Sikorsky parent company Lockheed Martin today confirmed its plan to begin eliminating hundreds of jobs.

Lockheed Martin announced plans in January to eliminate 800 jobs in its rotary and mission systems division but did not state how many Stratford-based Sikorsky jobs could be cut.

Sikorsky currently has more than 40 openings in Connecticut for different positions.

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson released a statement today, saying in part, "to remain cost competitive and address lower rotary-wing production volumes, Lockheed Martin made the difficult decision to reduce a limited number of positions. We intend to retain as many as possible who can fill our open business-critical positions in our Rotary and Mission Systems business segment and across Lockheed Martin and will continue to hire for roles that are required to support our customers’ urgent national security missions."

Sikorsky recently lost a $7.1 billion bid on a government contract to build aircraft to replace the Black Hawk helicopter