Jay Clemens
Lockheed Martin wants its international sales to reach 25 percent of the company’s total revenue over the next few years in a move to mitigate the impact of shrinking defense spending, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Bruce Tanner, Lockheed’s chief financial officer, told Post reporter Amrita Jayakumar that a majority of that revenue is tied to contracts the U.S. government signs and pays on behalf of overseas clients.
Lockheed registered 20 percent of total international sales in 2014, Jayakumar reports.
“If you look at our backlog, the composition of that has changed over time. Now 25 percent of our backlog is international content, which is why we feel good about hitting that target in the next two to three years,†he told the Post.
Tanner also said the company has eyed international sales growth as it faces a prospect of reduced defense sales in 2016 and 2017 compared with 2015, according to the report.
“If sequestration hits, there’s a lag effect before it starts to show up in our financials. Even if President Obama’s budget — which is higher than sequestration levels — was enacted, we wouldn’t see much impact in 2015,†Tanner told Jayakumar.
The company also plans to increase spending in research and development in 2015, Tanner said in the interview.
