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The story
1990s
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 headquarters for the combined companies would be at Martin Marietta headquarters in North Bethesda, Maryland. 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 L-3 Communications, a mid-size defense contractor in its own right. Lockheed Martin also later spun off the materials company Martin Marietta Materials.
The company's executives received large bonuses directly from the government as a result of the merger. Norman R. Augustine, who was at the time CEO of Martin Marietta, received an $8.2 million bonus.
Both companies contributed important products to the new portfolio. Lockheed products included the Trident missile, P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance airplanes, F-117 Nighthawk, 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 an $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.
For the Mars Climate Orbiter, Lockheed Martin incorrectly provided NASA with software using measurements in US Customary force units when metric units were expected; this resulted in the loss of the Orbiter at a cost of $125 million. The development of the spacecraft cost $193 million.
In addition to their military products, in the 1990s Lockheed Martin developed the texture mapping chip for the Sega Model 2 arcade system board and the entire graphics system for the Sega Model 3, which were used to power some of the most popular arcade games of the time.
2000s
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 aircraft. 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 July 8, 2003, a Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, Mississippi became the scene of a racially motivated mass shooting when an assembly line worker murdered six co-workers (five of whom were black) and wounded eight before killing himself. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Lockheed Martin's President refused to disclose whether company officials were previously aware of any red flags regarding the worker. The company had launched its own investigation into the worker's behavior prior to the massacre following complaints from numerous black employees regarding incidents involving the worker. He had been ordered to attend anger management courses and diversity training but refused.
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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, later named Orion for the Ares I rocket in the Constellation Program. In 2009, NASA reduced the capsule crew requirements from the initial six seats to four for transport to the International Space Station.
In August 2007, Lockheed Martin acquired 3Dsolve, a Cary, North Carolina, company that created simulations and training modules for the military and corporate clients. Renamed Lockheed Martin 3D Learning Systems, the company remained in Cary with 3D's founder Richard Boyd as director. The name was eventually shortened to Lockheed Martin 3D Solutions.
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.
2010s
On November 18, 2010, Lockheed Martin announced that it would be closing its Eagan, Minnesota, location by 2013 to reduce costs and optimize capacity at its locations nationwide. In January 2011, Lockheed Martin agreed to pay the U.S. 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 25, 2011, Lockheed Martin bought the first Quantum Computing System from D-Wave Systems. Lockheed Martin and D-Wave will collaborate to realize the benefits of a computing platform based upon a quantum annealing processor, as applied to some of Lockheed Martin's most challenging computation problems. Lockheed Martin established a multi-year contract that includes one system, maintenance, and services.
On May 28, 2011, it was reported that a cyberattack 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 March 3, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Lockheed Martin had agreed to settle allegations that the defense contractor had sold overpriced perishable tools used on many contracts. The DOJ said the allegations were based specifically on the subsidiary Tools & Metals Inc's inflation of costs between 1998 and 2005, which Lockheed Martin then passed on to the U.S. government under its contracts. Further, in March 2006, Todd B. Loftis, a former TMI president, was sentenced to 87 months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $20 million following his guilty plea.
On July 10, 2012, Lockheed Martin announced it was cutting its workforce by 740 workers to reduce costs and remain competitive as necessary for future growth. On November 27, 2012, Lockheed Martin announced that Marillyn Hewson would become the corporation's chief executive officer on January 1, 2013.
On January 7, 2013, Lockheed Martin Canada announced that it would be acquiring the engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul assets from Aveos Fleet Performance in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On February 20, 2013, Lockheed Martin Corp complied with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, agreeing to pay a $19.5 million lawsuit to conclude a securities fraud class-action legal battle that had accused the company of deceiving shareholders in regards to expectations for the company's information technology division. On July 3, 2013, Lockheed Martin announced that it was partnering with DreamHammer to use the company's software for integrated command and control of its unmanned aerial vehicles. Lockheed Martin teamed up with Bell Helicopter to propose the V-280 Valor tiltrotor for the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program. In September 2013, Lockheed Martin acquired the Scotland-based tech firm, Amor Group, saying the deal would aid its plans to expand internationally and into non-defense markets. On November 14, 2013, Lockheed announced they would be closing their Akron, Ohio facility laying off 500 employees and transferring other employees to other locations.
In October 2013, Lockheed announced it expected to finalize a $2.2 billion contract with the United States Air Force for two advanced military communications satellites.
In March 2014, Lockheed Martin acquired Beontra AG, a provider of integrated planning and demand forecasting tools for airport, planning to expand their business in commercial airport information technology solutions. Also, in March 2014, Lockheed Martin announced its acquisition of Industrial Defender Inc. On June 2, 2014, Lockheed Martin received a Pentagon contract to build a space fence that would track debris, keeping it from damaging satellites and spacecraft.
On December 20, 2014, Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems agreed to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit paying $27.5 million to finalize allegations that it had knowingly overbilled taxpayers for work performed by company staff who did not hold the relevant essential qualifications for the contract.
On July 20, 2015, Lockheed Martin announced plans to purchase Sikorsky Aircraft from United Technologies Corporation at a cost of $7.1 billion. The Pentagon has criticized the acquisition as causing a reduction in competition. In November 2015, the acquisition received final approval from the Chinese government, with a total cost of $9 billion. Dan Schulz was named the president of Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky company. Lockheed Martin has shown sketches for a twin-engine, blended wing body strategic airlifter similar in size to the C-5. On March 31, 2015, the US Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth $362 million for the construction of Freedom-class ship LCS 21 and $79 million for advance procurement for LCS 23. The Freedom-class ships are built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin. In December 2015, Lockheed won an $867 million seven-year contract to train Australia's next generation of military pilots. The deal also has the option to extend this contract across 26 years, which would greatly increase the deal's value.
In August 2016, Canadian Forces Maritime tested an integrated submarine combat system developed by Lockheed Martin. The test marked Canada's first use of the combat system with the MK 48 heavyweight torpedo, variant 7AT. The same month, a deal to merge Leidos with the entirety of Lockheed Martin's Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) business came to a close.
In May 2017, during a visit to Saudi Arabia by President Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia signed business deals worth tens of billions of dollars with U.S. companies, including Lockheed Martin. (See: 2017 United States–Saudi Arabia arms deal)
On August 13, 2018, Lockheed Martin announced that the company had secured a $480 million contract from the United States Air Force to develop a hypersonic weapon prototype. A hypersonic missile can travel at one mile a second. This is the second contract for hypersonic weapons that Martin has secured; The first was from the Air Force as well and for $928 million which was announced in April 2018.
On November 29, 2018, Lockheed Martin was awarded a Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract by NASA, which makes it eligible to bid on delivering science and technology payloads to the Moon for NASA, worth $2.6 billion. Lockheed Martin plans to formally propose a lander called McCandless Lunar Lander, named after the late astronaut and former Lockheed Martin employee Bruce McCandless II, who in 1984 performed the first free-flying spacewalk without a lifeline to the orbiting shuttle, using a jetpack built by the company. This lander would be based on the successful design of the Phoenix and InSight Mars landers.
On April 11, 2019, at 6:35 pm EDT, an Arabsat-6A satellite was successfully launched from (LC-39A). This satellite is one of two, the other being SaudiGeoSat-1/HellasSat-4 and they are the "most advanced commercial communications satellites ever built by" Lockheed Martin.
On September 23, 2019, Lockheed Martin and NASA signed a $4.6-billion contract to build six or more Orion capsules for NASA's Artemis program to send astronauts to the Moon.
2020s
In January 2020, the Naval Sea Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin with a $138 million contract related with the AEGIS Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA). The LMT Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) unit of the company is to develop, integrate, test, and deliver the AEGIS Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 20 integrated combat system. Martin will work on the AEGIS in New Jersey. The project is expected to be completed by December 2020. In January 2020, the Pentagon found at least 800 software defects in Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jets owned by the US Armed Forces during an annual review. The 2018 and 2019 reviews revealed a large number of defects as well. In February 2020, Lockheed Martin acquired Vector Launch Inc's satellite software technology GalacticSky for $4.25 million after a bankruptcy court received no bids by the February 21 deadline. On March 16, 2020, Lockheed Martin announced that James D. Taiclet would replace Marillyn Hewson as CEO, effective June 15. In January 2021, Taiclet became chairman of the company as well.
Lockheed Martin was sanctioned by the Chinese government in July 2020, October 2020, and February 2023 due to arm sales to Taiwan. On December 20, 2020, it was announced that Lockheed Martin would acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings for $4.4 billion. The acquisition was expected to close in first quarter of 2022. On February 13, 2022, Lockheed abandoned the deal following regulatory disapproval.
In 2022, due to the Russo-Ukrainian war, major arms manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin, reported a sharp increase in interim sales and profits. In May 2023, Lockheed formed a new microelectronics subsidiary ForwardEdge ASIC to design custom application-specific integrated circuits for its customers.
In November 2023, attempts at direct action were taken against arms companies in the US and the UK, including Lockheed Martin, that supplied weapons to Israel during the Gaza war. In 2025, Lockheed Martin was included in a UN report on corporations complicit in the Gaza genocide.
In March 2024, Lockheed Martin submitted a bid to acquire Terran Orbital. On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $4.5 billion contract to supply Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles. The contract included 870 PAC-3 MSE missiles and related hardware. Lockheed was tasked with manufacturing the newest version of these interceptors, with each PAC-3 MSE missile costing approximately $4 million, as per Army budget documents.
On October 9, 2024, Lockheed Martin announced the appointment of Chauncey McIntosh as vice president and general manager of the F-35 Lightning II Program, effective December 1, 2024. He succeeded Bridget Lauderdale, who retired after 38 years with the company. In December 2024, Lockheed Martin announced that it had formed a subsidiary, Astris AI, that would help U.S. defense companies to incorporate artificial intelligence into their operations.
In May 2026, the company expanded its missile production capacity further with the construction of a new 87,000-square-foot munitions facility in Alabama intended for the production of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors. The facility is part of a broader investment plan of approximately $8–9 billion through 2030 aimed at increasing overall missile output.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lockheed Martin, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7