Lockheed Martin : War is good for business

Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) reported Q1 '07 earnings of $690 million, or $1.60 a share, up tear to Date (YTD) on $591 million, or $1.34 a share a rise of 17% .

LMT are the US No. 1 defense contractor, with $26.6 billion in 2006 Defense Department prime contract awards, said sales in the three months ended March 31 increased less than 1% to $9.28 billion from $9.21 billion.

Lockheed's expects yearly earnings to increase 35/40 cents a share for an annual $6.20 to $6.35 a share in 2007.

GPS Wars

In a little noticed announcement last week the U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a $6 million contract to develop and integrate a demonstration payload that will temporarily transmit a third civil signal on a modernized Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellite.

This new contract directs Lockheed Martin and its navigation payload supplier ITT in Clifton, N.J. to provide an on-orbit demonstration capability for the new civil signal. The signal, located on the L5 frequency (1176MHz) will comply with international radio frequency spectrum requirements. The Block IIR-M spacecraft with the demonstration payload is planned for launch in 2008.

No explanation has been given for this trial but the further separation of military and cicil signals suggests and attempt to improve the capacity in certain situtations to switch off / deny (or interfere) with the civilian signal - which boat drivers(sic) of the Royal Navy it appears, rely on for navigating in Iraqi/Irani waters.