2 X-32S WILL BE MADE LOCALLY; A.V. WILL GAIN 200 WORKERS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

Boeing announced Thursday its two prototypes for the next major U.S. fighter program will be assembled in Palmdale, bringing 200 jobs to the Antelope Valley.

Calling U.S. Air Force Plant 42 ``one of the world's premier experimental test flight facilities,'' a Boeing spokesman said assembling the joint strike fighter prototypes there will save money and provide a proper place to check them out before their first flight to Edwards Air Force Base.

``Conducting assembly and first flight from Palmdale is simply the correct decision,'' Boeing vice president Frank Statkus said in the company's announcement. ``The Palmdale location provides a test environment that's entirely compatible with ground-testing these aircraft.''

Seattle-based Boeing Co. is vying with Maryland-based Lockheed Martin in the competition to build 3,000 aircraft for the Pentagon - at an cost estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars - and for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. There is also a potential for sales to other U.S. allies.

The winner is to be selected in 2001, and the first aircraft is to enter service in 2008.

The joint strike fighter is expected to fill a wide range of combat roles and provide the 21st century replacement for a number of fighters.

While the F-22 fighter Lockheed Martin is building in Georgia will succeed the Air Force F-15 Eagle, the joint strike fighter would replace the Air Force F-16, the Navy FA-18 and the Marine Corps vertical-takeoff AV-8B Harrier.

Lockheed Martin ``Skunk Works'' is building its two joint strike fighter prototypes in Palmdale, but its parent corporation is looking to base its production line in Fort Worth, Texas, where the company now builds F-16 fighters.

Boeing says no decisions have been made on where to build production planes if it wins the competition, and spokesman Terrance Scott said there are no plans to hire new employees in Palmdale for the prototype work.

Boeing employees from Seattle, Seal Beach, St. Louis, Downey, Edwards and the B-1B operations in Palmdale will be transferred to the joint strike fighter work, which will go on at the U.S. Air Force Plant 42 facility already housing space shuttle work.

``These are not new hires,'' Scott said.

Boeing initially indicated it would conduct its final assembly of the new fighter in Seattle. However, the company began looking at Palmdale after its acquisitions of Rockwell's North American aircraft division and McDonnell Douglas.

Boeing said the fuselage, wing and tail assemblies for the X-32 prototypes will be bolted together in Palmdale, and taxi tests will be performed on the Plant 42 runways. The jets will go through tests to demonstrate their air worthiness at Edwards, then fly to the Navy's flight test center at Patuxent River, Md.

Boeing expects to roll out the first of its two prototypes in late 1999 and fly it in spring 2000, Scott said.