Georgia Lockheed Martin plant gets good, bad news

<p>Funding for the Georgia-built F-22A Raptor would continue for at least three more years under an appropriations bill up for consideration in the Senate.</p><p>But the same Marietta, Ga., plant that makes the Raptor suffered at least a temporary setback this week when the Army eliminated the C-130J Hercules from competition for a $5 billion contract to build 100 cargo planes.</p><p>Contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. employs some 8,000 people at the Marietta plant, roughly half of them working on the F-22A and the C-130J.</p><p>The future of both planes has been in jeopardy recently. The Pentagon pursued plans to cancel C-130J production last year before reversing the decision, while critics continue questioning whether the F-22A is the wisest use of scarce Air Force dollars.</p><p>Leaders from both parties agreed Thursday night to put off final action on the $469 billion military spending package until September.</p><p>In a letter to the company last week, Army officials wrote that the C-130J did not qualify for its cargo plane program, which the Army is procuring jointly with the Air Force.</p><p>Lockheed Martin "strongly disagrees with that determination" and will meet with Army officials Friday to discuss the decision, said company spokesman Peter Simmons. The company will determine how to respond after the briefing, he said.</p><p>Analysts said the Army decision, while a blow for the company if it stands, likely won't be the last word on the issue. New demand for the C-130J already exists from other U.S. military branches, if not the Army, they said.</p><p>"They really have to have a replacement on the horizon to justify getting rid of the C-130J's, and there is no replacement on the horizon," said Richard Aboulafia, a defense analyst with Teal Group, a Virginia-based consulting company. "This thing is used for an awful lot of applications."</p><p>Lockheed Martin has delivered 141 of 182 C-130J aircraft on order around the world. In addition to seeking U.S. contracts, it recently has expanded its sales of the plane overseas and is bidding for several international contracts.</p><p>Meanwhile, the three-year F-22A contract included in the defense spending bill would provide nearly $11 billion through at least 2009 to build 60 new Raptors.</p><p>With support from the Air Force and heavy lobbying from contractors, Georgia's senators and other lawmakers whose states have economic interest in the plane have pushed hard for the extended contract. Critics say the contract would limit future budget flexibility by locking the government into purchases and preventing funding for other military needs that might arise.</p><p>In June, F-22A supporters overrode opposition from the Senate Armed Services Committee and its chairman, John Warner, R-Va., to include budget authorization for the contract in this year's defense authorization bill.</p><p>The appropriations bill would actually provide the money. But it still faces opposition. The House's companion spending bill does not include the multiyear contract, and the spending would have to be settled in conference this fall if approved by the Senate.</p><p>Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute in Virginia, said he believes Lockheed's Marietta plant will see continued production for years.</p><p>"The Marietta plant is actually in much better shape than most people realize," he said. "I do not expect either of those production lines to close until the middle of the next decade at the earliest."</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/8/119403