Upgrades to Apache targeting and pilotage system to be made by Lockheed Martin
NewsMarch 10, 2014
ORLANDO, FL. Lockheed Martin won a $14 million U.S. Army contract to design, integrate, and qualify a High Reliability Turret to be used on the Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) for the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
The High Reliability Turret interfaces between the M-TADS/PNVS and the Apache airframe. It enhances target track performance and reduces the effects of aircraft vibration on the system. The turret also improves M-TADS/PNVS maintainability and reliability, as well as reducing the operations and support costs of the current turret assembly. Lockheed Martin estimates it will save the U.S. Army more than $500 million in support and operation costs over the life of the system.
“This investment, enabled by the Army Working Capital Fund and the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Command, enables us" to eliminate several looming obsolescence risks, says Lt. Col. Steven Van Riper, Apache Sensors Product Manager for Apache Sensors for the U.S. Army.
The potential contract value, including this base contract and options available through 2015, is about $38 million. Work on the systems will take place at Lockheed Martin’s facilities in Orlando and Ocala, FL., and will also extend through 2017.
