Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
Lockheed Martin has unveiled the final phase of its plans to consolidate the Loral defence businesses, targeting savings of $300 million a year once the restructuring is complete.
The consolidation will include the closure of eight plants, eliminating 230,000m2 (2.5 million ft2) of work space and a loss of 1,600 jobs. The group says that these moves are due to be completed during 1998. Group chief executive Norm Augustine says that these latest measures, together with those already taken as part of the Lockheed/ Martin Marietta consolidation, will yield the group a "continuing annual saving" of $2.6 billion by 1999. He adds that the costs of consolidation have proved "-somewhat lower than expected" while the level of savings are "likely to exceed original targets".
The latest moves include merging a range of Loral businesses in areas such as command and control, naval systems and air-traffic-control (ATC) equipment, into the new group structure. Procurement will also be centralised into a single operation. The international offices of the two groups have already been merged.
Among the plant closures are the Tactical Defence Systems operations in New York and Connecticut, Librascope's site in Glendale, California, the ATC unit at Paoli, Pennsylvania and the Lockheed Martin Aeronutronic missile-systems business in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Lockheed Martin Vought Systems in Grand Prairie, Texas, has also been named as the new lead unit for the group's current and future air-defence systems work.
In an unrelated announcement, the group also says that it plans to pull together its aircraft maintenance, modification and logistics operations into a single business alongside its aerostructures interests. The new grouping, to be called Lockheed Martin Aircraft and Logistics Centers, will be headquartered at Greenville, South Carolina, although a neighbouring components plant at Charleston will be closed and its components work re-assigned.
Source: Flight International
