Lockheed Martin - History

History

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 expected, 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. In 2009, Lockheed Martin bought Unitech.

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.

On May 28, 2011 it was reported that a cyber-attack using previously stolen EMC files had broken through to sensitive materials at the contractor. It is unclear if the Lockheed incident is the specific prompt whereby on June 1, 2011, the new United States military strategy, makes explicit that a cyberattack is casus belli for a traditional act of war.

On July 10, 2012, Lockheed Martin announced it was cutting its workforce by 740 workers as a measure of cost reduction to remain competitive necessary for future growth. On August 2, 2012, the Vice President for Business Development, George Standridge stated that his company has offered 6 more C-130J aircraft to IAF, for which discussions are underway with the Indian Government.