Lockheed Martin Outlines Future in Georgia

Shan Cooper, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Marietta site, provided details on the company’s recent cyber attack and outlined its plans for the future in Georgia at Thursday’s media day gathering at the aerospace, defense, security and advanced technology company.

Over the weekend it was reported that Lockheed Martin suffered a significant cyber security breach. However, the organization that polices the network discovered the breach almost immediately and Lockheed Martin believes no information was stolen.

“We have a wonderful organization that constantly looks at our systems,” Cooper said. “For us it was a proactive move versus how it was portrayed in the press.”

Lockheed Martin said no data was stolen because it shut down the network that allows its employees to access IT software remotely. Cooper said she was not personally affected, but other employees are being issued new remote access tokens.

Cooper believes Lockheed Martin was targeted because it’s the largest federal contractor in the world. In a recent interview with Bloomberg News, a member of President Barack Obama’s commission on cyber security, Tom Kellerman, speculated that the attack was “more than likely” state-sponsored.

Attacks like the one against Lockheed Martin are becoming more prevalent and the Pentagon hasn’t failed to notice.

Kellerman said he and the commission have recommended that state-sponsored cyber attacks be classified as acts of war.

“Much of what we recommended as part of the commission is when the cyber attack reached the level of magnitude where it either causes physical destruction of critical infrastructures as energy, transportation, health care or essential government services, at that point—or the death of human life, the loss of human life for that matter—at those points therein it should constitute a kinetic or a physical response,” said Kellerman.

Cooper also outlined Lockheed Martin’s plans for Georgia explaining that “the future is really bright here.”

Although the plant has satisfied its Air Force contract and will no longer be producing F-22 Raptors, it will still be responsible for the modernization and sustainment of the fighter aircraft. Lockheed Martin is also expanding its F-35 program.

When the expansion is complete, Lockheed Martin will build one F-35 Lightning II a day, said Steve Blake, director of F-35 production at Lockheed Martin’s Marietta site.

“Everything we do is in preparation for that one-a-day rate,” he said.

If the expansion program goes ahead as planned it will be completed by 2016. And with the expansion comes more jobs.

“If things go well by 2016 we’ll have at least anther 1,000 jobs at this site,” Cooper said.

Cooper projected that the expansion will create another 2,200 jobs statewide as the expanded program will place more demand on Lockheed Martin suppliers.

Lockheed Martin wants to play a role in training its future workforce and it wants to start early. In Marietta, Lockheed Martin currently has two programs, LM SMART and Engineers in the Classroom, at four local schools that aim to prepare students for careers in engineering and technology.

“I really want to understand what Lockheed Martin can do in the classroom to ensure the workforce of the future,” Cooper said.

The company also partners with Chattahoochee Technical College, Southern Polytechnic State University and Georgia Institute of Technology.

“If we’re going to be here in the future, we’ve got to grow that talent here in the United States,” Cooper said.