Lockheed Martin announced today that Japan has purchased a seventh lot of Vertical Launch Antisubmarine (VLA) rockets valued at $59.8 million. Lockheed Martin will deliver the VLAs to Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo, in 2005 for transfer to Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force for use on Kongo- and Murasame-class ships. "The consecutive contracts awarded to us by Mitsubishi signify the important defense capability that VLAs provide the Japanese Maritime Self- Defense Force," said Al Barber, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Maritime Systems & Sensors business in Akron, OH. "Since 1997, we have been entrusted with providing a key system in Japan's antisubmarine warfare arsenal.