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Lockheed Martin [US] |
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World ranking: 1 BACKGROUND Lockheed Martin, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, was formed in March 1995 with the merger of Lockheed Corp. and Martin Marietta Corp. 80% of Lockheed's business is with the Pentagon and US government agencies.2 It has $70bn in orders. It is the world's biggest arms producer and is particularly dominant in terms of fighter aircraft. Lockheed Martin in the UK Lockheed Martin combines all its military, civil and commercial interests in the UK under a single registered company, created in July 1999 and headquartered in central London. It has 75 business partnerships in the UK.3 Its military projects include work on the Joint Strike Fighter programme, C-130J Hercules transport aircraft and the Royal Navy's Merlin helicopter programme. Since 1968 Lockheed has provided support for the Royal Navy Fleet Ballistic Missiles. The company has sites at nine separate locations in the UK including Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.4 Lockheed Martin International, Berkeley Square House, What it makes F-16 fighter: Lockheed produces the ubiquitous F-16 Fighting Falcon, an aircraft which Lockheed calls the 'world's premier multi-role fighter chosen by 24 countries around the world, with over 4,000 deliveries'.5 In fact, Lockheed boasts that over its lifetime the F16 will have more foreign sales than all other western fighter aircraft combined. F-16 customers include: Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and UAE in the Middle East; Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand in Asia; and Greece and Turkey in NATO.6 In May 2002, the US Air Force finalised a $280m contract with Lockheed to build ten F-16s for Chile under the US Foreign Military Sales programme.7In April 2003, the Polish government signed four contracts worth $3.5bn for 48 F-16s.8 Apparently Poland will purchase the F-16s using $3.8bn in loans from the US.9 Joint Strike Fighter: In late 2001, Lockheed won the bid for the JSF programme, securing an initial $19bn development contract for the $200bn project.10 It is the world's largest-ever military aircraft project. The Pentagon plans to buy 3,000 land- and carrier-based JSFs, the UK will procure around 200, and a further 2,000-3,000 are expected to be sold to other countries. Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems are partners with Lockheed in the programme. Missiles: Lockheed, through Missiles and Fire Control, is a major manufacturer of missiles including Hellfire, Javelin, Longbow and Predator. The AGM-114 Hellfire anti-armour air-to-surface missile is deployed on Bell AH-1W Super Cobra and Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters.11 A thermobaric variant of Hellfire was used in Iraq in 2003. Other weapons include Rafael-designed AGM-142 'Popeye' missiles, which were reportedly dropped on cave complexes in Afghanistan by US Air Force B-52s.12 Nuclear Weapons: Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for submarine-launched long-range Trident nuclear missiles deployed on US Ohio and UK Vanguard nuclear-powered submarines. In 2002, Lockheed secured a $248m follow-on production contract for 12 Trident II D5 ballistic missiles for the US Navy.13 The company is also involved in the design, production and testing of nuclear weapons with Scandia National Labs.14 Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD: Lockheed Martin is the overall 'BMD System' systems integrator with Boeing. It is also the lead contractor for the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense programme designed to intercept medium-to-long range missiles; makes the Patriot (PAC-3) missile (In early March 2003, the US Army gave Lockheed a $100m contract for 212 PAC-3 for use in the 2003 Iraq conflict16); and is engaged in the design and the building of launchers of 'kill vehicles' for land-based BMD. It is also prime contractor for SBIRS-High, an early warning satellite system for BMD. Exports Lockheed is the world's largest arms exporting company.17 In addition to F-16s (see above), Lockheed Martin has exported other aircraft and a multitude of military equipment including missiles and missile systems. Lockheed has delivered over 2,200 C-130 transporters of which about 1,600 are still in service in more than 65 countries.
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