Lockheed further details supply chain aid effort

Lockheed Martin has sped up $156 million in supply chain payments over three weeks and now expects that number to almost triple with the Defense Department’s new progress payment policy in place.

Those accelerated payments are part of the company’s work with DOD to aid parts of the defense industrial base affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Lockheed Chairman and CEO Marillyn Hewson said in a statement Thursday.

With that policy change, Hewson said Lockheed now expects it can flow down more than $450 million in accelerated payments to supply chain partners.

Bethesda-based Lockheed is also now collaborating with the Health and Human Services Department to provide air transportation of government medical teams to critical, high-priority locations in the U.S.

“We offered our corporate jet fleet as an in-kind donation to the federal government's COVID-19 relief efforts,” Hewson said.

Lockheed has allocated $6 million of the $10 million in charitable contributions it has pledged for COVID-19 relief with $2 million for each recipient to date that includes Project HOPE, the American Red Cross and the CDC Foundation All of Us: Combat Coronavirus emergency response fund.

Project HOPE is delivering personal protective equipment to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to distribute to health care workers and first responders.