Lockheed Martin has proposed a contract that would make BAE Systems and LM partners. LM proposed this plan to save BAE from bankruptcy by giving them a small percentage of LM’s yearly budget, in exchange for BAE’s technological discoveries.
If BAE signs this contract, BAE will receive .001% of Lockheed Martin’s yearly budget, which totals to around $600,000. BAE will pay back LM in a 2 year period following a 4 month grace period on either a quarterly or monthly basis.
The CEO of BAE, Lisa Carr, released a tweet stating that she is looking forward to signing with LM. The Senior Vice President of Communications in LM, Dean Acosat, released a statement to the press replying to the CEO of BAE’s tweet
“ Lockheed Martin is deeply concerned about the jobs in the United Kingdom that could be lost if BAE went to bankruptcy, as well as for the implications this would have in Europe’s security. That is why we made an agreement in which Lockheed Martin will prevent BAE from bankruptcy in exchange of a fair amount of technology. This created an open door for new collaborations.”
So what does LM get out of this? The plan is to pool resources with BAE to help them in the following areas
- Rotorcraft developments on the Defiant X program, and any future rotorcraft study will be done in a joint fashion, taking into account the past success of both corporations in this field
- Lockheed Martin will become a full collaborator within the Tempest innovation and it will be fully implemented into the F-35 program in Britain and Australia.
- Lockheed Martin will gain full advertising rights of collaborative innovation including Tempest and other EW programs implemented into the F-35 program.
- Countries currently using BAE fighter jets will be offered an option to switch to our collaborative F-35 program.
- The Missions Systems radars programs of BAE and LM should work together to enhance and improve upon both companies systems,
- The Sentinel A4 radar system will stay under the development of the LMC
- New radar systems will begin to be developed jointly in both the UK sectors and US sectors of both companies
Boeing, Lockheed Martin’s competitors, will be affected by this greatly. Since the 2019 plane crashes with the 737 Max, Boeing has been struggling financially. Boeing’s two biggest competitors are BAE and Lockheed Martin, so the companies combining forces will leave them even farther behind financially and technologically.
