Lockheed Martin | The Contracting Education Academy

October 28, 2016 By AMK

Lockheed’s pitch: Buy our training jet, save taxpayers $1 billion

Lockheed Martin could build new training jets for the U.S. Air Force more quickly than its competitors — enough to save $1 billion over six years, a top company executive said.

bidding-parameters And the service ought to take that into account as it evaluates bids for the $15 billion T-X project, he said.

“What we’re concerned about, frankly, is that the Air Force in their competition right now is not recognizing the value of early delivery or even on-time delivery,” said Rob Weiss, Lockheed executive vice president and general manager of Advanced Development Programs.

Lockheed is running its pursuit of the contract through Weiss’s group, the secretive division better known as the Skunk Works, birthplace of the U-2 spyplane, SR-71 Blackbird, and F-117 stealth fighter.

Here’s how the firm calculates the $1 billion in savings: The Air Force says it wants the first 16 planes ready to train pilots by 2024, but Lockheed says it could deliver the planes three years early. That would allow the Air Force to start getting rid of its T-38 Talon trainers sooner.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2016/10/lockheeds-pitch-buy-our-training-jet-save-taxpayers-1-billion/132520

July 6, 2016 By AMK

Lockheed Martin sells real estate to Georgia Tech

Lockheed Martin and the Georgia Institute of Technology have signed a contract on a real estate deal that includes four buildings and 52 acres on Lockheed Martin’s south campus in Marietta, Georgia.

Collocated with five buildings occupied by the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Cobb County, the additional space for conducting and administering applied research will relieve crowding in Georgia Tech’s rapidly expanding research enterprise.

Two of the buildings included in the sale from Lockheed Martin to Georgia Tech are L-22, center, and L-59, small white building to the right. L-22 served as the main program, administrative and engineering building for the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter program from the mid-1990s until 2013 when the last of the F-22 employees left Marietta. L-59 was a training center.

“Lockheed Martin and Georgia Tech have worked together in numerous areas over the years,” said Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. “This is another area in which our collaboration will prove to be mutually beneficial as we both look to serve our nation with our respective capabilities.”

The portion of the Lockheed Martin facility being sold previously housed the offices and operations for the F-22 Raptor program. These facilities were vacated when production of the F-22 ceased in 2013.

“This is a win-win situation as we evolve our business and assist Georgia Tech in expanding their capabilities,” said Karmyn Norwood, Lockheed Martin vice president for line of business integration.

The deal could see as many as 500 jobs located in Cobb County as Georgia Tech uses the facility for research and education.

“This is great news for Cobb County,” said Tim Lee, Cobb County Commission Chairman. “Both Lockheed Martin and the Georgia Tech Research Institute are great community partners and this purchase strengthens our reputation as a center for research, development and hi-tech jobs.”

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 125,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

About Georgia Institute of Technology

Consistently ranked in the U.S. News & World Report’s top 10 public universities in the United States, the Georgia Institute of Technology is creating the next – the next idea, the next technology, and the next legion of agile minds well equipped to imagine and engineer our future. Georgia Tech provides a focused, technologically based education to 25,000 undergradute and graduate students committed to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered in the colleges of Business, Computing, Design, Engineering, Sciences and Liberal Arts.

April 25, 2016 By AMK

Epic stands to lose part of $642 million VA patient-scheduling system contract

Epic Systems Corp. may lose its part of a $642 million government contract to provide its commercial computerized patient-scheduling system to the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) if home-grown software that’s 99% cheaper works.

Some members of Congress, however, question the VHA’s decision to put its Epic contract on hold, as well as its ability to develop its own software, in the wake of accusations that officials continue to falsify records on the wait times veterans endure to receive clinical care.

“This seems like deja vu all over again to me,” said Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, (D-N.H.), quoting Yogi Berra.

Kuster is the ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Her remarks came during a hearing Thursday on Veterans Administration health information technology projects.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20160414/NEWS/160419951

December 11, 2015 By AMK

Air Force looking into data breach related to contract protest

The U.S. Air Force is looking into how classified data about a competition for a next-generation U.S. bomber found its way into a report published by Forbes magazine, according to several sources familiar with the issue.

Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp this month filed a formal protest against the Air Force’s contract with Northrop Grumman Corp to develop the new long-range strike bomber, a deal worth up to $80 billion.

Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute think tank, published a detailed column on the Forbes website the day the protest was filed, saying the estimate that it would cost $21.4 billion to develop the plane was roughly twice what the competing industry teams had bid.

The level of detail included in the column raised concerns given the classified nature of the bomber program, according to three of the sources.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/25/usa-airforce-bomber-idUSL1N13G01220151125#OpgexKK8s5BMjFK0.97

October 8, 2015 By AMK

Defense industry pushes back against Pentagon’s consolidation concerns

The Aerospace Industries Association last week pushed back against comments made by the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, who in unusually strong language raised concerns about consolidation in the defense industry.

Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.

Frank Kendall, the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, said this week that continued consolidation of major defense firms could limit competition, stifle innovation and eventually result “in higher prices to be paid by the American taxpayer in order to support our warfighters.”

And Kendall said he feared a future where the Pentagon “has at most two or three very large suppliers for all the major weapons systems that we acquire.”

But in its statement, David F. Melcher, the chief executive officer of the AIA, said that as defense spending tightens and there is continued budget uncertainty, “it’s no surprise that industry is looking to become leaner and more efficient.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/defense-industry-pushes-back-against-pentagons-consolidation-concerns/2015/10/01/66feb6d2-6880-11e5-9ef3-fde182507eac_story.html