| Lockheed Martin |
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Lockheed Martin employs 133,000 people worldwide. Robert J. Stevens is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Lockheed Martin is one of the world's largest defense contractors; In 2009, 74% of Lockheed Martin's revenues came from military sales. It received 7.1% of the funds paid out by the Pentagon.
Lockheed Martin operates in four business segments. These comprise, with respective percentages of 2009 total net sales of $45.2 billion, Aeronautics (27%), Electronic Systems (27%), Information Systems & Global Solutions (27%), and Space Systems (19%). In 2009 US Government contracts accounted for $38.4 billion (85%), foreign government contracts $5.8 billion (13%), and commercial and other contracts $0.9 billion (2%). In both 2009 and 2008 the company topped the list of US Federal Contractors.
The company has received the Collier Trophy twice – in 2001 for being part of developing the X-35/F-35B LiftFan Propulsion System, and again in 2006 for leading the team that developed the F-22 Raptor fighter jet.
Merger talks between Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta began in March 1994, with the companies announcing their $10 billion planned merger on August 30, 1994. The deal was finalized on March 15, 1995 when the two companies' shareholders approved the merger. The segments of the two companies not retained by the new company formed the basis for the present L-3 Communications, a mid-size defense contractor in its own right. Lockheed Martin later spun off the materials company Martin Marietta Materials.
Both companies contributed important products to the new portfolio. Lockheed products included the Trident missile, P-3 Orion, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor, C-130 Hercules, A-4AR Fightinghawk and the DSCS-3 satellite. Martin Marietta products included Titan rockets, Sandia National Laboratories (management contract acquired in 1993), Space Shuttle External Tank, Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers, the Transfer Orbit Stage (under subcontract to Orbital Sciences Corporation) and various satellite models.
On April 22, 1996, Lockheed Martin completed the acquisition of Loral Corporation's defense electronics and system integration businesses for $9.1 billion, the deal having been announced in January. The remainder of Loral became Loral Space & Communications.
Lockheed Martin abandoned plans for a $8.3 billion merger with Northrop Grumman on July 16, 1998, due to government concerns over the potential strength of the new group; Lockheed/Northrop would have had control of 25% of the Department of Defense's procurement budget.
Lockheed Martin provided NASA with measurements in US Customary force units when metric was required, resulting in the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter at a cost of $125 million. The cost for spacecraft development was $193.1 million.
In May 2001, Lockheed Martin sold Lockheed Martin Control Systems to BAE Systems. On November 27, 2000, Lockheed completed the sale of its Aerospace Electronic Systems business to BAE Systems for $1.67 billion, a deal announced in July 2000. This group encompassed Sanders Associates, Fairchild Systems, and Lockheed Martin Space Electronics & Communications.
In 2001, Lockheed Martin won the contract to build the F-35 Lightning II; this was the largest fighter aircraft procurement project since the F-16, with an initial order of 3,000 worth some $200 billion before export orders.
In 2001, Lockheed Martin settled a nine year investigation conducted by NASA's Office of Inspector General with the assistance of the Defense Contract Audit Agency. The company paid the United States government $7.1 million based on allegations that its predecessor, Lockheed Engineering Science Corporation, submitted false lease costs claims to NASA.
On May 12, 2006, The Washington Post reported that when Robert Stevens took control of Lockheed Martin in 2004, he faced the dilemma that within 10 years 100,000 of the about 130,000 Lockheed Martin employees – more than three-quarters – would be retiring.
On August 31, 2006, Lockheed Martin won a $3.9 billion contract from NASA to design and build the CEV capsule, also known as Orion – the next spacecraft for human flight – for the Ares I rocket in the Constellation Program.
On August 13, 2008, Lockheed Martin acquired the government business unit of Nantero, Inc., a company that had developed methods and processes for incorporating carbon nanotubes in next-generation electronic devices.
On November 18, 2010, Lockheed Martin announced that it would be closing its Eagan, MN location by 2013 in order to drive down costs and optimize capacity at their locations nationwide.
In January 2011, Lockheed Martin agreed to pay the US Government $2 million to settle allegations that the company submitted false claims on a U.S. government contract for that amount. The allegations came from a contract with the Naval Oceanographic Office Major Shared Resource Center in Mississippi.
Lockheed Martin is active in many aspects of government contracting. It "received $36 billion in government contracts in 2008 alone, more than any company in history. It now does work for more than two dozen government agencies from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. Its involved in surveillance and information processing for the CIA, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service."
Current members of the board of directors of Lockheed Martin are: Edward Aldridge, Nolan Archibald, Marcus Bennett, James O. Ellis, Gwendolyn King, James Loy, Douglas McCorkindale, Eugene Murphy, Joseph Ralston, Frank Savage, Anne Stevens, Robert J. Stevens, James Ukropina and Douglas Yearley.
Lockheed "ranks number one on the 'contractor misconduct' database maintained by the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-DC-based watchdog group." Since 1995, the company has agreed to pay $577 million to settle fifty-four instances of misconduct.
The company's 2010 lobbying expenditure by the third quarter was $9.9 million (2009 total: $13.7 million).
Through its political action committee, the company provides low levels of financial support to candidates who advocate national defense and relevant business issues. It is "the top contributor to the incoming House Armed Services Committee chairman, Republican Howard P. 'Buck' McKeon of California, giving more than $50,000 in the most recent election cycle. It also tops the list of donors to Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), the powerful chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and the self-described '#1 earmarks guy in the US Congress.'"
Lockheed Martin Employees Political Action Committee is one of the 50 most generous PACs in the country, according to FEC data. With contributions from 3,000 employees, it donates $500,000 a year to about 260 House and Senate candidates. For the 2004 election cycle, Lockheed's PAC has already contributed $350,279 to federal candidates, with about 62 percent going to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That compares with $515,000 from General Dynamics' political action committee and $122,850 from BAE Systems North America, the center's data showed.
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