How Lockheed Martin Is Pumping Up Giga-tronics

As a leader in the defense sector, Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) has to stay on top of its game with the newest hardware and software in the business. The company is now looking to Giga-tronics Inc. (NASDAQ: GIGA) to license and develop its newest threat emulation system.

Both companies announced on Tuesday morning that they have entered into a strategic software licensing arrangement to develop and license threat simulation software as a commercial product that brings advanced threat environment simulation capability to its new Advanced Signal Generator Hardware Platform.

Giga-tronics expects to be shipping the Advanced Signal Generator with the new software package within six months. The software and hardware will be sold together as a Real-Time Threat Emulation System (Real-Time TEmS), for distribution to U.S. customers only.

Giga-tronics produces instruments, subsystems and sophisticated microwave components that have broad applications in defense electronics, aeronautics and wireless telecommunications.

Mark Elo, Vice President of Marketing of Giga-tronics, said:

This is a win for the Electronic Warfare community, Lockheed Martin and Giga-tronics. The threat generation software is built by a team that has a strong legacy of program support and brings many new capabilities in a Commercial Off the Shelf solution that is both ready as a turnkey bench solution or a scalable alternative for larger projects.

John Regazzi, president and CEO of Giga-tronics, added:

Lockheed Martin was one of the initial Advanced Signal Generator customers, this partnership demonstrates their belief in its potential and capabilities.

So far in 2015, Giga-tronics has underperformed the market to Monday’s close, with the stock down 22% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks the stock is down over 33%.

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Lockheed Martin shares were trading at $220.34 Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $225.19 and a 52-week trading range of $181.91 to $227.91.

Shares of Giga-tronics were trading up over 200% at $3.40, with a 52-week trading range of $0.86 to $3.85.