Washington:The US Government has awarded Lockheed Martin a $186.5 million contract toprovide mission system upgrades for seven P-3C Orion maritime surveillanceaircraft for the Pakistan Navy to enhance its anti-ship and anti-submarinewarfare capabilities.

"This programme represents an important expansion ofthe US Navy, Pakistan Navy and Lockheed Martin P-3 relationship," said TomPillion, US Navy Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft director forinternational programmes.

"It provides a world-class maritime surveillancecapability to the Pakistan Navy, and will be an important contributor to alliedoperations," he said.

Lockheed Martin will continue to support the Pakistan Navy'sP-3C Upgrade Programme, which began in March 2006 under the contract with theUS Navy's Naval Air Systems Command.

Lockheed Martin has delivered one upgraded surveillanceaircraft, which was inducted into the Pakistan Navy in January. A secondaircraft is expected to join the fleet in March. The modified P-3Cs willfurther enhance the Pakistan Navy's capabilities to conduct maritimesurveillance in littoral and deepwater environments, supporting anti-ship andanti-submarine warfare operations.

"Lockheed Martin is pleased to have delivered the firstaircraft to the Pakistan Navy and we continue our work on mission systemupgrades to the remaining aircraft for Pakistan," said RichardUdicious, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Eagan,MN-based Tactical Systems business.

"We continue our commitment to sustain, refresh andsupport the P-3 aircraft around the world in order to meet the operators'current and future needs,"he said.

"With 91 percent of all active-duty P-3's now carryingLockheed Martin's integrated mission system, we know these aircraft willprovide Pakistan'sNavy with world-class performance," added Udicious.

"The enhanced capabilities of these P-3's will allow Pakistan tofurther expand its role in both humanitarian and military operations,"he said.

As prime contractor to the US Navy's Naval Air SystemsCommand, Lockheed Martin is the mission system integrator for the P-3Caircraft's mission avionics, including surveillance sensors, acoustic sensors,weapons control, communications, survivability, displays, and controls.

The P-3C weapons system is the primary maritime surveillanceaircraft operated by the US Navy and 17 international allies.

Meanwhile, the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA)announced that McDonnell Douglas Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BoeingCo has been awarded an additional $15.79 million to make 10 Harpoon TacticalBlock II Grade B All-Up-Round (AUR) missiles and 10 MK631Canister AURContainers for Pakistan.

"Work will be performed in various locations in the US and Britain and is expected to becompleted in February 2007 and contract funds will not expire at the end of thecurrent fiscal year,' it said.