Lockheed awarded $102.5M for support of Navy's AEGIS system

Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has been awarded a modified contract by the U.S. Navy to exercise an option for the AEGIS Combat System Engineering Agent.

The $102.5 million contract, announced Tuesday by Department of Defense, comes under a cost-plus-incentive-fee, which is a cost-reimbursement contract that could provide Lockheed Martin with additional funds based on an initial negotiated fee that can be adjusted later if needed.

The AEGIS Combat System Engineering Agent, commonly installed on U.S. destroyers, is a centralized, automated, command-and-control weapon system used to rapidly detect and track more than 100 targets at once.

Specifically, the contract calls for the "design, development, integration, test, and delivery of computer program baselines and associated technology insertion hardware design" to support the AEGIS system and its future phases.

Work on the contract will occur in New Jersey and Virginia, and is expected to be completed by December 2018.

The Navy has obligated more than $4.7 million to Lockheed at the time of award, allocated from the branch's fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds. The funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

Last week, Lockheed was also awarded a $135.8 million contract by the Navy for AEGIS weapon system new construction in support of Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force.