Bracing for Cuts, Military Firms Shed Workers

By CHRISTOPHER DREW
NYT

Tightened spending at the Pentagon is unsettling the defense industry, with Lockheed Martin announcing Wednesday that one-quarter of its executives had applied for buyouts as the company cut costs.

Officials said most of the 600 executives requesting the buyout were at or near retirement age. But the response shows how significantly the industry has begun to contract as a long surge in military spending comes to an end. Lockheed had expected only 200 or so executives to apply, the company said. Nonetheless all 600 requests are expected to be honored.

The retrenchment at Lockheed, the world’s largest military company, seems likely to heighten concerns about further job cuts in the high-paying aerospace and defense industries at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate remains high. Lockheed has reduced its work force by 10,000, to a total of 136,000, since the beginning of last year.

Boeing, another big Pentagon contractor, said Tuesday that it would cut the number of executives in its military aircraft business by 10 percent as part of broader consolidation that will eliminate more than 400 jobs.

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