SKUNK WORKS EXPECTS JOB BOOM; MANAGER PREDICTS STAFF TO SWELL WITH PROJECTS.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer Lockheed Martin's ``Skunk skunk, name for several related New World mammals of the weasel family, characterized by their conspicuous black and white markings and use of a strong, highly offensive odor for defense. Works'' facility could grow to as many as 15,000 employees in the next five to 10 years, fueled mainly by the VentureStar and joint strike fighter programs The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) became synonymous with the later F-35 Lightning II, however until 2001 the term was applied to the competition between the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed Martin X-35. , the company's executive vice president said Wednesday. Skunk Works, located in Palmdale, does $1.3 billion in annual sales, which could grow to as much as $3 billion, Martin told a gathering of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. In an interview after his speech before the chamber, Martin said that, conservatively, the company, which now has about 6,000 employees, will grow to at least 10,000 workers within the next decade. ``We're going to have very long term, very stable growth,'' Martin said. Among the major programs the company sees fueling the growth is the joint strike fighter A strike fighter is a fighter aircraft which is also capable of attacking surface targets, including ships. It differs from an attack aircraft in that the aircraft remains a capable fighter. , for which Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. Corp. is competing with Boeing. While Lockheed Martin plans to conduct final assembly of the fighter in Texas if it wins the production contract, Skunk Works would fabricate parts - work that could support as many as 5,000 to 6,000 jobs. ``We will retain $1 billion to $1.5 billion of business on that program,'' Martin said. ``We will be a major supplier of parts.'' The Pentagon plans to buy more than 3,000 joint strike fighter aircraft to replace the Air Force's F-16, the Navy FA-18, and the Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier harrier, breed of dog harrier, breed of medium-sized hound whose origin is obscure but whose existence in England dates from the 13th cent. It stands from 19 to 21 in. (48.3–53.3 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 40 to 50 lb (18.1–22. . In addition, the British Royal Navy is looking to acquire JSF (JavaServerFaces) A standard framework of components for building rich user interfaces for Java applications. JavaServer Faces run on the server, but are displayed on the client. JSF - JavaServer Faces aircraft. Both Lockheed Martin and Boeing are assembling their JSF prototypes in Palmdale. If Boeing wins the competition, it says it will base its JSF production line in St. Louis. Another major program is the $4.5 billion VentureStar, a reusable spaceship the company is now designing and hoping to fly in 2004. Skunk Works' goal is for VentureStar to lower the cost of putting a payload (1) Refers to the "actual data" in a packet or file minus all headers attached for transport and minus all descriptive meta-data. In a network packet, headers are appended to the payload for transport and then discarded at their destination. into space from $10,000 a pound to as little as $100 to $500 a pound. The plan is to begin production of VentureStar in 2002 and build two spacecraft initially, then eventually add two others. Other Skunk Works programs include providing the upkeep of the F-117A stealth fighter, fabricating parts for the F-22 fighter, building the DarkStar spy plane and developing a supersonic business jet A supersonic business jet (SSBJ) is a small business jet, intended to travel at speeds above Mach 1.0. Typically intended to transport about ten passengers, SSBJs are about the same size as traditional subsonic business jets. . ``The valley has been very dependent on single programs,'' Martin said. ``Today, the Skunk Works brings a variety of programs. We can lose any one of these programs and still be in business.'' |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion