Â鶹´«Ã½

Latest news on Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace, defense, arms, security, and advanced technologies company with worldwide interests. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and employs approximately 114,000 people worldwide. It is the world's largest defense contractor by revenue.

Lockheed Martin was formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta, two major aerospace and defense companies. Lockheed Corporation was founded in 1926 as Lockheed Aircraft Company and produced many famous aircraft, such as the P-38 Lightning, the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 Nighthawk. It also established a secret division called "Skunk Works" that became the leading U.S. developer of military aircraft. Martin Marietta was formed in 1961 by the merger of Martin Company and American-Marietta Company. Martin Company was a pioneer in rocket and missile development, producing the Titan family of launch vehicles and the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles. It also built the Viking Mars landers and the Magellan spacecraft to Venus.

Since its formation in 1995, Lockheed Martin has made a number of acquisitions, such as United Defense, Sandia National Laboratories, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Aerojet Rocketdyne. It has also sold or spun off some of its businesses, such as Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina, and Lockheed Martin Transportation Systems. It is involved in several major defense and aerospace projects, such as the F-35 Lightning II, the F-22 Raptor, the C-130 Hercules, the Aegis Combat System, the THAAD missile defense system, the Orion spacecraft, and the Space Shuttle external tank.

Lockheed Martin operates in four business segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control (MFC), Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS), and Space. Each segment provides a range of products and services to military, civil, and commercial customers worldwide.