Lockheed Forms Venture for Nuclear Disarmament
Lockheed Corp. and two other companies that helped supply the Defense Department with nuclear missiles during the decades-long arms race have formed a joint venture company that aims to become the leader in the race for contracts to dismantle many American and Soviet-built nuclear weapons.
Lockheed, which has manufactured ballistic missiles, and its partners--explosives producer Olin Corp. and nuclear component builder Babcock & Wilcox--on Thursday announced the formation of International Disarmament Corp. A group of executives and technicians from all three companies on Friday were developing start-up plans for that new Washington-based company, which hopes to beat nuclear swords into plowshares for peace and profit.
Creation of the new venture comes as President Bush meets today with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin. The two presidents are expected to discuss proposals for sweeping reductions in their nuclear arsenals, especially long-range multiple-warhead missiles. One Bush proposal would eliminate 2,000 U.S. warheads and 5,000 Soviet-built warheads now controlled by the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The planners of International Disarmament are being directed by Troy Wade, who, as president and chief executive of the new firm, will report to a board made up of representatives from the three parent companies. Lockheed, an aerospace firm and leading defense contractor, is headquartered in Calabasas. Olin is based in Stamford, Conn., and Babcock & Wilcox is a subsidiary of McDermott International Inc. of New Orleans.
Wade was assistant secretary for defense programs at the Department of Energy when he retired from the agency 1989. He said the new venture will eventually hire its own work force but would rely on about 25 planners from the three-company alliance for now.
Wade, who heads a Lockheed company that cleans up radioactive soil, said the three companies began to talk about forming a venture last November, after Congress approved $400 million to help the Commonwealth states cover costs associated with any dismantling of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. He said the new company on Thursday submitted a proposal to the Defense Department describing how International Disarmament could handle the first phase of nuclear demilitarization in the former Soviet republics--primarily identifying the number of warheads and the Commonwealth officials who can help disarm that arsenal.
The company submitted an unsolicited proposal to get an edge on possible competitors. The new firm could be challenged by Mason & Hanger, a Lexington, Ky., firm that now dismantles old nuclear weapons at an Energy Department facility in Amarillo, Tex. Also, some British and Japanese firms are expected to bid for contracts to dismantle Soviet-built nuclear missiles.
Commenting on his firm’s proposal, Wade said: “Anyone can say that they are capable of dealing with a particular problem. It’s quite a different matter to describe how you would deal with that problem.”
However, Wade said the company had not proposed exactly how or where weapons would be dismantled because the Commonwealth states have not developed final plans for such disarmament measures. Still, Wade--in an interview Friday--bubbled with enthusiasm about the commercial prospects.
“There’s a lot of interest in this kind of business partly because Congress is making dollars available for this kind of work,” he said. “We believe that this consortium is unique, big enough, capable and flexible.”
