The board of directors of Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. has approved a new $3 billion share repurchase program.

Lockheed said that the shares may be purchased in the open market, or through privately negotiated transactions, and that the dollar amount of shares purchased and the timing of purchases would be at the discretion of management.

Based on Friday’s closing price for Lockheed Martin stock of $71.78, the repurchase program could buy back approximately 41.8 million shares. Lockheed currently has approximately 360 million shares of common stock outstanding.

The defense contractor, which has seen its stock price decline 40 percent in the last two years, said that the buyback demonstrated the company’s commitment to enhancing stockholder value through cash deployment.