Overview

Lockheed Martin Corporation is a major American aerospace, defense, security, and advanced-technology company. It was created on March 15, 1995, when Lockheed Corporation merged with Martin Marietta, combining Lockheed’s aircraft, missile, naval, and space activities with Martin Marietta’s launch vehicles, spacecraft, engineering, and government-services businesses. The combined company established its headquarters in North Bethesda, Maryland, and became one of the most consequential suppliers to the United States government and its allies. The company’s principal activities are organized into four operating divisions: Aeronautics; Missiles and Fire Control; Rotary and Mission Systems; and Space. Aeronautics develops and supports military aircraft, including the F-35 Lightning II, F-22 Raptor, C-130 Hercules, and other tactical, transport, and surveillance platforms. Missiles and Fire Control supplies air and missile defense, precision-strike weapons, tactical missiles, fire-control systems, and related sensors. Rotary and Mission Systems covers helicopters, naval platforms, combat systems, command-and-control technologies, training, communications, and cybersecurity. Space develops satellites, strategic missile systems, launch-related technologies, planetary spacecraft, and civil-space systems such as NASA’s Orion spacecraft. Lockheed Martin is deeply integrated into the United States defense procurement system. It has been the largest U.S. federal contractor since at least 2008, according to the referenced material, and serves the Department of Defense, NASA, the Department of Energy, and other federal agencies. Its work also includes information processing, surveillance, communications, and security programs associated with agencies such as the CIA, FBI, IRS, NSA, and the U.S. Census Bureau. Internationally, the company supports allied air forces, navies, missile-defense organizations, space agencies, and industrial partners. The F-35 program is central to the company’s modern identity and revenue base. Lockheed Martin leads the aircraft’s international industrial supply chain and provides aircraft to the United States and partner nations. Other enduring franchises include the C-130 Hercules transport family, Aegis and related naval combat technologies, the Trident strategic missile, satellites, missile-defense systems, Sikorsky helicopters, and Orion. The company has also pursued emerging fields including hypersonic weapons, quantum computing applications, renewable-energy systems, healthcare technologies, intelligent energy distribution, and compact nuclear-fusion research. Lockheed Martin’s position is supported by long-term government contracts, high technical barriers to entry, security clearances, specialized manufacturing, and extensive systems-integration capabilities. At the same time, its dependence on public-sector procurement exposes it to changing budgets, program delays, regulatory scrutiny, competition policy, export controls, and controversies concerning military technology and contracting practices. The company remains active as a diversified defense and aerospace group serving the United States and a broad network of international customers.

History

Lockheed Martin emerged from a wave of consolidation in the American defense industry after the Cold War. Merger discussions between Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta began in 1994, and the companies announced a planned transaction valued at approximately $10 billion. Shareholders approved the combination on March 15, 1995. Martin Marietta’s North Bethesda headquarters became the base for the new corporation. Businesses not retained in the merger contributed to the later formation of L-3 Communications, while Martin Marietta’s materials operations were eventually separated as Martin Marietta Materials. The merger combined two substantial technical heritages. Lockheed brought aircraft such as the F-16, F-117, F-22, C-130, P-3 Orion, U-2, and SR-71, as well as Trident missiles and satellite systems. Martin Marietta contributed Titan launch vehicles, spacecraft, the Space Shuttle external tank, Viking planetary landers, and major government engineering and laboratory-management activities. In 1996, Lockheed Martin acquired Loral Corporation’s defense-electronics and systems-integration businesses, strengthening its sensors, communications, and mission-systems portfolio. A proposed combination with Northrop Grumman was abandoned in 1998 after government concerns that the merged company would control too large a share of Pentagon procurement. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lockheed Martin balanced defense programs with space, information technology, and selected commercial technology work. The loss of NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999 was linked to a software error involving incompatible measurement units supplied by a Lockheed Martin predecessor. In 2000–2001, the company sold several aerospace-electronics and control-systems businesses to BAE Systems. It also settled a NASA investigation concerning allegedly false lease-cost claims. In 2001, Lockheed Martin won the Joint Strike Fighter contract, launching the F-35 program that would become the company’s largest and most internationally visible aircraft franchise. The company expanded its civil-space role in the 2000s. NASA selected Lockheed Martin in 2006 to design and build the Crew Exploration Vehicle, later named Orion, for the Constellation program. Although Constellation was later restructured, Orion continued as a NASA deep-space spacecraft. Lockheed Martin also acquired simulation, training, and advanced-electronics businesses, including 3Dsolve-related operations and technology associated with carbon-nanotube devices. The 2010s brought portfolio reshaping and renewed emphasis on core defense systems. Lockheed Martin reduced or consolidated some facilities, acquired technology and airport-information businesses, and expanded into cyber, command-and-control, and critical-infrastructure applications. The company acquired Sikorsky Aircraft from United Technologies in 2015, adding a major helicopter business. In 2016, it completed the transfer of its Information Systems & Global Solutions business into the Leidos transaction, concentrating Lockheed Martin more heavily on aerospace, defense, and mission systems. During the same period, the company won significant work in naval shipbuilding, military satellite communications, hypersonic weapons, space surveillance, missile defense, and international pilot training. NASA selected it in 2018 for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, creating a route for proposed commercial lunar-lander missions. Lockheed Martin also participated in advanced computing research, including a long-term collaboration with D-Wave involving quantum-annealing hardware. In the contemporary period, Lockheed Martin operates four major divisions: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, and Space. The F-35 remains a dominant program, while the company continues to develop and support integrated air and missile defense, strategic systems, naval combat architectures, helicopters, satellites, space-domain awareness, and civil-space vehicles. Its business is primarily government-funded, with the U.S. Department of Defense accounting for a particularly large share of activity. This creates durable demand but also leaves the company subject to federal budgets, audits, contract disputes, export restrictions, industrial-policy decisions, and public debate over defense spending and weapons exports.

2018
Commercial Lunar Payload Services selection
[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
NASA names Lockheed Martin among eligible providers for commercial lunar payload-delivery missions.
2016
Information Systems & Global Solutions divested
[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
The business is transferred to Leidos as part of a transaction that also involved a Leidos merger.
2015
Sikorsky acquisition
[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
Lockheed Martin agrees to acquire Sikorsky Aircraft from United Technologies.
2006
Orion spacecraft contract
[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
NASA selects Lockheed Martin to design and build the Crew Exploration Vehicle, later known as Orion.
2001
F-35 contract awarded
[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
Lockheed Martin wins the Joint Strike Fighter development and production contract.
1998
Northrop Grumman merger abandoned
[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
The proposed merger is withdrawn amid government concerns about market concentration in defense procurement.
1996
Loral defense businesses acquired
[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
Lockheed Martin completes the acquisition of Loral Corporation’s defense-electronics and systems-integration businesses.
1995
Lockheed Martin is established
[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta complete their merger, creating Lockheed Martin.

Products and positioning

A high-end defense and aerospace systems integrator focused on advanced military platforms, strategic systems, space infrastructure, and mission technologies.

Combat aircraft · 2001
F-35 Lightning II
A family of single-seat, stealthy multirole fighters developed for the United States and partner nations. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor and leads the international production and sustainment network. Variants provide conventional takeoff and landing, short takeoff and vertical landing, and carrier operations.
Air-superiority fighter · 1997
F-22 Raptor
A stealth air-superiority fighter developed for the United States Air Force. The program combined low observability, advanced avionics, supercruise, and maneuverability, and remains one of the company’s best-known aircraft programs despite the end of production.
Military transport aircraft · 1954
C-130 Hercules
A long-running family of turboprop transport aircraft used for airlift, special operations, maritime patrol, aerial refueling, search and rescue, and other missions. Its international customer base and extensive modernization programs have made it one of Lockheed Martin’s most enduring products.
Crewed spacecraft · 2006
Orion
A deep-space crew vehicle developed for NASA. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the spacecraft, which is designed to transport astronauts beyond low Earth orbit and return them safely to Earth as part of NASA’s exploration architecture.
Strategic missile system · 1979
Trident missile
A submarine-launched ballistic-missile family associated with the strategic deterrent forces of the United States and United Kingdom. The program originated with Lockheed and remained an important strategic-systems franchise after the merger.
Missile defense
THAAD
A terminal high-altitude area-defense system designed to intercept ballistic missiles during their terminal phase. Lockheed Martin serves as prime contractor and integrates the interceptor, launcher, radar, and fire-control elements.

Controversies

2026
Arab American group sues Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Caterpillar over Israel aid
The Dearborn, Michigan-based Arab American Civil Rights League and 18 individual plaintiffs filed a proposed federal class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The complaint alleges the companies supplied weapons, aircraft, software, parts and heavy equipment to Israel despite knowing those products could be used in a manner involving unreasonable risk of harm to the plaintiffs' persons and property in Lebanon. The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief, including a temporary injunction halting the transfer of further instrumentalities to Israel.
Source
2022
FTC sues to block Lockheed Martin's Aerojet acquisition
US authorities announced they were suing to block Lockheed Martin's proposed $4.4 billion takeover of Aerojet Rocketdyne, asserting that the deal would lead to higher costs on defense systems.
Source
2014
False Claims Act settlement over staff qualifications
A Lockheed Martin systems business agreed to pay to resolve allegations that taxpayers were billed for work performed by staff who lacked required qualifications.
Source
2012
Tools overbilling settlement
The U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement concerning allegations that a Lockheed Martin subsidiary inflated the costs of tools and passed the charges to the government under federal contracts.
Source
2003
Meridian workplace shooting
A racially motivated workplace shooting at the company’s Meridian, Mississippi facility killed six employees and wounded eight others before the gunman died by suicide.
Source
1999
Mars Climate Orbiter unit-conversion failure
NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter after software using U.S. customary force units was supplied where metric units were expected. The incident was associated with a Lockheed Martin predecessor and exposed weaknesses in interface and verification controls.
Source

Brand decisions

2018
Enter NASA commercial lunar payload programProduct launch
Background
NASA created a commercial procurement pathway for delivering science and technology payloads to the Moon.
Action taken
Lockheed Martin became eligible to bid under Commercial Lunar Payload Services and proposed a lunar-lander concept.
Aftermath
The decision extended the company’s civil-space and lunar-exploration participation beyond Orion.
Source
2015
Acquire Sikorsky AircraftM&A
Background
Lockheed Martin sought to expand its rotary-wing and military-aircraft portfolio.
Action taken
The company announced and completed the acquisition of Sikorsky from United Technologies after regulatory review.
Aftermath
Sikorsky became a major Lockheed Martin business, strengthening its helicopter, vertical-lift, and military support capabilities.
reported transaction value. 7.1 billion USD announced purchase price; later reporting cited 9 billion USD total cost (2015)
Source
2001
Launch the Joint Strike Fighter programProduct launch
Background
The United States sought a common next-generation fighter family for several military services and international partners.
Action taken
Lockheed Martin won the contract to develop and produce the aircraft later named the F-35 Lightning II.
Aftermath
The F-35 became the company’s largest aircraft program and a central international production and sustainment franchise.
Source
1995
Merge Lockheed Corporation with Martin MariettaM&A
Background
Both companies sought scale and portfolio breadth during post-Cold War consolidation in the U.S. defense industry.
Action taken
The companies completed a merger and established Lockheed Martin with headquarters in North Bethesda, Maryland.
Aftermath
The transaction created a diversified aerospace and defense contractor and laid the foundation for later acquisitions and divestitures.
Source

Recent events

2018
Lockheed Martin awarded NASA lunar payload-services eligibility[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
Product launch
NASA selected the company as an eligible commercial provider for future lunar science and technology deliveries.
2015
Lockheed Martin acquired Sikorsky Aircraft[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
M&A
The company purchased Sikorsky from United Technologies, expanding its helicopter and rotary-wing portfolio.
2001
Lockheed Martin selected for the Joint Strike Fighter program[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
Product launch
The company won the contract that became the F-35 Lightning II program.
1995
Lockheed Martin formed through Lockheed–Martin Marietta merger[1]Lockheed Martinen.wikipedia.org
M&A
The merger created a diversified aerospace and defense contractor headquartered in Maryland.