Lockheed Martin Officials Boast About Camden Production Facility During Virtual Tour

A Lockheed Martin official called the company’s JLTV production facility in Camden the “most advanced (tactical vehicle) production facility on earth” during a virtual tour of the defense contractor’s South Arkansas operations on Tuesday.

The Bethesda, Maryland-based defense contractor held an online webinar with media from across the U.S., providing an opportunity for reporters to pose questions to Lockheed Martin executives about the capability of the company’s Arkansas workforce, and how quickly the company would be able to bring the next-generation tactical vehicle for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps off the assembly line.

On Friday, Gov. Hutchinson signed into law legislation approving an $87 billion bond financing package that will help the defense contractor create and retain hundreds of jobs in South Arkansas.

During the 30-minute webinar, Lockheed Martin’s Vice President of Production Operations Randy O’Neal boasted about the company’s bid to win the $30 billion Pentagon contract to produce the next-generation, tactical vehicle for the U.S. military over the next 25 years.

At one point, he called the Camden JLTV a “perfect facility” that was specifically engineered to produce a modern battlefield ready, all-terrain vehicle for the U.S. military that meets the Pentagon’s requirement for “a lightweight, highly-mobile, net-ready” prototype.

“This is a very process-focused and process-centric company,” O’Neal said, as employees at the Camden production facility worked on a JLTV prototype in the background. “Our production facility is expandable and contractible, and it will be very efficient.”

In response to questions from Talk Business & Politics on the defense contractor’s lack of experience in the (original equipment manufacturer) OEM, or auto manufacturing sector, O’Neal said that Lockheed Martin’s years of long and varied background as the nation’s largest defense contractor allows it to fulfill the military’s current bid.

O’Neal said the company has instituted a production process that allows it to be able to produce a varied number of defense products for the military.

“We have decades of process performance, and we have everything to produce this vehicle and any other product in our inventory that today exists … to engineer the most advanced ground vehicle production in the world.”

He added: “We believe that how you do the work is most important, not what the product looks like.”

Currently, Lockheed Martin produces major missile and artillery systems for the U.S. Army and allied armies. In April, the nation’s largest defense contractor was awarded a $174.7 million firm-fixed-price foreign military sales contract to produce long-range, precision guided missiles for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a close U.S. partner and Persian Gulf ally.

The defense contracting giant has also teamed with Boeing Co. to bid on a contract to build a new long-range bomber for the Air Force worth over $80 billion. Northrop Grumman Corp. is also competing for that contract, which is also expected to be announced later this summer.

O’ Neal and Scott Greene, Lockheed’s vice president of ground vehicles, also gave an overview of the capabilities of the company’s JLTV prototype, which was showcased at the State Capitol ahead of last week’s special session.

However, the Lockheed executives continued to keep wraps on the per vehicle costs of their JLTV prototype. Greene offered that the Pentagon has mandated that costs for bringing each JLTV off the production line is below $250,000.

Greene, however, said that the company will be ready to roll the first JLTV off the production line in nine to ten months within the U.S. Army and Marine Corps’ budget.

“When we win … we will roll that vehicle down the line and on time be able to deliver it to the customer,” he said.

Company officials also revealed that defense contracting rival BAE Systems and auto parts supplier Meritor have assisted the Camden production team in the assembly of the company’s JLTV prototype.

BAE, along with General Dynamics and Navistar, also submitted proposals to the earlier request for proposals (RFPs) for the JLTV in 2008, but did not make the final cut that trimmed the competitors in half.

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps is expected to announce the winning award for the highly-prized bid to manufacture some 55,000 new tactical ground vehicles for the nation’s military this summer. The JLTV will replace the Humvee, which has been used by the military since 1985.

Should Lockheed Martin win the contract, the company plans to invest more than $125 million in the East Camden facility. Approximately 600 new full-time positions will be created at the facility and as many as 655 indirect jobs will be created in South Arkansas as a result of this project.

Besides Lockheed Martin, publicly-traded Oshkosh Corp. in Wisconsin and privately held AM General LLC in South Bend, Ind., are the other two finalists to build the next-generation tactical, armored vehicle in a contract worth more than $30 billion through 2040.

You can access the webinar video at this link.