Lockheed Martin receives contract for Apache helicopter upgrades

May 1 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $332.1 million dollar contract for foreign military sales for the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor System on the Apache helicopter, the Department of Defense announced last week.

The program includes maintenance and upgrades, including subcomponent production and technical services. Britain, Egypt, India, Korea, Republic of Indonesia, Taiwan, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Poland are all recipients of the contract. They all currently use exported Apache helicopters from the United States.

The work locations and funding will be determined as each order goes through. The work is expected to be completed by April 2018.

The M-TADS is the primary targeting system of the Apache attack helicopter. It has been widely exported, is heavily armored and armed, and is one of the premier attack helicopters in the world.

The contract was issued by U.S. Army Command Contracting Command, Rock Island, Illinois. The U.S. Army has over 800 Apaches in service, and over 1000 have been exported to select countries.