Lockheed Martin’s board of directors made Orlando Carvalho executive vice president of the company’s Aeronautics business area and Lorraine Martin vice president and general manager of the F-35 strike fighter program, effective immediately, announced the company. The changes come as the result of the pending departure of Larry Lawson, who’s led Aeronautics since last April, from Lockheed Martin. He is moving on to become president and chief executive officer of Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan., effective April 6, according to a March 19 release at the company’s website. “I’d like to thank Larry for the many contributions he’s made to our success in his 26 years of dedicated service,” said Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin’s CEO and president, in Lockheed Martin’s March 18 release. For the past year, Carvalho led the F-35 program and Martin was his deputy. Lockheed Martin officials told the Daily Report that the Aeronautics leadership change wasn’t the result of US government dissatisfaction with the F-35 or any other program’s progress, nor personality clashes with new corporate leadership, but simply the result of Lawson’s move. Spirit AeroSystems manufactures commercial aircraft structures and does overhaul and maintenance work. The company was formed when Boeing sold its Wichita division. Bob Johnson, Spirit AeroSystems’ board chairman, said Lawson “met all of the board’s criteria” for “a CEO armed with a strong record of operating and financial performance on both mature and new aircraft programs, with the ability to take Spirit to a new level.” Lawson will succeed Jeff Turner, who has led the company since its founding in 2005.
Collaborative Combat Aircraft designs from Anduril and General Atomics passed their critical design reviews early in November, clearing the way for detailed production efforts to get underway, the Air Force said. How future versions will be upgraded is still under discussion.