28 Dec 01. Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT – news) was awarded a $133m contract to supply two KC-130J tanker/transport aircraft to the U.S. Air Force on December 28th.
At the same time, Lockheed won a $116.7m Air Force contract for avionics upgrades to F-16s sold to Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway.
Lockheed also has been given an $84.9m contract for other advanced
avionics gear, including 91 air-to-air interrogator kits that help U.S. warplanes identify each other, the service said.
On December 14th, the company announced its team of experienced defense transport and e-business providers to compete for a $337m, 16-year program to develop and maintain Global Transportation Network 21. GTN 21 is the next generation, web-based command and control system that will help evolve the defense transportation mission to meet the changing needs of the U.S. military.
Joining the Lockheed Martin GTN 21 Team are industry leaders in data warehousing and defense transportation logistics — Oracle, Price Waterhouse Coopers, EDS, Innolog, Stanley Associates, and Booz-Allen Hamilton. Companies providing specialty skills and services for defense transport are RUI, VuTech and ICPro.
The current Global Transportation Network, developed by Lockheed Martin, is recognized as a leading command and control and supply chain management system for the Department of Defense (DoD), and is one of the first major systems to apply web-based technologies to support deployed forces worldwide. The government has estimated that the current GTN system has produced hard savings, cost avoidance, and benefits to the DoD in excess of $2.3bn. The new GTN 21 system will incorporate commercial products and a new systems architecture to provide expanded command and control decision support capabilities. The GTN data warehouse will hold years of transportation data history that analysts and planners will use in forecasting and analyzing defense transportation needs. The system will automate many planning functions, provide a host of management services and give improved support for crisis action management.
The Global Transportation Network is operated by the U.S Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. The current system, which has more than 6,000 registered users and averages 2,500 queries daily, employs secure, encrypted servers to keep data safe. Interfaces with commercial transportation carriers, such as truck companies that haul defense cargo, and DoD feeder systems send more than two million transactions through the system network daily. System availability within historical 12-month periods has been as high as 99.8 percent, indicating almost zero system downtime.