Lockheed Martin adding jobs at Cape Canaveral

Lockheed Martin's workforce at Cape Canaveral, Fla., is to grow 20 percent by 2017 as the company supports the U.S. Navy's Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile program.

The increase represents 130 new jobs to the current number of more than 500.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced the expansion earlier this week at the Paris Air Show in France.

"Governor Scott, the State of Florida and the Space Coast Economic Development Commission have provided tremendous support for bringing these jobs to Brevard County," said Mathew Joyce, vice president of Fleet Ballistic Missile programs, Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "Ramping up our operations at Cape Canaveral maintains cost effective support of the program and further improves our responsiveness to the missile testing and deployment needs of U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs."

Lockheed Martin, the Navy's prime contractor for the Trident II D5 missile, supports the submarine-based program at Cape Canaveral's eastern range facility in missile sustainment and test launch support.

Trident, a nuclear missile, is equipped with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles. It is deployed aboard U.S. Navy Ohio-class submarines, as well as Britain's Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines. Since completion of its design in 1989, 155 successful test flights of the missile have been conducted.