lockheed martin

Lockheed Martin is an aerospace manufacturer formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland and employs 130,000 people worldwide. Robert J. Stevens is the CEO. Lockheed Martin is a major defense contractor. As of 2003, nearly 80% of Lockheed Martin's customer base is with the U.S. Department of Defense and other U.S. federal government agencies.

History

Shortly after the creation of the company Lockheed Martin acquired the majority of Loral Corporation's defense electronics and system integration businesses for $9.1 billion. The remainder of Loral became Loral Space & Communications. In 1998 Lockheed Martin abandoned plans to merge with Northrop Grumman due to government fears of the potential strength of the new group (Lockheed/Northrop would have had control of 25% of the DoD's procurement budget). In 2000 Lockheed agreed to pay a $13m settlement to the US government for breaching the arms export control act. The company passed information to AsiaSat, a major shareholder of which is the Chinese government. Lockheed Martin won the contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter in 2001 with its X-35 design. This is the most important fighter aircraft procurement project since the F-16, with an initial order of 3,000 worth $200bn before export orders. In 2003 Lockheed Martin benefitted from a USAF decision to punish Boeing for conducting industrial espionage against its rival. The USAF revoked $1bn worth of contracts from Boeing and awarded them to Lockheed Martin. The company sued Boeing in 1998 for stealing documents related to a military contract. Lockheed Martin was formed by a "merger of equals". Below are examples of the products each company contributed to the current portfolio: