Lockheed Martin uk continues to support swanwick air traffic centre through £80 million programme service award

LONDON, March 27, 2008

NATS, the UK’s air traffic control authority, recently awarded a five-year, £80 million contract to Lockheed Martin UK to continue to support the London Area Control (LAC) operation at the Swanwick Air Traffic Control Centre.

The agreement enables Lockheed Martin to provide continued enhancements, maintenance and support of the system it developed with NATS to modernise the management of air traffic over England and Wales. The contract builds on a 30-year relationship between Lockheed Martin and NATS that currently helps move more than 240 million passengers a year safely and swiftly through UK skies.

“This five-year contract extension follows an exceptional year of teamwork between NATS and Lockheed Martin,” said Ian Stopps, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin UK. “We are proud that our relationship helps NATS provide Britain’s air traffic controllers with a reliable, flexible system that can be expanded as needed to meet today’s air travel as well as projected air traffic demands.”

Designed to run one of the busiest and most complex airspaces in the world, the LAC operation at Swanwick currently handles up to 8,000 aircraft movements each day. The operational system continuously feeds more than 100 controllers with flight plan, situational and support information, while simultaneously providing the controllers with the tools they need to maintain the flow of traffic in this airspace.

“This new agreement will ensure that the LAC system at Swanwick, formerly known as the New En Route Centre programme, continues to out-perform all expectations. It also will allow our controllers to be ready to cope with the increasing demands that will be associated with rising levels of air traffic projected in the future,” said Allan Robb, senior programme manager for NATS. “It is the second follow-on contract for this programme. Selecting this team again is a clear demonstration of the strength of the NATS-Lockheed Martin partnership to deliver on time and within budget the most advanced air traffic control solutions.”

The new contract allows Lockheed Martin to continue to provide domain experts across all aspects of engineering and programme management including systems architects as well as software, systems and test engineers.

The contract runs through 2013 with options that could potentially extend it to 2018. Lockheed Martin UK has played a key role in deploying the new air traffic control centre at Swanwick. Since 1996, when Lockheed Martin took over the responsibility for the Swanwick Centre systems contract, its air traffic management team has met every milestone on schedule and on budget.

NATS manages some of the most complex and busiest air space in the world, with nearly 2.5 million flights through UK skies handled last year. It provides air traffic services at 15 airports in the UK, including Heathrow and Gatwick, and is a partner worldwide in airspace design, airport tower design and airfield management.

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Media Contacts: 

Richard Wright (NATS), +44 (0)1489 615945; email: richard.wright@nats.co.uk

John Fyall (Lockheed Martin), +44 (0)2392 443 342; email: john.fyall@lmco.com

Jan Gottfredsen (Lockheed Martin), +301 640 4236; email: janet.gottfredsen@lmco.com