Lockheed says confident GE fire in UK will not affect C-130J output

WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - General Electric Co's quick response to a devastating Feb. 5 fire at its UK propeller facility may avert any impact to production of Lockheed Martin Corp's C-130J production line, a top Lockheed executive said Wednesday.

Orlando Carvalho, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, said the two companies were in close touch about the impact of the fire at GE's Dowty Propellers facility in Staverton in the United Kingdom.

"Thanks to all the work that General Electric has been doing, we're feeling more and more confident that in the end we will not have an impact to production," Carvalho told Reuters in an interview during the company's annual media day.

Fire response crews said 80 percent of the factory building was severely damaged in the blaze. GE officials have said they are investing heavily to resume work at the facility and mitigate any impact on key programs.

Carvalho said Lockheed was still negotiating a long-awaited multiyear procurement contract with the U.S. Air Force for the C-130J program, and expected to finalize a deal this year.

"We're converging. It's just the normal negotiation process," he said.

He said the discussions were taking longer than he had expected given the size of the proposed order, but no major issues had come up.

Lockheed built 24 C-130J turboprop airplanes in 2014 and expects to build the same number in 2015, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Tanner told analysts during a January call. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)