Jane Edwards
Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson has said the company continues to work with industry partners to lower the F-35A aircraft’s price to $80 million per fighter jet by 2020.
Hewson said in her speech delivered Monday at Lockheed’s media day event in Arlington, Virginia, that the company delivered 66 F-35s in 2017 and is on schedule to deliver at least 90 fighter jets to U.S. and allied clients this year.
She noted that the Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace and defense contractor created approximately 1,300 jobs in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2017 and plans to employ about 500 additional workers by the end of 2018 to fill vacancies at its F-35 assembly line.
Hewson, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, mentioned four “transformative technology” areas the company intends to focus on in order to help clients address global security challenges: hypersonics; laser weapons; machine learning and artificial intelligence; and electronic warfare.
Lockheed will focus on three policy areas – regulatory reform, acquisition reform and workforce development – in an effort to build up alliances, grow economies and better serve its clients, she noted.
She also cited the establishment of Lockheed’s Science Technology Engineering Leadership and Research Laboratory, STELaRLAB, in Melbourne, Australia, to support international partners’ technology development efforts as well as the construction of a research-and-development facility in Orlando, Florida, as part of the expansion of the firm’s missiles and fire control business.
