Lockheed Martin has announced a contract modification worth $113 million from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command for the full-rate production of anti-ship missile defense systems, including a first delivery to Japan.
The Japanese procurement is a U.S. foreign military sales deal combined with Lockheed deliveries to the U.S. Navy under the service branch’s Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program, or SEWIP, for Block 2 AN/SLQ-32(V)6 and AN/SLQ-32C(V)6 systems. Eighty percent of the purchase is for the Navy while the remaining 20 percent is for Japan under the FMS program, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The contract’s work performance, which is set in Liverpool, New York, and Lansdale, Pennsylvania, is expected for completion in October 2026, Lockheed Martin said Tuesday.
The company had already produced more than 130 SEWIP Block 2 systems since partnering with the Navy on the program for the shipboard missile defense platform over 13 years ago. Also designed for situational awareness, the systems are planned for deployment across almost all U.S. Navy surface combatant ships.
Deon Viergutz, Lockheed Martin Spectrum Convergence vice president, said the Navy has demonstrated SEWIP’s critical role in early threat detection. Japan’s first purchase of the system sets the pace for Lockheed “to expand this key technology around the globe,” he added.
In September, the DOD announced in a separate contract that Japan will receive a 23 percent slice of the $66 million DRS Laurel Technologies deliveries for AN/SPQ-9B anti-ship missile defense radar systems to the Navy.