Lockheed Martin To Add Over 1,800 New Jobs

Following the meeting with the President-elect, the Lockheed Martin CEO, Marillyn Hewson, stated that the company will be creating 1,800 new jobs and also bringing down F-35 Lightning II costs.

Lockheed Martin is an American company. It is based in Bethesda, Maryland. The company is specialized in the global aerospace, advanced technologies, security, and defense domains.

It has an approximated number of 126,000 employees at a worldwide level. Lockheed is one of the world’s largest aerospace companies. It holds the same status in the technology, security, and defense industries.

Lockheed is divided into 5 business segments. These are Information Systems & Global Solutions. Also Aeronautics and Missiles and Fire Control. Space Systems and Rotary and Mission Systems are the last two segments.

Presently, Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 Lightning II. F-35 Lightning is an all-weather, single-engine, single-seat stealth multirole fighters family. The program has been quite disputed recently.

President-elect, Donald Trump, went to question some of its factors. These included its capabilities and also costs. He went to call the stealth fighter costs “out of control”. Trump also insinuated that he might replace them. Boeing’s F-18 Hornet was the hinted at replacement.

Last Friday, Marillyn Hewson had a meeting with the President. Following the meeting, the Lockheed Martin CEO announced as follows. According to her, F-35 Lightning II cost will be brought down. But that is not the only news. Hewson announced that the company will be increasing its worker numbers.

Lockheed will reportedly hire over 1,800 additional employees. These will be working at their Fort Worth plant. This is the F-35’s production location.

The company had already announced its plans of employing new workers. At the time, they were planning to hire about 1,000 employees. The decision came based on the following. It was motivated by the ramping up of the production.

Hewson went to offer further details. According to her, the company had the opportunity to talk with the president. The F-35 program was the main discussion point. Lockheed Martin and Mr. Trump reportedly agree on a common fact.

Program production costs must be lowered. At the same time, the quality must not suffer. Hewson pointed out the following. She stated that the women and men in uniform should receive the best capability. This statement was released in Manhattan, in front of the Trump Tower.

Lockheed’s CEO continued as follows. The meeting was a chance to reveal a new fact. Lockheed Martin is reportedly close to signing a new deal. This would help bring down the production costs.

The difference would be quite significant. It will mark a better cost effectiveness when compared to previous aircraft lots. According to Hewson, the deal will also be bringing more jobs.

Lockheed Martin already intended to hire new workers. With the deal, this latter number will be higher than initially proposed.

The company’s Forth Worth plant employs around 14,000 workers. 8,800 out of them work on the F-35 aircraft. Lockheed Martin has been trying to reduce the production costs. The reduction process will be carried out throughout a 2019 – 2020 timeframe. Its designated target is a $85 million cost.

As of yet, local plant officials have declined to issue a statement. Still, Hewson stated that the presidential meeting went “great”.

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