Defense giant Lockheed Martin just reported a rare — and yuge — quarterly loss of $1.6 billion, but CEO James D. Taiclet sounded unfazed, thanks to a "magical" classified aeronautics program he claims will create a "game-changing capability for our joint U.S. and international customers."
Is it a bird? A plane? Superman?
Before we get to the speculation — and there is some juicy stuff — a quick look at how the company lost so much money on something that Taiclet said Lockheed "probably won't be able to talk about what that is for many years to come."
Lockheed launched Program X with the Pentagon in 2018 during the Trump 45 administration on a fixed-price basis. That strikes me as a bit odd (albeit awesome for taxpayers) because exotic weapons systems that require developing bleeding-edge technologies are usually done on a cost-plus basis. That's just because you can't price something when half the parts haven't even been invented yet.
So Lockheed signed on to a fixed-price contract just a couple of years before Bidenflation knocked 25% off the value of the dollar. "But I can assure you," Taiclet said of Project X, "that it's going to be in high demand for a very long time, well beyond the fixed price commitments."
What might generate so much revenue, not just from the Pentagon, but from our allies around the world? I did a little poking around on Reddit and other forums where nerds like to geek out and found some fascinating possibilities.
Lockheed lost the contest to produce the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) stealth fighter — now known as the F-47 — to rival Boeing. So there's been some speculation that Project X is a carrier-based version of Lockheed's NGAD for the Navy. But Lockheed denies this.
There's also the long-rumored Hypersonic Reconnaissance Aircraft to replace the long-retired SR-71 spy plane. But those are top-secret, highly specialized aircraft that would be unlikely to generate foreign sales, even if Congress decided to allow it. (Congress refused permission to sell the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter overseas to help keep its secrets.) I seriously doubt Project X is an SR-72.
Here's where the possibilities get weirder — or should I say, "magical?"
There are X threads devoted to the possibility that Lockheed is reverse-engineering alien propulsion technology recovered from UFOs. That's so far out there, I just don't know what to say.
Project X is also rumored to be a spaceplane or a hybrid orbital bomber/recon craft. Imagine an Air Force global strike plane capable of taking off like a plane from the U.S. — say, Whiteman AFB in Missouri, where the B-2 makes its home — reach orbital velocity, arrive most anywhere in the world in 90 minutes or less, and either snoop around or bomb the bejeebus out of somebody with virtually zero warning.
Fascinating? Oh, yes. And while there's certainly something like that in development by Lockheed or Boeing for American use, global strike isn't something our overseas allies need. Local strike is good enough when your country is right next door to the action.
The most likely possibility is some kind of AI-driven unmanned aircraft, cheap and smart enough to buy in bulk and fly in swarms — and so effective that every air force general from Paris to Warsaw to Tokyo will break down Lockheed's door to place their orders. To be effective, Project X UAVs would have to be jam-proof, which means the brains have to fly with the bots. Imagine shrinking a massive server farm down to something small enough to fit and operate inside a small drone, or perhaps inside a somewhat larger drone mothership.
That would be some bleeding-edge tech, and likely worth every penny — assuming Lockheed can make it work.
Whatever Lockheed's "magical" program turns out to be, Taiclet said "it is critical that it be successfully fielded." By that, I assume he means not only to his company's bottom line, but also to the defense of the West.
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