Lockheed Martin In NY Lands $1.6B Army Mobile Radar Contract

SALINA, N.Y. (AP) — The Pentagon has awarded a $1.6 billion contract to Lockheed Martin for more mobile radar systems that will be assembled at one of the company's New York plants.

Rick Herodes, program director of the Q-53 radar system, told The Post-Standard (http://bit.ly/2o5gNFu ) that the Bethesda, Maryland-based defense contractor will make at least 70 more of the radars over the next five years.

The contract is the largest single contract in the history of the company's plant in Salina (suh-LY'-nuh), just north of Syracuse. No immediate new hires are expected at the facility, which employs about 1,600.

The Q-53 mobile radar tracks incoming rockets, mortars and artillery fire. Lockheed has built 100 of the systems under previous Army contracts.

Components of the radar are made in Owego, New York; New Jersey and Florida and shipped to Salina for assembly.