AIRCRAFT CENTER DEDICATED NORTHROP FACILITY TO GUIDE 4 PROJECTS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - A thousand aerospace workers and Antelope Valley civic leaders gathered Wednesday to dedicate a giant aircraft assembly building as Northrop Grumman's Antelope Valley Manufacturing Center.

The former B-2 stealth bomber production plant - so big the Rose Bowl could fit inside - will become home to production and modification work for four Northrop Grumman programs: the stealth bomber, the Global Hawk spy plane, an aerial target drone and the joint strike fighter.

``In a few years it's going to be something spectacular,'' said Paul Marchisotto, vice president and B-2 program manager for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems. ``All of this will be using the same people, the same processes, the same tools. That is very special.''

The facility, known as Air Force Plant 42's Site 4, will add more than 1,000 workers by the end of the decade, up from the 1,200 working there now, said Gary Ervin, Northrop Grumman sector vice president for Air Combat Systems.

Most of the new employees will work on the joint strike fighter, of which Lockheed Martin and its partner Northrop Grumman expect to build more than 3,000 for the United States and its allies.

At the conclusion of Wednesday's ceremony, the hangar's giant doors rolled back to reveal a B-2 stealth bomber, a BQM-74E target drone and a full-size Global Hawk mock-up.

The building, where the 21 stealth bombers were built in the 1980s and 1990s, is already being used for B-2 modifications and maintenance. The unmanned Global Hawk reconnaissance planes are being produced next door in the aircraft assembly complex called Site 3, as are the jet-powered BQM-74E target drones.

When the joint strike fighter work starts up next summer, the Palmdale workers will assemble the fighters' center fuselage sections - essentially between the cockpit and the tail. The planes themselves will be put together at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, plant.

Northrop Grumman's announcement that the center fuselage work would be done in Palmdale was made last month, two months after Palmdale offered $500,000 - $2,000 a job for at least 250 jobs - as Northrop Grumman was deciding between El Segundo and Palmdale.

Employment is also expected to increase from about 30 to perhaps 200 in coming years for the high-altitude, computer-controlled Global Hawk. A handful of the planes has been built for testing and combat in Afghanistan. Production is expected to increase to 24 a year.

Antelope Valley officials welcomed Northrop Grumman's plans.

``I think it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that today's high technology comes out of Air Force Plant 42 in the state of California,'' Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said. ``It's important for us to continually push that message.''

Antelope Valley leaders, state officials and union representatives had worked for years to sell Site 4 as the perfect facility to build the joint strike fighter, noted U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita.

``While we were trying to sell the whole apple, I think we got a big chunk of that apple and we're very happy for that,'' McKeon said.

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color ran in AV edition; ran in Business and AV edition only) Employees listen to speakers at the dedication of Northrop Grumman's Antelope Valley Manufacturing Center, former home of the stealth bomber.

(2 -- 3 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) VIPs join aerospace workers who gather around a B-2 stealth bomber, left, and a mock-up of the Global Hawk during the dedication ceremony.

(4 -- color in AV and SAC -- ran in AV and SAC editions only) At left, Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford and Northrop Grumman Vice President Gary Ervin give models of a plane Wednesday to U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon as Paul Marchisotto, right, the program manager of Northrop Grumman, watches.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer