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Atlanta Journal-Constitution
November 12, 2008
Pg. 1B
Foreign buyers order workhorse C-130, helping supply enough work through 2011.
By Dan Chapman
The Lockheed Martin Corp. is scheduled to ceremoniously hand over the first of four mammoth C-130J airplanes to Norway today, the first international delivery in four years for the Marietta-built planes.
With the U.S. economy teetering, and with Pentagon budgets expected to tighten under a Barack Obama administration, the company increasingly looks overseas for C-130 customers. Production hummed Tuesday inside the plane-maker's cavernous hangar off South Cobb Drive, the size of 76 football fields.
Ross Reynolds, vice president for the C-130 program, said the company has orders for an additional 65 planes, enough work to last through 2011. Reynolds added that Lockheed Martin will hire another 200 assembly-line workers, engineers and support staff by year's end to build the planes in Georgia, Mississippi and West Virginia.
While the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps remain the company's main customers, sales to foreign governments could fill the void if Washington buys fewer C-130s.
"In the last year we've signed up Norway and Canada (and) India and Qatar," Reynolds said. "We have sold C-130s to 61 countries. That gives you an idea how global our product is. And we still see a number of international opportunities."
Continued production of the C-130, manufactured in Cobb County since the mid-1950s, appeared threatened four years ago. The Pentagon considered canceling orders for 37 C-130s and, in effect, grounding the heavy-duty cargo plane by 2006.
An intense lobbying effort by Georgia's congressional delegation, and legislators in states with other Lockheed Martin facilities, persuaded the Defense Department to scuttle its cost-saving plans. Similar threats remain, though.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month that the armed forces need a better balance between expensive, high-tech weapons and more basic equipment essential for fighting counter-insurgencies. The F-22 Raptor, a $191 million supersonic jet fighter also built by Lockheed Martin in Marietta, is likely to come under intense scrutiny next year.
But John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, a respected military information Web site, said the C-130 is likely to escape the budgetary scalpel.
The C-130 "is a well-established tradition in Washington. Getting rid of it would be like selling the Washington Monument," he said. "It's a good airplane and has strong contractors' support. Congress will take care of it."
The C-130 is critical for Lockheed Martin's bottom line, too. The company's revenue dropped 4.5 percent, to $10.58 billion, during the third quarter. And Lockheed Martin's aeronautics division, which makes the C-130, reported that sales fell 13 percent due largely to a shift in production from one fighter plane to another.
Reynolds said Australia, Israel, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have either ordered or inquired about new C-130s. And countries that bought the workhorse transport planes 10, 20 or 30 years ago are replacing them with new C-130s. A still-cheap dollar makes the $60 million-plus plane affordable for foreign governments.
"We have a very healthy list of international customers that's matched by demand within the U.S. as well," said Peter Simmons, a Lockheed Martin spokesman. "That's tremendous news for Cobb County and the state of Georgia and, ultimately, for the U.S. economy."
November 12, 2008
Pg. 1B
Foreign buyers order workhorse C-130, helping supply enough work through 2011.
By Dan Chapman
The Lockheed Martin Corp. is scheduled to ceremoniously hand over the first of four mammoth C-130J airplanes to Norway today, the first international delivery in four years for the Marietta-built planes.
With the U.S. economy teetering, and with Pentagon budgets expected to tighten under a Barack Obama administration, the company increasingly looks overseas for C-130 customers. Production hummed Tuesday inside the plane-maker's cavernous hangar off South Cobb Drive, the size of 76 football fields.
Ross Reynolds, vice president for the C-130 program, said the company has orders for an additional 65 planes, enough work to last through 2011. Reynolds added that Lockheed Martin will hire another 200 assembly-line workers, engineers and support staff by year's end to build the planes in Georgia, Mississippi and West Virginia.
While the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps remain the company's main customers, sales to foreign governments could fill the void if Washington buys fewer C-130s.
"In the last year we've signed up Norway and Canada (and) India and Qatar," Reynolds said. "We have sold C-130s to 61 countries. That gives you an idea how global our product is. And we still see a number of international opportunities."
Continued production of the C-130, manufactured in Cobb County since the mid-1950s, appeared threatened four years ago. The Pentagon considered canceling orders for 37 C-130s and, in effect, grounding the heavy-duty cargo plane by 2006.
An intense lobbying effort by Georgia's congressional delegation, and legislators in states with other Lockheed Martin facilities, persuaded the Defense Department to scuttle its cost-saving plans. Similar threats remain, though.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month that the armed forces need a better balance between expensive, high-tech weapons and more basic equipment essential for fighting counter-insurgencies. The F-22 Raptor, a $191 million supersonic jet fighter also built by Lockheed Martin in Marietta, is likely to come under intense scrutiny next year.
But John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, a respected military information Web site, said the C-130 is likely to escape the budgetary scalpel.
The C-130 "is a well-established tradition in Washington. Getting rid of it would be like selling the Washington Monument," he said. "It's a good airplane and has strong contractors' support. Congress will take care of it."
The C-130 is critical for Lockheed Martin's bottom line, too. The company's revenue dropped 4.5 percent, to $10.58 billion, during the third quarter. And Lockheed Martin's aeronautics division, which makes the C-130, reported that sales fell 13 percent due largely to a shift in production from one fighter plane to another.
Reynolds said Australia, Israel, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have either ordered or inquired about new C-130s. And countries that bought the workhorse transport planes 10, 20 or 30 years ago are replacing them with new C-130s. A still-cheap dollar makes the $60 million-plus plane affordable for foreign governments.
"We have a very healthy list of international customers that's matched by demand within the U.S. as well," said Peter Simmons, a Lockheed Martin spokesman. "That's tremendous news for Cobb County and the state of Georgia and, ultimately, for the U.S. economy."