Lockheed Martin Awarded Bonuses Based on Race, According to Report

If the U.S. is going to maintain its military edge in the 21st century it can’t rely on defense contractors that prioritize DEI over building the best warfighting tools.

A report recently released by conservative journalist Christopher Rufo and co-author Ryan Thorpe alleges that defense contractor Lockheed Martin’s executives “were so committed to DEI policies that they awarded some year-end bonuses based on employees’ skin color, rather than performance—in open violation of civil rights law.”

“As we have previously reported, after the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Lockheed adopted radical DEI policies and, in one instance, required white men in leadership positions to attend a racial reeducation program and atone for their ‘white male privilege,’” Rufo and Thorpe wrote.

This is in reference to Rufo’s reporting from 2021 where he highlighted how Lockheed Martin was hosting conferences for executives to deconstruct their “white male privilege” and generally doing all in their power not to miss out on all the absurdities of the Great Awokening.

It wasn’t just conferences and internal corporate indoctrination according to Rufo and Thorpe’s reporting. They wrote that in December 2022 a person who worked for Lockheed Martin was preparing the “aeronautics division’s year-end bonuses.”

The whistleblower, who chose to remain anonymous, said that after all the work had been done to calculate the awards, higher ups at the company insisted the list “had too many white employees on it.” The whistleblower got an email insisting the list be changed.

Santiago Bulnes, a vice president who now leads engineering on Lockheed’s F-35 program, wrote an email to the whistleblower. “I got a call from [human resources director] La Wanda [Moorer] last night regarding diversity stats on comp adder,” Bulnes, who did not respond to a request for comment, said. “They took a run at getting your few approved and we’re told that we need to fit in the box. I asked her to send you the list of diversity names to simplify the task of finding the best in the group.”

Lockheed Martin put out a statement in response to Rufo’s story under the title “Past Compensation Practices.”

“Lockheed Martin is a meritocracy,” the statement read. “We are committed to recognizing performance, rewarding excellence, and upholding the principles of merit and fairness. We have and will take all necessary actions to protect that core tenet of our company culture.”

The statement noted that the company has taken measures to ensure they are in “full alignment with the President’s recent executive orders.”

In addition, Lockheed Martin’s statement said the company is taking the allegations seriously and investigating the payment matter.

“In the event that we determine there was any wrongdoing, we intend to appropriately compensate any employees who were adversely affected and will take decisive action to address any misconduct,” the statement concluded. “We appreciate President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, have moved swiftly to support his actions on this issue and are partnering with him to defend our nation and deter our adversaries.”

The Daily Signal requested a comment from Lockheed Martin and they pointed to their press release.

It certainly is important that Lockheed Martin get to the bottom of what happened. There have been warning signs for years that the company was placing increasing emphasis on woke nonsense rather than on simply providing the best equipment to the U.S. armed services.

The Daily Signal reported in 2023 that Lockheed Martin prominently displayed a transgender flag in the lobby of their headquarters.

“When you plant a flag, you send a message,” an anonymous Lockheed Martin employee told The Daily Signal at the time. “To have this representation in the lobby of our corporate headquarters suggests we’ve chosen a point of view on a socially divisive issue that is nowhere near settled.”

Given the recent, remarkable airstrike on Iranian nuclear facilities aided by F-35s, Rufo and Thorpe’s report should be concerning to all Americans. The production of these rather expensive and complicated machines of war that provide the backbone of U.S. air superiority should be in the hands of the best and brightest.

With all due respect to Elon Musk, who has stated that drones are the future of warfare, Saturday’s airstrike suggests that the age of highly advanced manned aircraft isn’t over just yet. The American people paid a hefty price tag to ensure that our country has the best defense in the world.

Lockheed Martin at least seems to understand that a major vibe shift has taken place in America. Discrimination will no longer be tolerated. Not only does it interfere with America being all that it can be, but it’s also—in many cases—against the law.

Hopefully Lockheed gets back to doing what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has pounded the table for since before he took the post. Drop the DEI. Get back to excellence and warfighting.

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