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Lockheed Martin
"We never
forget who we're working for."
CEO: Robert Stevens
Defense Contracts 2005: $19.4
billion
Campaign Contributions 1990-2006:
$5,833,178 (Democrat),
$8,474,517 (Republican)
Headquarters: Bethesda, MD
Website: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/
Overview
Sixty years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on
the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world’s
largest military contractor continues to profit from Washington’s
killer preoccupation with nuclear hegemony. Lockheed Martin
is the world’s largest weapons contractor. The company
received $20.7 billion in contracts from the Pentagon in fiscal
year 2004. While the Bethesda, Maryland-based company’s
position as America’s preeminent Merchant of Death is
well-known, its role in every phase of the nuclear chain is
less familiar.
Nuclear Monopolies
The company manages Sandia
Laboratories near Albuquerque, New Mexico where scientists
design, manufacture and maintain nuclear weapons. The lab runs
on an annual budget of $2.3 billion and employees more than
7,000. Last year, the federal government rewarded Lockheed Martin
for “outstanding” performance, extending its $12
million a year contract through 2009.
The company is bidding on a $60 million contract to manage Los
Alamos Laboratory where nuclear bomb design takes place.
According to David Samuels, writing in the June 2005 Harpers,
throughout the life of the two labs-- Los Alamos and Livermore--
scientists designed 71 different warheads for 116 nuclear-weapons
systems.
Additionally, Lockheed Martin and Bechtel
Corporation are partners in Bechtel Nevada, which manages
the 1,375-square-mile Nevada
Test Site for the Energy Department.
The company is also working to “protect” us from
nuclear weapons (or working to protect profits). More than 1,000
Lockheed employees in Sunnyvale, CA design, assemble and test
elements of National Missile Defense.
But they’re not in it for the money. Rather, as Linda
Reiners, Vice President of Missile Defense Program says, NMD
is “a passion, if you will.”
The company is the prime contractor for at least five missile
defense components, including the Theater
High Altitude Area Defense system and the Aegis
Ballistic Missile Defense System. With missile defense funding
running about $9 billion for 2005, Lockheed Martin is sitting
pretty for more contracts, despite the fact that the system
is neither technologically feasible nor politically relevant.
Lockheed Martin also makes delivery systems for nuclear weapons
like the Trident
D-5 missile-- ten of which are on every Trident submarine.
The D-5 missile carries eight 300-475 kiloton weapons, each
the equivalent of 29 Hiroshimas.
But it is not all roses in Lockheed Martin’s nuclear monopoly.
The company has found it is easier to build nuclear components,
than clean-up nuclear waste. In November 2004, the company was
fined for failing to clean-up a one-acre nuclear wasteland in
Idaho Falls. In a 100-page ruling closing a 6-year battle, the
presiding judge remarked that Lockheed Martin “failed
to progress with the work, failed to give adequate assurances
that it would perform in the future, and failed to adequately
explain its failure to progress.” Those four failures
in one sentence add up to a hefty $110 million fine.
Weapons at War
In many ways, Lockheed Martin, a collection of 17 Cold War era
companies like the Glenn L. Martin Company, American-Marietta
and Loral, continues to reap the benefits of the nuclear age
while prospering from the 21st century Global War on Terrorism.
F-117 stealth attack fighters, built by the company in Forth
Worth, Texas, launched the dramatic opening salvo of “Operation
Iraqi Freedom,” in Baghdad in March 2003. The company’s
Paveway
II bomb saw its first widespread use in this war. Raytheon
and Lockheed Martin shared a $280 million order to produce hundreds
more Paveways right before the war started. The company also
makes the PAC-3 Patriot missile
and in March 2003, the Army granted Lockheed Martin a $100 million
contract for 212 PAC-3 for use in Iraq. The company boasts a
27% jump in first-quarter earnings for 2005.
Securing the Homeland: For
a Price
Lockheed Martin benefits from increased spending on “homeland
security.” The 2006 budget for the Department is $34.2
billion, an almost 7% increase over 2005. Already, the company
has won billions in Homeland Security contracts, including:
- A $591 million Air Force contract to provide classified
and unclassified IT services to Defense Department users
- A $600 million-plus Army IT contract to supply services
and systems support to the Army's enterprise infrastructure
Is the company reaping in contracts by competence alone?
As in many other businesses, it’s not what you know,
it’s who you know. President Bush recently appointed
Philip J. Perry as General Consul for the Department of Homeland
Security. While Perry is not a household name, the former
Lockheed Martin lobbyist helped the company secure coveted
liability insurance after September 11, 2001 to protect itself
from lawsuits stemming from the attacks (only eight companies
got such insurance). Perry was also a partner at Latham and
Watkins, a law firm which represented Lockheed Martin in dealings
with the Department. And, to top it off, Perry is married
to Elizabeth Cheney, the vice president’s daughter.
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette called the appointment “a
pure form of nepotism not usually seen in American government.”
Campaign Contributions
Lockheed Martin is the “leader of the PACs” --
Political Action Committees -- among U.S. weapons manufacturing
firms. The company made over $12.6 million in campaign contributions
to candidates and party committees since 1990, totaling more
than $2 million a year since 2000. The company’s lobbying
bill has also been high, with a total of $11.17 million in
fees to lobbying firms in 2000, the most recent year for which
data is available.
This research and report
was compiled by Frida Berrigan of the Arms
Trade Resource Center of the World
Policy Institute in January 2007 for the War
Resisters League's WIN
Magazine.
Aerospace Contributions
This information is also available as
a printable, PDF fact
sheet!
Programs and
Products:
Lockheed Martin’s missile defense contracts more
than doubled between 2001 and 2004, from $557 million to
$1220 million. Already a prime contractor in the growing
aerospace industry, and with projects in space shuttle launches
and space surveillance radar, it is not surprising that Lockheed
Martin is profiting from the Bush administration’s determination
to dominate outer space.
Thanks in part to Lockheed Martin’s board of directors
member Edward “Pete” Aldridge and former chief operating
officer Peter Teets, US military expansion into outer space
has meant many new contracts for the company. Aldridge
chaired the presidential commission responsible for flushing
out Bush’s space vision, while Teets is now the under
secretary in charge of acquiring space assets for the US Air
Force: “[Teets’] position was created in accordance
with the recommendations of the Commission to Assess US National
Security Space Management and Organization, an advisory panel
that published its blueprint for the militarization of space
just as Bush was taking office.”
Many of Lockheed Martin’s recent contracts have led to
the development of technology that will be necessary for the
future deployment of interceptors (such as missiles) and other
space weapons, such as miniature electronics and propulsion
systems. For example, Lockheed Martin is under contract
to the US Army Air and Missile Defense Program Executive Office
for the production of Patriot
Advanced Capability (PAC-3) Missile. The PAC-3 is
a “hit-to-kill” interceptor that smashes into incoming
targets. Used in the Iraq war, these missiles are now
being upgraded
to increase their power for missile defense purposes.
The PAC-3 missile system will work
in concert with Lockheed Martin’s Terminal
High Altitude Area Defense Weapon System, which controls
missiles that can take out incoming missiles at ranges beyond
the immediate defended area. The PAC-3 will also
be incorporated
into Lockheed Martin’s Medium
Extended Air Defense System, which is a large system that
provides surveillance, battle management, and communication
for the US Ballistic Missile Defense system.
Lockheed Martin has also developed a thruster (launch device)
for kill vehicles (objects which are used to smash into enemy
objects in space). It is designed for the US Missile Defense
Agency’s Multiple Kill
Vehicle Payload System (for which Lockheed Martin is the
prime
contractor). This system is intended to be attached
to an interceptor, which is then launched to intercept an incoming
missile. The kill vehicles then separate from the main interceptor
to take out multiple targets, such as the incoming missile’s
re-entry vehicle and any countermeasures the missile has on-board.
The type of propulsion developed for the Multiple Kill Vehicle
Payload System is similar to that which is required for a small
satellite to manuever close to an incoming missile for surveillance
purposes. Lockheed Martin applied
this technology to the development of the Experimental
Spacecraft System-11 (XSS-11). In 2001, Lockheed
Martin was granted a $21 million contract
to design, build, and fly the XSS-11, which is a 100 kg microsatellite
that is able to “meet” with other space objects
in orbit, and maneuver close to them to inspect them or perform
maintenance tasks. However, defense officials and technology
experts agree that the XSS-11 could easily be used as an anti-satellite
weapon: “The same capacity built into XSS-11 that enables
it to maneuver around another satellite it is servicing can
also allow the spacecraft to disable or destroy adversary satellites,
if desired.” Theresa Hitchens of the Center for Defense
Information in Washington and Jeffrey Lewis of Harvard University’s
Belfer Center argue,
“such a satellite could house a small kinetic-kill vehicle
designed to smash into a nearby enemy satellite,” while
an Air Force study “raised the possibility of borrowing
technology from the Army's Kinetic Energy Anti-Satellite, or
KE-ASAT, program for its own microsatellites.” Lewis
points
out that the study's “single strongest recommendation”
was “the deployment, as rapidly as possible, of XSS-10-based
satellites to intercept, image and, if needed, take action against
a target satellite.”
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org,
points
out that by building the XSS-11 “to be relatively
cheap and easy to launch, it also may be expendable and replaceable
in an anti-satellite role.” One anonymous defense
official agreed that the XSS-11 “doesn't need any modifications
to kill a satellite . . . It's capable of doing all the missions
that KE-ASAT is intended to do -- and then some. That's been
proven in the flight test.”
In 2005 Lockheed Martin received $11.7 million contract
from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US
Air Force for the development of a Small
Launch Vehicle. Lockheed Martin’s rocket engine
was tested
in June 2005. It is currently unclear whether or not Lockheed
Martin has received further contracts for the Small Launch Vehicle
program or if it is continuing with this project. Meanwhile,
under subcontract to Boeing, Lockheed
Martin provided the Payload Launch
Vehicle for the Ground-based
Midcourse Defense program. The Payload Launch Vehicle is
used to fly Raytheon’s Exoatmospheric
Kill Vehicle, which separates from the Payload Launch Vehicle
once it reaches a specific point in space to go smash into its
target. Along with Boeing and Northrop
Grumman, Lockheed Martin is also a member of the $1.1 billion
Airborne Laser team. The Airborne
Laser is intended to destroy missiles right when they are launched,
before the warheads separate from the missile.
Lockheed Martin is also the prime contractor for the Aegis
Ballistic Missile Defense Program, part of the Sea-based
Midcourse Defense System. The Sea-based system uses
Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Weapon System, a radar and missile
system capable of simultaneously attacking air, surface, and
subsurface targets while defending against incoming aircraft
and missiles. The Sea-based Midcourse Defense System currently
includes 67 US Navy Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers.
Australia, Japan, Norway, the Republic of Korea, and Spain are
also using or will include Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Weapon
System in their naval fleets.
Lockheed Martin says, “we never forget who we’re
working for.” Yet, Lockheed Martin is the cornerstone
of a now-classic
American tradition: “allowing the interests of America
to be subverted by the interests of corporate America.”
Space experts have emphasized that it is in America’s
best interests to keep space free from weapons – not only
to protect civil and commercial satellites that US citizens
rely on during their daily lives, but also to protect US military
assets. The US military relies heavily on satellites that could
easily be destroyed by the proliferation of weapons and warfare
in outer space. In 2001, then-Commander of Space Command, General
Ralph Eberhart, pointed out that if militaries start “blowing
up things in space” the collateral damage may be too high.
For example, he argued, “while trying to take out an enemy
satellite capability, a KE-ASAT could inflict damage on US satellites.”
But with over $1 billion of military space contracts a year,
those risks probably appear negligable. Perhaps Lockheed
Martin is counting on eventually receiving a contract to clean
up the space debris.
This research and report was
compiled by Ray Acheson of Reaching
Critical Will in February 2007 in coordination with the
Secure World
Foundation.
For More Profiles:
See Lockheed Martin's original
Dirty Dozen profile.
Alliant Techsystems
BAE Systems
Bechtel Corporation
Boeing
British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL)
General Dynamics
IBM
Mitsubishi
Northrop Grumman
Raytheon
Siemens
University of California
Dirty Dozen Annex
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