Lockheed Martin Corporation

Lockheed Martin Corporation, major American diversified company with core business concentrations in aerospace products—including aircraft, space launchers, satellites, and defense systems—and other advanced-technology systems and services. About half of the company’s annual sales are to the U.S. Department of Defense. Lockheed Martin is also a leading contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It was formed in 1995 through the merger of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta Corporation, the second and third largest American defense contractors at the time. In 1996 the new company grew further with the acquisition of Loral Corporation’s defense electronics and systems (itself comprising nine separate aerospace and defense units of major American corporations such as IBM, Xerox, and Ford). Headquarters are in Bethesda, Maryland.

Discovery liftoff, 1985

Lockheed Martin manufactures, among other aircraft, the F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole fighter, the C-130 Hercules military transport, and the P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft. Additional projects include, in partnership with Boeing Company, the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter and, in competition with Boeing, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The company also conducts upgrades, modifications, and refurbishing of its older aircraft. In the space sector, Lockheed Martin builds the Titan IV, the largest American expendable launch vehicle; the commercial Atlas families of expendable launchers; the Centaur upper-stage rocket; the Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile; and smaller tactical missile systems for aircraft and ground-based platforms. It also makes military satellites (e.g., for the Milstar communications satellite system) and numerous scientific, weather, and telecommunications satellites. Lockheed Martin supplies the external propellant tank for the U.S. space shuttle, and, in a joint venture with Boeing called United Space Alliance, it conducts day-to-day operation and management of the shuttle fleet for NASA. As part of International Launch Services, a joint venture formed in 1995 with the Russian firms Energia and Khrunichev, it markets commercial Atlas and Proton launch services worldwide. The company also produces fire-control systems, radars, and other elements of the U.S. Navy’s Aegis Combat System, which automatically tracks hostile targets and directs missile defense. It is managing contractor of the Oak Ridge (Tennessee) National Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and California. In 2000 Lockheed Martin had a workforce of about 150,000 employees worldwide.