LOCKHEED MARTIN

Lockheed Martin

Walmart

Introduction

With revenues from sales amounting to 42 billion dollars, Lockheed Martin Corp. is by far the largest defense contractor in the world. Among many claims to fame is the fact that Lockheed Martin (LMT) is the largest military aircrafts manufacturer as well as being the prime contractor of the biggest defense contract ever, the $200 billion joint strike fighter program (JSF) which was signed in 2001. Lockheed Martin operates in a lot of countries and employs 145000 employees around the world, however its main offices are located in the US and UK.Lockheed Martin has acquired a lot of small competitors working in the same industry such as Loral Corporation. It further diversified its product line by acquiring the assembly lines from other competitors such as buying the F-16 Fighting Falcon manufacturing division from General Dynamics in 1993 which proved to be the most successful product in the history of arms sales. Further on the company won a lot of defense contracts from the US government such as the JSF program and implementing a complete and unified information system for the US federal government.

The company operates in a $315 Billion industry (wikipedia), the arms industry (also known as the defense industry) where there are no talks of introducing small products offered for a wide range of customers. Instead, we are talking about products that are only handled and can only be afforded by governments; products that relate to war tactics and management, military support equipment, and sophisticated modern warfare technology programs that are sold to a lot of governments and huge institutes around the world.Lockheed Martin Corporation Products

There are four major business divisions in which LMT has categorized its products. The following are the business divisions listed according to profitability (highest to lowest):

Integrated and Electronic Systems: Data processing subsystems and electronic warfare. Products from this sector includes electronic upgrades to the B-52 Stratofortress and A-10 Thunderbolt II bombers, Provisioning of optical scanners and tracking materials to the United States Postal Service, Airport scanners for detecting explosives. This sector employs 4000 workers. The biggest moneymaking programs in 2001 were Naval Electronics & Surveillance and Missiles & Fire Control, both a subset of Integrated and Electronic Systems.

Aeronautics: Combat and transport aircrafts. This includes the C-5, C-130 and C-141 transports as well as the F-2, the famous F-16, F-117, F-22 and F-35 Lightning II jetfighters. Alone, this sector generated revenues of well over a billion dollars and employed around 23000 employees.

Space Systems: This division is directly engaged in the manufacturing of satellites for both commercial and military purposes. It also manufactures launch pads for rockets. Other products in this sector include missile defense systems, strategic missile systems and Space shuttle external tanks.

Technology Services: products in this division includes operations in information technology integration and management, enterprise solutions, aircraft maintenance and modification services, management and logistics services for government and military systems, mission and analysis services and support of nuclear weapons and naval nuclear ...