Company To Enhance ATM Technology For ATOP Operations

The FAA has extended Lockheed Martin's contract to enhance air traffic management technology that enables safe and efficient travel within U.S.-controlled airspace over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

For the past 12 years, Lockheed Martin has provided systems engineering and operational support for the FAA's Advanced Technologies and Oceanic Procedures (ATOP) program. The contract extension provides the FAA with options for future enhancements to transoceanic air traffic management software and hardware. Options include deploying ATOP systems at FAA offshore facilities; establishing an ATOP simulation and training system; and providing an ATOP system for the FAA's NextGen air traffic management facility planned on the East Coast.

The contract has one base year, and if seven, one-year options are exercised, the total extension would be valued at more than $500 million.

"Through ATOP, Lockheed Martin and the FAA created a new system that modernized oceanic air traffic control systems, provided new tools for safer flights and reduced aircraft fuel burn and carbon emissions," said  Sandy Samuel, vice president of Transportation Solutions for the company's Information Systems and Global Solutions business. "With this new extension, we're continuing our partnership with the FAA, sustaining ATOP and its family of systems into the future and continuing to deploy NextGen air traffic capabilities."

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.lockheedmartin.com