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The United Kingdom and Lockheed Martin

The special relationship between the United States and United Kingdom has led to a large number of alliances in both defence and commercial programmes. On July 1, 1999 Lockheed Martin UK Limited was created. Based in London, it combines all of Lockheed Martin’s United Kingdom defence, civil and commercial business interests under a single UK-registered company.

Lockheed Martin has made great progress in its plans to consolidate and strengthen the operations of Lockheed Martin UK. New orders have included the Joint Strike Fighter, NATS sustainment, Merlin, London Underground, UK Cooperative Engagement Capability [UKCEC], Metropolitan Police C3I, Warship Electronic Chart Display and Information System [WECDIS] and the Battlegroup Command and Control Trainer [BC2T].

The British company is consistent with Lockheed Martin's global, long-term commitment to supporting its international partnerships. Lockheed Martin enjoys more than 75 partnerships in the United Kingdom. Lockheed Martin’s alliances in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe are true partnerships with technology, jobs and market access flowing in both directions. For example, on the C-130J Hercules programme the UK C-130J Industrial Support Group [ISG] comprises 47 British companies who provide equipment and services to Lockheed Martin for the production and ongoing support of the C-130J Hercules. To date the C-130J program sustains 2,500 jobs in the United Kingdom, and 20 percent of every C-130J is produced by UK-owned companies.

Teamed with nine other British companies, Lockheed Martin is prime contractor and systems integrator for the successful Royal Navy Merlin helicopter programme. A total of 44 Merlin systems have been delivered to the Royal Navy. The business that produces Merlin, which leverages Lockheed Martin’s systems integration expertise, is the largest UK operation, consisting of approximately 500 people in Havant will now play a leading role in developing future upgrades to the Royal Navy's Merlin system. The same business is also the Prime Contractor for the UK Cooperative Engagement Capability [UKCEC] programme and the Warship Electronic Chart Display and Information System [WECDIS] project - also for the Royal Navy.

BAE SYSTEMS, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are partners in the development of the new Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the next-generation multi-role fighter. Variants of the JSF are being developed for use by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. This programme, during production, secures over 8,400 jobs and £27 billion of work for UK companies – this could be rise to around £50 billion for UK companies if export projections are achieved.

Lockheed Martin also supports the UK Ministry of Defence with advanced technology products including the UK Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (UKCATT); Multi Launch Rocket System (MLRS), Counter Battery Radar (COBRA), and the Longbow integrated fire control radar and missile system for Apache attack helicopters.

Since 1968, Lockheed Martin has provided support to the Royal Navy for Fleet Ballistic Missiles. The UK began replacing the Polaris A3 system in the mid-1990s with the Trident II D5 missile system. The UK strategic deterrent consists of four British-built Vanguard-class Trident ballistic missile submarines. The fourth and final UK strategic submarine, HMS Vengeance, was commissioned in November 1999.

Lockheed Martin defence activities in the UK have included the Tomahawk integration programme for Royal Navy submarines, and participation in the assessment phase of the Future Aircraft Carrier program. Recently, Lockheed Martin received orders from the Royal Air Force for continued upgrades to its FPS-117 transportable radars located at two remote sites in Scotland.

Managing the busy skies over the United Kingdom requires advanced systems integration expertise and a team approach. Lockheed Martin are active on two programmes to modernise the region’s Air Traffic Control. On January 27, 2002, the London Area Control Centre - Swanwick, which control’s air traffic over England and Wales, became a fully functioning part of the NATS Air Traffic Control System when the system was connected to the NATS operational network and the Center was declared Operational. The Swanwick Centre, one of the most technically advanced of it’s kind in the world and the largest in Europe will now work 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the foreseeable future.

Lockheed Martin has also been involved in the technical upgrade of the exiting Scottish Area Control Center at Prestwick, Scotland which provides air traffic control services, covering all of Scotland and Northern Ireland. The company has completed a contract to install a new radar data processing and display system in the existing facility. The refreshed system is now fully operational and is expected to remain in service to the end of the decade.

Lockheed Martin's commercial and civil government activities in the UK include a contract to supply advanced postal sorting technologies to Royal Mail, a recent award from the Metropolitan Police to provide a new Command, Control, Communication and Information System as well as a contract to process more than 30 million forms for the UK Census in 2001.

Lockheed Martin has more than 300 government and industry partnerships in 30 countries, including the United Kingdom. In its globally inclusive approach to doing business, Lockheed Martin's goals are to establish and maintain enduring international partnerships with advanced technology companies around the world, and be seen as their international partner of choice. The company seeks to establish a long-term presence, earn the trust of customers, develop industrial alliances for growth, and match corporate breadth with customer priorities.