Bethesda, Maryland - Lockheed Martin Corp Tuesday reported a 5.8 per cent rise in first quarter earnings, buoyed by higher sales from US government computer contracts and development of a new NASA spacecraft. Net income increased to 730 million dollars, and revenues were up 7.6 per cent to 9.98 billion dollars.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sealed a contract valued up to 1 billion dollars with Lockheed over 10 years, to create a modern identification system for catching criminals and terrorists.
The company's space systems division boosted sales by 5 per cent to 1.88 billion dollars, including work on the new Orion spacecraft that is to replace NASA's space shuttle programme, set to shut down by 2010.
