Combat ship program under scrutiny

Lockheed Martin's plant at Electronics Park in Salina will supply submarine-hunting sonars to U.S. Navy ships similar to the USS Fort Worth, a littoral combat ship shown in this October 26, 2011 file photo at Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin. (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT)

(Mark Hoffman)

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Navy and Japan will buy an additional $42 million worth of submarine-hunting sonar systems from Lockheed Martin's plant in suburban Syracuse, according to Pentagon officials.

The deal confirmed by Lockheed Martin officials Monday is at least the fourth option exercised by the Navy on a contract worth up to $199 million for TB-37 multi-function towed arrays.

The sonar systems allow surface ships - including Zumwalt and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and Ticonderoga-class cruisers -- to hunt and attack enemy submarines at various depths in the ocean.

Under the latest contract option, purchases for the Navy (56 percent) will be combined with sales to Japan (44 percent) under the foreign military sales program, Pentagon officials said.

About 66 percent of the work will be performed at Lockheed's plant at Electronics Park in Salina, the Pentagon said. Additional work will be completed in Millersville, Md. (33 percent) and Marion, Mass. (1 percent). The work is due to be completed by September 2019.

The contact will help maintain the existing workforce of 1,500 to 1,600 employees at Lockheed's plant in Salina, company spokeswoman Melissa Chadwick said Monday.

The Salina plant has more than 50 job openings for software, hardware, systems, mechanical, manufacturing and test engineers, Chadwick said. The open positions, which are not directly tied to the new contract, range from entry level to experienced professionals.

Lockheed's success with the sonar contract follows by two months the Army's announcement that it will buy up to $1.6 billion in radars that track incoming rocket, mortar and artillery fire. The five-year contract is the largest in the history of Lockheed's Electronics Park campus in Salina.

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