WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) expects to sell hundreds of additional C-130J transport planes over the next 5 to 10 years, possibly doubling its current production rate of one aircraft a month, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday.
"We're building one airplane a month and our goal is to maybe double that," Lockheed Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Stevens told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington.
He said the company expected to sell "hundreds domestically and hopefully hundreds internationally" in coming years.
Stevens said the workhouse plane, which has been continuously built for 55 years, was probably the longest-running U.S. military aircraft production program and had proven to be a very popular and effective military plane.
He said there were about 2,500 C-130 transport planes in service and many would have to be replaced in the next years.
The U.S. government and U.S. lawmakers had already earmarked some funding for additional purchases, Canada had placed an order and several Middle Eastern countries were also interested, Stevens said.
"We're watching just a great level of interest in the airplane," Stevens said, noting that turboprop airplanes like C-130s were used for a huge array of purposes, including hurricane hunting, humanitarian relief, military uses and even fighting fires.
He lauded the performance of the aircraft and said production was going well. "The costs of the C-130 have actually gone down while its performance has gone up," he said.
Affordability would be a critical factor for U.S. defense companies in coming years, given mounting budget pressures, the global economic crisis, and widespread expectations of a slowdown in the strong rate of growth that has characterized defense spending over the past seven years, Stevens said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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