LAKEHURST, N.J. – Test and measurement experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. will provide the U.S. Navy with advanced combat avionics test equipment under terms of a $166 million four-year contract.
Officials of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, N.J., are asking engineers at the Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems segment in Orlando, Fla., to build 36 electronic Consolidated Automated Support System (eCASS) full-rate initial production (LRIP) units.
The eCASS equipment is designed to help sailors and Marines to troubleshoot and repair aircraft assemblies at sea or ashore and return the avionics to service quickly. This contract includes sustaining logistics and engineering support.
The eCASS test equipment is replacing the Navy’s legacy CASS test equipment originally fielded in the early 1990s. CASS is the Navy’s standard automatic test equipment family supporting electronics on naval aircraft.
The first eCASS station was to be delivered to the Navy in February 2014 to support all the aircraft in the Navy’s fleet, extending to new weapons systems such as the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter. Lockheed Martin won a $103 million low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract in January 2014 for the first 36 eCASS stations. Lockheed Martin then won a separate $78.5 million order in January 2015 to provide 29 eCASS LRIP units.
The eCASS station is the workhorse for avionics repair across the naval aviation enterprise, Lockheed Martin officials say. The test gear helps aircraft maintainers return equipment to readiness status quickly and efficiently. Compatibility with legacy CASS stations preserves the Navy’s investment in more than 550 test program sets supporting 750 avionic components.
The eCASS architecture is based on the Lockheed Martin LM-STAR commercial automated testing system that is designed to facilitate technology insertion and long-term supportability.
LM-STAR serves as the cornerstone of the F-35 Lightning II harmonization plan, which helps enable several different avionics manufacturers to develop tests to help electronics move from the factory floor to fleet maintenance depots, Lockheed Martin officials say.
On this contract Lockheed Martin will do the work in Orlando, Fla.; Hunt Valley, Md.; North Reading, Mass.; Irvine, Calif.; San Diego; Austin, Texas; Minneapolis; Bohemia, N.Y.; Everett, Wash.; and Woodstock, N.Y., and should be finished by January 2021.
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