Lockheed seeks Hellfire's successor

Orlando Sentinel ^ | June 12, 2011 | Richard Burnett

[sukhoi-30mki]

Lockheed seeks Hellfire's successor

By Richard Burnett, Orlando Sentinel

10:19 PM EDT, June 12, 2011

Lockheed Martin Corp. is playing the "jobs card" as it seeks to counter the budget-cutting climate in Washington.

Earlier this month, the nation's largest military contractor brought a contingent of company executives to its missiles unit in south Orlando to tout the economic benefits of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in Central Florida (525 jobs and $800 million annually).

At a record cost approaching $1 trillion (a congressional figure that Lockheed disputes), the F-35 stealth jet is the frequent target of congressional budget-cutting proposals. Lockheed has been fending them off by focusing on the jobs the program creates amid the country's persistently high unemployment.

Now Lockheed is angling for another lucrative contract that has been threatened by budget cuts. Last week, it bid on the Army's Joint Air to Ground Missile, successor to the Apache helicopter's Hellfire missile.

Long a staple of Lockheed's missile unit in Orlando, the Hellfire has generated hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue through the years. Winning JAGM would extend and expand that work, Lockheed says.

Factory lines

Lockheed Missiles and Fire Control has already added about 200 jobs this year in Orlando and Ocala and in Troy, Ala., to increase its production of

[sukhoi-30mki]

This rendering shows an Army Apache helicopter firing an advanced Joint Air to Ground Missile during combat. Lockheed Martin is bidding on a contract to build the next-generation combat missile. (Courtesy of Lockheed Martin / June 12, 2011)

[hosepipe]

How about a missile as smart as one of the new torpedos are?.. -OR- smarter?..