{"id":30731,"date":"2017-03-02T11:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=30731"},"modified":"2017-03-02T12:00:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T01:00:05","slug":"strategist-six-marillyn-hewson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/strategist-six-marillyn-hewson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strategist Six: Marillyn Hewson"},"content":{"rendered":"
Marillyn\u00a0A.\u00a0Hewson\u00a0is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation.<\/em><\/p>\n Welcome to <\/em>The Strategist Six, a feature that provides a glimpse into the thinking of prominent academics, analysts, government officials, military officers, reporters and interesting individuals from around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n 1. You recently gave a personal commitment to President Trump to drive the cost of the F-35 down. How will Lockheed Martin achieve that?<\/strong><\/p>\n President Trump is going to spend a lot of money on defence. The F-35 is the largest project in the Department of Defense, so his attention was appropriate. He really did accelerate the negotiation for the most current batch of F-35\u2019s and sharpened our focus on making sure we were driving the cost down. So we were able to get a negotiation done in very short order with the US government. From February we settled on Lot 10 (LRIP 10<\/a>) which is the next batch of aircraft (90) and we brought the price down significantly for those aircraft\u2014about 8% for the air vehicle which is Lockheed Martin\u2019s responsibility. Last year we produced 46 aircraft; this year we are going to do 66 and then continue to ramp up. Some of the cost reduction we achieve through volume and through the learning-curve process. But we also focused on improvements in the manufacturing process and the materials we use. So those are some of the ways we are driving the cost down.<\/p>\n 2. Will Lockheed Martin\u2019s cost review have an impact on the price that Australia will pay for its F-35s? What do you estimate will be the average fly-away cost of Australia\u2019s F-35s?<\/strong><\/p>\n The most recent lot we negotiated (LRIP 10) come in at US$94.6 million per aircraft (AU$123 million) for the F-35A and that\u2019s the version Australia is purchasing. Australia will get the benefit of that cost reduction and I think there are eight aircraft in that lot that are Australian aircraft. And then we are going to continue to ramp up that program and drive that cost down. In fact we are focused on a US$80\u201385 million per aircraft by 2020. When we drive the price of that aircraft down that savings benefit also comes to the Australian government.<\/p>\n 3. There\u2019s still plenty of debate about the all-round capabilities of the F-35 and talk of the \u2018Advanced Super Hornet\u2019 as a competitive alternative to the aircraft. How confident are you that the F-35 will maintain a clear technological and performance edge over any potential rivals in the market place?<\/strong><\/p>\n As of today it is the world\u2019s most technologically advanced fighter\u2014unmatched in terms of its capability whether it\u2019s stealth, speed, flexibility and integrated sensor fusion. How will we keep it that way? We will continue to upgrade it over time just as we have done with other aircraft that we have produced. We will continue to upgrade the software as the threats change and keep it on the leading edge.<\/p>\n 4. Lockheed Martin now has a much broader footprint in Australia across its key business sectors and you have recently established the STELaRLab, a multidisciplinary R&D facility in Melbourne. How important is Australia in the context of the organisation\u2019s global strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n