`SKUNK WORKS' GETS SHARE OF CONTRACT : 700 WILL BE HIRED TO BUILD JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER PROTOTYPE.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

Lockheed Martin officials said they plan to employ 900 workers in Palmdale by March 1998 after being selected as one of two companies that will build prototypes for a new joint strike fighter.

The Pentagon plans to buy 2,978 joint strike fighters between 2005 and 2030, two-thirds of them for the Air Force, the rest for the Navy and the Marines. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost at $219 billion.

``We're very happy to be selected as one of the companies to build the prototypes,'' said Ron Lindeke, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin ``Skunk Works.'' ``It's very good for the Antelope Valley.''

Pentagon officials made the announcement Saturday that Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and Boeing had beat out McDonnell Douglas as the two finalists to build the multiservice aircraft.

The two manufacturers have until approximately the year 2000 to build prototypes for the Defense Department, which then will select one of the companies to build the fighters for purchase between 2005 and 2030.

Lockheed officials said if their company is selected, the fighters likely would be assembled in Fort Worth, Texas.

For the prototype project, Lockheed Martin officials expect to have 800 to 900 people working in the Antelope Valley by early 1998. Officials said they expect to make 700 new hires and to bring the remainder from Lockheed Martin's Ontario facility.

``All of them won't be new,'' said Lindeke. ``Some will be transfers.''

Two-thirds of the 2,978 fighter aircraft will be used by the Air Force. The Navy, Marine Corps and British Royal Navy will acquire the rest.

``This is very exciting for our nation,'' John Dalton, secretary of the Navy said in a written statement. ``Not only (is it) the most advanced fighter ever but the most cost-efficient military hardware in history.''

Working under the initial $1.1 billion contract awarded Saturday, Lockheed Martin officials expect to have the first prototype rolled out of the Palmdale facility by May 1998 with its first flight scheduled for March 2000 from Edwards Air Force Base.

``Our schedule is ambitious,'' Skunk Works President Jack Gordon said in a news release. ``But this is precisely the type of work that has earned the Skunk Works its world-renowned reputation for rapid prototyping.''

Gordon attributed Lockheed Martin's success to its early role in building a nearly full-size Short Takeoff/Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft model in Palmdale in 1994-95.

The model's shaft-driven, lift-fan system - an innovative, convertible propulsion concept patented by the Skunk Works - was put in operation for 200 hours, proving the system's feasibility and mechanical integrity.

According to Paul Kaminski, undersecretary for Acquisition and Technology with the Department of Defense, the joint strike fighter aircraft will come in three designs that will use common, high cost components including engines and avionics.

``The idea here is really building different structures out of a common family of building blocks,'' said Kaminski. ``Rather than force-fitting a common aircraft, the joint strike fighter concept here is to build three highly common aircraft variants on the same production line using flexible manufacturing technology.''

If all goes as scheduled, the military will get a single-engine fighter that can fly faster than the speed of sound, evade enemy radar, land on the deck of a carrier, or, in the case of the Marine Corps variant, perform a vertical landing like a helicopter.

The planes will replace the Air Force F-16 and A-10, Marine Corps AV-8B and the Navy FA-18C and FA-18D, among other planes.

McDonnell Douglas, which derives more than 55 percent of its revenue from the defense business, was the loser Saturday.

The St. Louis-based company also lost its last big competition to build a fighter jet, the F-22, to Lockheed Martin, and officials were hoping to win the $219 billion joint strike fighter project to bolster the company's long-term financial future.

But industry analysts say McDonnell Douglas is not necessarily out of the program altogether, since Lockheed Martin and Boeing could invite their failed competitor to join in their efforts.

While critics say Seattle-based Boeing Co. has done little defense contracting since 1930, Defense Department officials found the company on-target and confident.

``The Boeing team, I think, brought a very innovative design approach,'' said Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, Pentagon program director for the joint strike fighter. ``We saw within the Boeing process and within the Boeing product that was delivered confidence that they could indeed provide all of the services we needed to meet our operational requirements.''

In recent years, Boeing, touted as the world's largest builder of commercial aircraft, has done work on the B-2, is building wings for the F-22 fighter, and most recently won a $1.1 billion contract to develop a laser defense system that could operate from a 747 jet.

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Photo: Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. will make prototypes for the joint strike fighter, the nation's premier military weapons project.

Lockheed Martin