More than 600 Lockheed Martin Corp. executives — 25 percent of senior management — have applied for buyouts as part of the defense giant’s program to cut costs.
It is unclear how many of the 600 — directors and vice presidents throughout Lockheed — are based in Colorado.
“We’re not getting into that level of specificity,” Lockheed spokesman Jeffery Adams said Wednesday when asked about the impact at Colorado facilities. “The deadline for the program was just last night.”
Lockheed, based in Bethesda, Md., and other contractors have been under the gun to slice defense spending. Adams said the executive “early-exit” program is part of a companywide effort to lower overhead.
Lockheed’s Space Systems Co., based in south Jefferson County, has looked for savings even as it celebrated winning programs such as the Air Force’s GPS III and the next high-resolution satellite for GeoEye.
Earlier this summer, the division implemented a 20 percent across-the- board cut in the Orion program.
Lockheed won a $3.9 billion contract in 2006 to build Orion, which is part of the Constellation program to take humans back to the moon and beyond.
President Barack Obama proposed an end to Constellation in favor of commercial spacecraft, though Orion has been revamped as a “lifeboat” for the international space station. But its budget remains uncertain.
In July, Lockheed reassigned 170 Orion workers to other positions and laid off 130. Since 2009, Lockheed has laid off 10,000 employees nationally and has undergone a major business reorganization.
The buyouts “will enable us to achieve significant cost savings and a leaner management structure at a time when our customers have an urgent need for more-affordable solutions,” said Lockheed chief executive Bob Stevens.
Adams said that unless there are “extenuating circumstances,” the company will accept the buyout applications. Details of the financial incentives were not available.
Some executives have left, with the remainder leaving by a Feb. 1 deadline.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
