Lockheed Martin Secures Contract to Improve Navigational Safety

Never before seen technology known as COLREGs

San Diego, CA – Following the near collision of an outbound LSD and inbound DDG the navy quickly awarded a 2.5-billion-dollar contract to defense contractor Lockheed Martin to develop a system of regulations to avoid future collision between US Navy vessels. Lockheed Martin narrowly beat out bids from veteran defense contractors Raytheon and Northrup Grumman as well as newcomers Amazon Webservices and Boston Consulting Group.

An early pilot version of the system – known as the Anti-Collison Regulations or “COLREGs” – contains an intricate system of vague and sometimes contradictory statements. Lockheed Martin internal marketing documents reveal the system is designed specifically to prevent collision while a ship is driving behind another ship, while a ship is driving in front of another ship, and also while a ship is crossing another ship. This version was rolled out to 3 surface ships in 2017 but the navy mothballed it in 2018 to allocate more funding to the LCS and F-35 programs.

Defense experts estimate this system will likely be fully installed by 2045 and will cost the government between $100M - $150M to maintain annually. Early critics have accused Lockheed Martin of putting profits ahead of simplicity as the contractor plans to create two versions of the system for both inland and international use and sell both to the government separately.

Lockheed Martin is already rumored to be developing an update which will include noises different ships can make to avoid collisions as well as how to avoid collisions with sailboats and wing-in-ground craft.