EXPANDING: Lockheed Martin adding more space, jobs
Published 9:30 pm Tuesday, February 18, 2020
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Jason Crager, director of Lockheed Martin Pike County Operations, visited the Troy Rotary Club on Tuesday to update members on the expanding manufacturer.
“We’re the largest defense contractor in the world with more than 105,000 employees worldwide operating in 54 countries,” Crager said.
The company is broken into four categories: aeronautics, rotary and missions systems, space, and missiles and fire control.
Pike County’s location falls under the missiles and fire control division and Crager said the site is consistently considered one of Lockheed’s top quality locations.
The Lockheed Martin Pike County site is 3,683 acres and includes 382,000 square feet of building space currently.
“We currently have 530 employees and are headed to 57 by the end of the year,” Crager said.
Crager explained some of the types of missiles that Lockheed Martin produces including Javelin, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM), Long Range Anti-Ship missiles (LRASM), and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles.
“In 2012 we won a quality award; it was the first time a defense supplier ever won the quality award,” Crager said. “It’s something we are proud of; it speaks to the quality of our products and the confidence soldiers have in them.”
Crager showed members video of the JASSM in use, penetrating underground bunkers and precisely destroying test targets.
Crager said it is the people of Pike County that make the local site such high-quality.
“The people of Pike County are responsible for making these systems,” Crager said. “Y’all are reason the we’re successful here.”