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Lockheed Martin: Your Friendly IT Firm
Regular readers of this blog will know that I start each day with the paper edition of the Washington Post and always note the massive, full-page ads by defense contractors hawking their wares to Congressmen and their staffs. One thing that I never understood during the ad blitz in support of the F-22 was why Lockheed Martin, a defense firm that is about a lot more than just fixed-wing aircraft, was falling on its sword over one weapons system and allowing itself to be branded as a manufacturer of fixed-wing aircraft. I asked this question to a Lockheed Martin executive -- one not associated with the aviation side of the house -- a few months back and got a firmly bitten tongue in reply. Today, though, I noticed an almost full-page ad on Page A16 of the Post advertising Lockheed Martin as, yup, "a leading provider of IT systems for the federal government." Does this mean Lockheed Martin has gotten over the termination of the F-22 program? Probably not. But it may be evidence they are re-thinking the wisdom of a large transnational corporation (with a lot of fingers in a lot of pies) getting too closely associated with one weapons system.
Well, they are also taking a
Well, they are also taking a hit on the VH-71 program - they probably are getting a little concerned about defense aviation contracts.
So, wait... the
So, wait... the Lockheed-Martin executive bit your tongue when you asked him that question?
How wude.
While much of Lockheed's
While much of Lockheed's growth over the next few years will likely come from the Information Systems side of the house, those contracts are often year-to-year (not to mention lower profit margin). The large fixed-wing aircraft contracts give the company the financial stability it needs to invest in other areas of the business.
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