Litton Receives Contract to Continue Upgrades

Litton Industries, a Woodland Hills defense electronics company, said it has received a new $27.8-million government contract to continue upgrades of its warplane-guidance systems for the U. S. Air Force and Marines.

Litton constructed the systems, called Modular Control Equipment, beginning in the early 1980s and has been upgrading them in recent years. The new contract brings the total the government has spent on these upgrades to $163 million, Litton spokesman Robert Knapp said.

The systems consist of camouflage-colored metal boxes about the size of a large U-Haul trailer, and contain radar, radio, computer and other high-tech equipment. The units are loaded on the backs of trucks or trains, placed in the battlefield and manned by military commanders who use them as a control center for planes in the vicinity.

The government has received 131 of the units so far at a cost of more than $1.2 billion, making Modular Control Equipment Litton’s largest defense-electronics program. Most of the upgrade work is being conducted at Litton’s Moorpark production plant.