By John Hofheimer
Leader senior staff writer
Ten long-term Lockheed Martin employees who have helped run and maintain the flight simulators and classes at Little Rock Air Force Base’s C-130 schoolhouse are out of a job as of the last day of the year, along with another 13 temporary hires, a Lockheed spokesman said Thursday.
While that’s bad news for 23 area residents and their families at Christmastime, it’s fewer layoffs than scuttlebutt—and the original plan—called for, according to Ken Ross, Lockheed Martin Global Training and Logistics spokesman.
The program in question is the C-130 Aircrew Training System (ATS) II for older C-130s, according to Ross.
Lockheed had planned to lay off as many as 43 long-term employees, but the Air Force made changes in the contract Lockheed won in November.
“The Department of Defense is looking for ways to be more affordable,” Ross said. “How do we make sure we are providing the best service? How do we take the best care of our employees?
“Unfortunately, 10 are being laid off. If there are further changes, that could go back up. They have incredible talent, but if we don’t have work for them....
“A month ago, shortly after getting the ($270 million, eight-year optional) contract, we notified 43 people of the possibility of layoff,” Ross said.
Since then, the government has identified “other pieces of work” it wanted done within the program, meaning that at least 20 of those long-term employees will keep their jobs.
Lockheed Martin, with its Canadian subcontractor CAE, won the “re-compete” contract about a month ago, but the contract called for “some changes in the scope of work,” and required fewer than the 180 people servicing the simulator training contract until now, Ross said.
The contract calls for Lockheed Martin to maintain the simulators and update the courseware as pilots return for retraining on updated aircraft.
According to a Lockheed Martin’s website, the C-130 ATS program provides “an effective and comprehensive academic and simulation-training program for C-130 weapons-system aircrews and maintenance personnel.”
The schoolhouse at LRAFB is the Pentagon’s C-130 training center for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
Graduates are mission-qualified and can then report to operational units in the Air Mobility Command and Air Combat Command.
Lockheed Martin provides instruction in ground-based academic and simulator lessons with roughly 150 skilled instructors.
The average number of students trained is close to 12,000 students annually.
Training includes all crew positions, refresher courses, cockpit-resource management (initial and recurring), instrument refresher courses and the instructor-preparatory course.
A full training system support center supports operations and maintenance, research and development engineering tasks.
The C-130 ATS contract also includes a security program, an environmental health and safety program, a scheduling office, student-publications library and learning center operations.
