(Photo credit should read DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images)
ATLANTA (AP/WAOK) - Officials say aerospace firm Lockheed Martin is cutting 550 jobs at its metro Atlanta plant as production of its C-130 aircraft slows.
Officials say the move was announced Wednesday but is already under way.
Lockheed spokesman Peter Simmons said the cuts at the Marietta plant were needed because production of the latest version of the plane, the C-130J, has plunged by one-third from 2011 to 2013.
Simmons says the company will use retirements and attrition to account for some of the job cuts, with the rest accomplished through layoffs.
Workers at the Marietta plant produced 36 C-130Js in 2011 to meet the U.S. government’s demand, but that number dropped to 32 this year and is set to fall to 24 per year starting in 2013.
