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Lockheed Martin employment at Cape Canaveral, Florida, will grow by more than 20 percent by 2017, with the addition of 130 jobs to support the U.S. Navy’s Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile program.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced on the 15th of June the Lockheed Martin expansion in the state’s pavilion at the Paris Air Show in France. “We are thrilled to be at the Paris Air Show to announce new jobs at Lockheed Martin,” said Gov. Scott. “These 130 new jobs mean Florida families will have even more opportunity to get a great job. More than 865,000 new private-sector jobs have been added statewide in the last 4 ½ years, and we’re here in Paris to make sure aerospace and defense companies from around the world know Florida is the best state in the U.S. for job creation.” The state worked with Lockheed Martin and the local community to provide support for this expansion, which includes a grant for customized training for new employees to grow in-state expertise.
“Governor Scott, the State of Florida and the Space Coast Economic Development Commission have provided tremendous support for bringing these jobs to Brevard County,” said Mathew Joyce, vice president of Fleet Ballistic Missile programs, Lockheed Martin Space Systems. “Ramping up our operations at Cape Canaveral maintains cost effective support of the program and further improves our responsiveness to the missile testing and deployment needs of U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs.”
Lockheed Martin currently employs more than 500 people at Cape Canaveral to support the nation’s submarine-based strategic deterrent. Engineers and technicians at the Eastern Range facility at Cape Canaveral aid the Navy in missile sustainment and supporting test launches of unarmed missiles in the Atlantic Ocean. The Eastern Range is one of four principal Fleet Ballistic Missile sites in the U.S. where Lockheed Martin employees work side-by-side with Navy personnel. The other major sites are Lockheed Martin’s program office in Sunnyvale, California, and the Navy’s strategic weapons facilities in Kings Bay, Georgia, and Silverdale, Washington.
Lockheed Martin is the Navy’s prime contractor for the Trident II D5 missile, which is deployed aboard U.S. Navy Ohio-class and U.K. Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines to deter nuclear aggression. With 155 successful test flights since design completion in 1989, the D5 is the world’s most reliable large ballistic missile.
