Joint Strike

Three aerospace giants are competing to build the Joint Strike Fighter, a next-generation warplane that not only could be used by the Air Force but could fly from aircraft carriers for the Navy and land and take off vertically for the Marines and the British Royal Navy. Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, McDonnell Douglas Corp. of St. Louis and Boeing Co. of Seattle have all fielded entries in the competition, and sometime in the middle of next month the government will tell two of them to build prototypes.

WASHINGTON - Lockheed Martin Corp. received approval from the U.S. Department of Defense yesterday to move forward with development of the Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's most costly weapon ever. Michael Wynne, acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, approved the "path forward" for the program, and designs of short takeoff and vertical landing variants of the aircraft, in a memorandum, the Pentagon said. The decision moves the $244 billion development program a step closer to production of the fighters, a family of aircraft intended to have about 80 percent common parts for use by the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and allied nations.

WASHINGTON - Lockheed Martin Corp. received approval from the U.S. Department of Defense yesterday to move forward with development of the Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's most costly weapon ever. Michael Wynne, acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, approved the "path forward" for the program, and designs of short takeoff and vertical landing variants of the aircraft, in a memorandum, the Pentagon said. The decision moves the $244 billion development program a step closer to production of the fighters, a family of aircraft intended to have about 80 percent common parts for use by the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and allied nations.

Lockheed Martin Corp. said yesterday that its first-quarter earnings rose 15 percent because revenue poured in from contracts to develop new warplanes. The Bethesda-based defense contractor said its net income rose to $250 million, or 55 cents a share, from $218 million, or 49 cents, in last year's first quarter. Sales jumped 18 percent to $7.05 billion, Lockheed said. Lockheed's revenue was generated mainly from development of the F/A-22 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet programs. The company's warplanes are winning orders and helping Lockheed turn the corner after combined losses of $1.57 billion in 2000 and 2001.

The biggest fighter program in history has yet to put a plane in the air, but the Pentagon is worrying that it could soon kill one of the largest defense contractors in the world. The Department of Defense is expected to determine as early as this week whether a $200 billion contract to design and build a new Joint Strike Fighter will be awarded primarily to one company or shared among several. For the nation's two top defense contractors, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., the decision will shape their futures.

Underscoring its resolve to be a force in military aviation, Boeing Co. said yesterday that it will team with McDonnell Douglas Corp. on the Joint Strike Fighter warplane program even if the pending merger of the two companies falls through.The Pentagon cut McDonnell Douglas out of the competition for the Joint Strike Fighter in November, leaving Boeing and Bethesda's Lockheed Martin Corp. to duke it out for what could be the biggest military contract ever, at more than $200 billion.Most analysts say the Pentagon's decision shoved McDonnell Douglas into the arms of Boeing, which announced the following month that it was buying its former competitor for $14 billion.

The airplanes are in "warm storage," destined for either more testing or an early grave. The employees are waiting, mostly. The $2 billion down payment, spent. Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. expect to learn tomorrow which of the defense industry giants will build the Joint Strike Fighter - perhaps the last manned jet fighter that the United States will ever build. The winner will hire thousands of workers, build 3,000 or more airplanes and reap at least $200 billion in sales. Foreign sales could push the figures even higher.

The Pentagon selected Lockheed Martin Corp. to design and build the nation's newest fighter jet yesterday, handing Maryland's defense giant what could be the largest and most lucrative government contract ever awarded. The Joint Strike Fighter, to be built on Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, assembly line, could reap $200 billion in sales for the Bethesda-based corporation - and nearly double that amount when foreign sales are considered. The company expects to hire 2,500 new employees, eventually dedicating 11,000 or more workers solely to making the Pentagon's fighter jet of the future.

Marilyn Manson could play the Peabody Conservatory and get better reviews than the Pentagon got last week with its much-anticipated blueprint for the future of the military.But regardless of how "deficient," "failed," "inadequate," "mismanaged" or otherwise offensive you find the Pentagon study -- and you can pretty much mix and match analysts and pejoratives -- the Quadrennial Defense Review offers a broad look at where the defense industry could be headed.Big future winners: Star Wars-style missile defense programs, companies that provide electronics and digital information technology, and whatever company is chosen in 2001 to build a mass-produced warplane called the Joint Strike Fighter.

Wings from Texas will make the Pentagon's new jet fighter fly. A fan from Indiana will make it hover. An engine from Connecticut will take it supersonic, while a tail from England keeps it straight. And just south of Baltimore, inside the off-ramp industrial campus of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Systems sector, a team of engineers will teach the Joint Strike Fighter how to see and hear. The former Westinghouse plant in Linthicum is already one of the nation's leading designers and manufacturers of airborne military electronics.

YUMA, Ariz. - In the entire U.S. arsenal, only the Marine Corps' Harrier attack jet can lift straight up off a runway, hover like a hummingbird, then blast off toward its target. Though many had died flying it, Lt. Col. Peter E. Yount never thought the plane would let him down. "Difficult but honest," he called it. But in 1998, the Harrier betrayed him - not once, but twice. High above the Southern California desert, the plane's engine quit and refused to restart. Then, when Yount ejected, his seat rotated out of position and his parachute harness smacked violently against his helmet.

Wings from Texas will make the Pentagon's new jet fighter fly. A fan from Indiana will make it hover. An engine from Connecticut will take it supersonic, while a tail from England keeps it straight. And just south of Baltimore, inside the off-ramp industrial campus of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Systems sector, a team of engineers will teach the Joint Strike Fighter how to see and hear. The former Westinghouse plant in Linthicum is already one of the nation's leading designers and manufacturers of airborne military electronics.

Lockheed Martin Corp. reported a $213 million third-quarter profit yesterday, continuing its trend of cutting expenses, reducing debt and earning more money than analysts expected. Buoyed by an increase in rocket launches and aircraft deliveries, the Bethesda defense contractor also announced that it expects to earn more money for the full year than originally anticipated. "This company looks good - a little better, even, than everyone thought," said Paul Nisbet, an analyst for JSA Research Inc. Lockheed Martin earned 49 cents per share during the three months that ended Sept.

The Pentagon selected Lockheed Martin Corp. to design and build the nation's newest fighter jet yesterday, handing Maryland's defense giant what could be the largest and most lucrative government contract ever awarded. The Joint Strike Fighter, to be built on Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, assembly line, could reap $200 billion in sales for the Bethesda-based corporation - and nearly double that amount when foreign sales are considered. The company expects to hire 2,500 new employees, eventually dedicating 11,000 or more workers solely to making the Pentagon's fighter jet of the future.

The airplanes are in "warm storage," destined for either more testing or an early grave. The employees are waiting, mostly. The $2 billion down payment, spent. Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. expect to learn tomorrow which of the defense industry giants will build the Joint Strike Fighter - perhaps the last manned jet fighter that the United States will ever build. The winner will hire thousands of workers, build 3,000 or more airplanes and reap at least $200 billion in sales. Foreign sales could push the figures even higher.

As the Pentagon prepares to pick a sole winner in its $300 billion contest to design and build the nation's newest jet fighter, some members of Congress are renewing the call for multiple winners instead, saying the United States must preserve its defense industry now more than ever. The Department of Defense is sticking with its winner-take-all strategy as it prepares to announce Oct. 26 whether Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda or Boeing Co. will build the Joint Strike Fighter, a multiservice jet fighter.

The lineup now appears set in the race for the biggest defense contract ever: British Aerospace will join Lockheed Martin's effort to build the Joint Strike Fighter, the companies said yesterday.The much-anticipated announcement pits the top defense contractors in Europe and North America against a team led by Boeing Co. in an effort to build a 21st century aircraft worth about $300 billion.Boeing had sought the hand of British Aerospace, seen as a must-have partner because the British navy is one of four customers for the Joint Strike Fighter -- along with the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Deep within Lockheed Martin Corp.'s mile-long fighter plane factory here is a shrine to a plane that has never flown.There is a full-scale mock-up made of wood and fiberglass and a powered model so intricate that the tiny pilot even moves his head. Computer screens, diagrams and a startlingly large hologram are arranged like a high-technology museum across 15,000 square feet.The object of all this corporate burnishment is the Joint Strike Fighter, a program hailed as the future of not only the Fort Worth factory but of military aviation as a whole.

Few things can rattle the defense industry more than a new American president, so early in last year's election season the Aerospace Industries Association set out to determine which candidate best suited its agenda. Officials made a chart of the industry's goals, and whenever Al Gore or George W. Bush supported one of those goals they pasted a picture of his face alongside. By Election Day, the faces of both candidates flanked every item on the chart. "We aren't like Medicare, we aren't like Social Security, we aren't like large or small tax cuts," said John W. Douglass, president of the association.

The battle between America's top corporate defense giants over a $200 billion-plus jet fighter contract officially evolved into an air war yesterday, as Lockheed Martin Corp. flew its proposed Joint Strike Fighter for the first time. Lockheed Martin's X-35 test aircraft flew a brief, subsonic flight from the company facility in Palmdale, Calif., to nearby Edwards Air Force Base, marking the design competition's transition from a battle of concepts into a contest between real, flying aircraft.