Lockheed Martin Corp. broke ground in April on an 86,500 square foot building in Bellevue, Neb., in the Omaha metro, where five offices with 250 employees working on U.S. Strategic Command and other defense contracts will be consolidated.

The building is scheduled to be ready for occupancy in February and is located less than a mile from the new Bellevue home of Northrop Grumman.

A key to Lockheed’s decision to build was its winning a $213 million, 10-year Defense Department contract to develop systems for a new StratCom mission. Lockheed was awarded that job, known as ISPAN (Integrated Strategic Planning and Analysis Network).

Lockheed and Northrop Grumman are two of eight major defense contractors that have facilities in the Omaha metro, some of which have opened since the Pentagon announced in 2002 that it was bringing Space Command under StratCom.

“That was the final link,” Jim Mueller, who runs Lockheed Martin’s Corporate Business Development office in Bellevue, told the Omaha World Herald. “Winning that contract assured that we are going to have a continued presence here.”

Growth beyond Lockheed’s anticipated work force in Bellevue will depend on the outcome of contracts to be awarded for other StratCom missions, Mueller said.

Northrop’s new facility will consolidate four offices and add more than 100 jobs in Bellevue. The defense contractor currently employs about 650 workers in the city.

Northrop Grumman is one of the world’s biggest defense contractors. It employs 123,000 and had revenue last year of $26.2 billion and profits of $866 million.

It has acquired 16 companies during the past 10 years, transforming itself into a widely diversified defense contractor.

Dozens of other smaller defense contractors — national firms and homegrown ones — support StratCom, which is based at Offutt Air Force Base.

Digital Defense Taps Omaha

Digital Defense Group, network security specialists with more than 50 years combined experience, announced plans to establish its new headquarters in Omaha by the end of the year.

The company has developed a portable, self-contained security device using fingerprints to access buildings and computers and plans to bring 25 engineers to work in the metro.

The initial employees will primarily be engineers from around the country who had been working on a contract basis. They’ve been offered jobs located in Omaha and most have accepted.

Digital Defense will also open a manufacturing plant in the metro, which is expected to employ between 65 and 75 workers.

Richard Ouaknine, formerly of the International Biometric Group, has been hired to serve as vice president of sales and business development. Digital Defense is a sister company to Data Flo, an Omaha-based company that Steve Campisi, president and CEO of a Digital Defense, founded in 1984 to sell inventory tracking equipment and services.