Lockheed to Lay Off 2,750 by June 30

Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co., citing completion of several military aircraft production programs and the need to cut costs, said today that it will lay off 2,750 of its 22,900 employees by the end of June. The layoffs will include about 2,000 employees in Southern California.

Ken Cannestra, president of Lockheed Aeronautical Systems, said the company is in the process of notifying the affected employees.

Spokesman James Ragsdale said about 1,700 will be laid off at the headquarters plant in Burbank, about 750 at its plant in Marietta, Ga., about 200 at Palmdale and 100 at Santa Clarita.

Lockheed said it has completed the C-5B transport and TR-1 reconnaissance aircraft contracts for the U.S. Air Force, and is approaching the end of two other contracts, the P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and F-117A Stealth fighter.

“It is unlikely we will have any large new military aircraft production project that will begin before the mid-1990s,” Cannestra, said.

Lockheed, the nation’s sixth-biggest military contractor, saw its profits fall from $624 million in 1988 to just $2 million last year. One big reason was that the company underestimated by hundreds of millions of dollars the costs of developing a new warplane, the P-7, a replacement for the P-3.

As of April 1, Lockheed’s aeronautical division had 10,124 workers in Georgia and 12,752 in Southern California. Employment in the division peaked in mid-1988. About 9,000 workers had already been laid off.

The job cuts, which had been expected, were the second big round of aerospace layoffs this week to hit the region. McDonnell Douglas Corp. said Wednesday that it will eliminate 3,000 jobs at its Long Beach-based Douglas Aircraft unit this summer to reduce the costs of jet aircraft production at the money-losing division.

In its first-quarter report last week, St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas said the quarterly operating loss at Douglas was $84 million.

In yet another indication of hard times for the defense industry, General Electric Co. said today it will eliminate about 4,200 jobs over the next two years at GE Aerospace locations in New York and New Jersey.