F-16C

THE F-16 PRODUCTION LINE’S SHIFT FROM FORT WORTH TO GREENVILLE MARKS THE END OF AN ERA

By Dario Leone
Mar 25 2017
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“As part of our effort to make room for the F-35 production here in Fort Worth, the F-16 production line must be relocated,” Ken Ross, Lockheed Martin spokesman

As reported by Star-Telegram, Lockheed Martin has decided to move the F-16 production line from Forth Worth, to Greenville, South Carolina at the end of the year.

Company spokesman Ken Ross said this will free up more space for the F-35 line.

In fact even if the Viper has been a mainstay of Lockheed Martin’s mile-long production line, the Fort Worth plant now needs more room as the F-35 Lightning II production ramps up, he explained. Currently, 8,800 employees work on the F-35 and about 200 work on the F-16, with the latter who are expected to transition to work on the F-35.

“As part of our effort to make room for the F-35 production here in Fort Worth, the F-16 production line must be relocated,” Ross said.

Until now more than 4,500 F-16s have been delivered, of which 3,600 have been built in Fort Worth. As Ross explained, since the company hasn’t booked any orders for new F-16s beyond those for Iraq, it would take about two years to start it back up in South Carolina once a new order is received.

The first and more important reason to migrate the F-16 production line to South Carolina is that Lockheed Martin expects to hire an additional 1,800 employees through 2020 as work on the F-35 stealth fighter hits full production. A claim confirmed by the fact that the company built about 50 F-35s in 2016 and expects to build up to 160 a year by 2019.

“The space we use for the F-16 will be consumed by the F-35,” Ross pointed out.

Moreover, the Greenville plant is where the new T-50A trainer will be built if it wins the U.S. Air Force T-X competition, and given that the T-50A is a sort of F-16 “spinoff,” the economics of having the two lines together makes sense, Ross said.

Currently Lockheed Martin continues to pitch building the F-16 in India. The company in fact thinks that the F-16 is the perfect aircraft to meet the country requirement for a new single-engine fighter to modernize its aging military fleet of about 650 planes.

Lockheed Martin is also trying to sell more F-16s to U.S. allies.

“We have a lot of pursuits ongoing but no new orders yet,” Ross said.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a compact, multi-role fighter aircraft. It is highly maneuverable and has proven itself in air-to-air combat and air-to-surface attack. It provides a relatively low-cost, high-performance weapon system for the United States and allied nations.

In an air combat role, the F-16 can locate targets in all weather conditions and detect low flying aircraft in radar ground clutter. In an air-to-surface role the aircraft is able to accurately deliver ordnance, defend itself against enemy aircraft, and return to its starting point.

Source: U.S. Air Force; Photo credit: Senior Airman Jake Carter and Airman 1st Class Preston Cherry / U.S. Air Force

Artwork courtesy of AircraftProfilePrints.com


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Dario Leone

Dario Leone

Dario Leone is an aviation, defense and military writer. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviation Geek Club” one of the world’s most read military aviation blogs. His writing has appeared in The National Interest and other news media. He has reported from Europe and flown Super Puma and Cougar helicopters with the Swiss Air Force.

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