Boston, MA 11/05/2013 (wallstreetpr) – The aerospace and defence major Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) is tracked by S&P 500 index and has a market cap of $43 million. Over the weekend the executives of the military equipment manufacturer would have had a wild scare after getting to hear about a notice posted by the navy indicating the likely purchase of close to 36 aircraft manufactured by Lockheed’s competitor Boeing.
The notice identified to be ordered for planes as EA 18 G attack-planes and F/A 18 aircraft.
Later navy put out a statement indicating that there was no such planned purchase and the posting was a clerical error caused due to information that was discussed during the ‘pre-decisional and internal budget discussions’ making it to the public domain by mistake.
The advert or notice would have created a big flutter among the Lockheed executives because it is widely known that Navy has made a decision in principal to switch to purchasing Lockheed’s F-35 aircraft going forward. A clarification statement put out by the navy top brass, intended to clear the air has been quoted as indicating that, no more F/A-18s were to be purchased for the year 2015. In fact, the production of these planes is expected to be stopped by as early as 2016.
According to Reuter report, a Navy official is believed to have commented that, no such program was assigned nor a budget proposed for induction of more fliers for this year.
Commentators have opined that the faulty posting of the information on a federal procurement website gives a peek into the various pulls and undercurrents which impact the armed forces decision to pitch for the $392 billion deal to modernize its air wings.
Analysts also fear that these developments can be linked to the one up man ship between the different wings of the armed forces since the U.S. Marine Corps were supposed to induct F-35 into their squadrons followed by the air force in 2015. Navy as per the plan was the last on the list to start inducting F-35 into service.
