(UPDATED) Many of the human resource tasks Air Force personnel must perform regularly have to be done face to face at HR offices.

But Air Force officials plan to move much of that to the Web and have awarded Lockheed Martin of Bethesda a $234 million contract to help with that effort.

The goal is to build a Web-based, self-service application, said John Speigel, Lockheed Martin's director of Defense Department applications.

"If you think about it, we've gone from doing airline ticketing through travel agencies to being online ourselves to do it," Speigel said.

The Air Force project is similar to that evolution. "It gives us the same freedom, flexibility and speed to deal with the HR requirements that need to be done on a day-to-day basis," he said.

The Web applications will let Air Force personnel monitor promotions and respond to personnel requests electronically, among other things. Today, these tasks often have to be done on paper in an HR office.

"Where there has been some foundational work done to move applications to the Web, there are many more things that can be done to really shift the servicing to Web-based," Speigel said.

Under the eight-year Personnel Services Delivery Transformation-Strategic Partnership contract, Lockheed Martin and the Air Force will assess the status of HR work and then create a list of recommendations to continue the transformation.

Next, the actual Web application will be built.

Lockheed Martin will also continue to sustain and maintain the Air Force's existing systems, IT backbones and military personnel data systems.

The Air Force established the program by consolidating 25 contracts.

Lockheed Martin's team on the project includes Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Object CTalk of King of Prussia, Pa., and Exeter Government Services of Beavercreek, Ohio.

Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology’s 2007 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.