM)) Version 1.3 appraisal results for Lockheed Martin, as conducted by the Software Engineering Institute, visit https://sas.sei.cmu.edu/pars/pars_detail.aspx?a=18796.

Capability Maturity Model^® and CMMI^® are registered trademarks of Carnegie Mellon University.

SCAMPI(SM) is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin