The Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB, Calif., has tapped Lockheed Martin to continue its Mark IVB weather system, awarding the company a contract potentially worth $42 million over nine years, according to a Lockheed release. A company Web page defines the Mark IVB as a “meteorological data ingest, processing and dissemination system.” The system has been redesigned to collect data from all currently defined satellites and will be fully net-centric and machine-to-machine capable. It already supplies data to all coalition operations centers and Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps elements.
Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd III met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines to discuss bolstering defense ties on May 2. The discussion included plans for joint F-35 exercises with Japan and Australia in the coming years.