Lockheed Global Training fends off rivals, wins big C-130 training contract
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Orlando Sentinel
Richard Burnett
02/15/2011
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s high-tech training division in Orlando has landed a $270 million Air Force contract to provide the pilot- and aircrew-training systems for the C-130 transport, the company said Tuesday.
Lockheed Global Training & Logistics won the latest Aircrew Training System contract — a deal it originally won 10 years ago — by fending off a challenge from unspecified rivals, the company said.
The Orlando unit employs about 2,000 locally in simulation training, mission logistics, test equipment and other military technologies.
The Air Force Air Logistics Center in Ogden, Utah, awarded the new, eight-year contract to Lockheed, which will continue to provide training and other engineering support for the C-130 training systems used by the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
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"The C-130 ATS program has an unrivaled track record in delivering critical, on-time training to pilots and aircrews," Jim Weitzel, chief of training and engineering services with Lockheed's Orlando division, said in a written statement.
The C-130 aircrew-training program has its headquarters at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. It also provides training to pilots at nearly a half-dozen other military installations across the country, plus Yokota Air Base in Japan. Nearly 12,000 military pilots from more than 25 countries have been trained on Lockheed's C-130 pilot-training simulators.
Industry experts said military spending on training such as the ATS are less vulnerable to potential budget cuts now being considered by the Pentagon to help reduce the federal budget deficit.
"Training is all about troop readiness, and as far as budget cuts, that is a place you don't want to go," said Christopher Hellman, a defense analyst for the National Priorities Project, a federal-budget watchdog group.
There's more pressure on big-ticket weapons programs in the current budget-cutting climate, said Cai von Rumohr, a defense analyst for the Cowan & Co. brokerage firm in Boston.
"Training and simulation will probably fare better in this environment," he said, "while missiles and other big weapons programs are probably more vulnerable."
That may mean a tougher road ahead for Lockheed's other major local operation — Missiles & Fire Control, said Phil Finnegan, a defense analyst for the Teal Group, a defense research and consulting firm in Washington.
"It is hard to break out the impact division-by-division," he said, "but, generally speaking, the trend is they are looking more at cuts in missiles and other programs that require a lot of manufacturing."
