LOCKHEED WINS FIGHTER PROJECT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - To the cheers of workers in Palmdale and elsewhere, Pentagon officials announced Friday that Lockheed Martin beat Boeing Co. for the $25 billion contract to develop the joint strike fighter.

Coming after a five-year competition, the victory will mean 5,400 jobs in California - including some in the Antelope Valley and El Segundo - in what ultimately could be the most valuable military aviation program in history.

``This win signals the go-ahead for our team,'' Dain Hancock, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., said at a news conference after the announcement. ``This program will be the cornerstone of the future defense for the United States and the United Kingdom and our allies.''

The joint strike fighter was proposed in the early 1990s as a replacement for aging Air Force F-16s and A-10s, Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier and F-18 fighters, and early-model Navy F/A-18s. Four prototypes built in Palmdale finished testing this year at Edwards Air Force Base.

The fighter is planned in three different versions, making it the first aircraft to be shared by the Air Force, Navy and Marines since the F-4 Phantom.

There would be a conventional fighter for the Air Force, a version equipped for carrier landings for the Navy, and a short-takeoff, vertical- landing version for the U.S. Marines and the United Kingdom's armed forces.

All would be supersonic and stealthy.

``The joint strike fighter will be the world's premier strike platform beginning in 2008 and lasting until 2040,'' said Undersecretary of Defense Pete Aldridge.

Air Force Secretary Jim Roche announced Lockheed Martin as the winner in a Pentagon briefing scheduled after the stock markets closed for the day Friday.

The announcement was watched on television by Lockheed Martin workers at the Fort Worth, Texas, plant where the fighters will be assembled, and in Palmdale, which will have a piece of the manufacturing work.

Workers at both plants broke into cheers.

``We heard the announcement, and I don't think we heard a word after that,'' said Rick Baker, Lockheed Martin vice president and Palmdale site manager.

Antelope Valley leaders also were cheered by the announcement.

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, a former Lockheed employee himself, heard the news on the radio with a busload of Antelope Valley residents returning from a high-speed-rail hearing in Burbank.

``The whole bus was ecstatic,'' Ledford said. ``This is very positive for the Antelope Valley.''

The program is expected to generate a yearly average of about 5,400 jobs in California. Lockheed Martin anticipates about 22 percent to 25 percent of the program's work will be based in California, though exactly what will be done in Palmdale is still being determined.

The Pentagon's announcement came one week to the day that a congressional report stated the program should be delayed.

The General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, argued that critical technologies needed for the program are not mature enough to ensure the program won't be troubled by cost overruns and schedule delays.

But the Defense Acquisition Board on Wednesday reviewed the program and its technology and concluded it was ready to move to the next phase, Aldridge said.

``We have concluded the joint strike fighter is ready to enter the next phase of development,'' Aldridge said. He noted that the decision is not one to enter production, or of how many aircraft will be bought.

U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, whose district includes Lockheed Martin's Palmdale plant, said he can't predict whether the JSF will actually move into production or whether the thousands of aircraft being talked about will actually be built.

``Nobody at this point knows. At this point in this stage of the B-2, there were going be 135,'' McKeon said. ``On the other hand, things have changed since 9-11.''

Defense cutbacks after the Soviet Union's dissolution limited stealth bomber production to 21.

The JSF program's next phase, referred to as system design and development, will be a $25 billion, 126-month effort involving the construction of 14 aircraft to be flight-tested and eight others to be tested on the ground. That phase of the program will officially begin Thursday.

Lockheed Martin officials said they have not yet been briefed by the Pentagon on the reasons for their selection. However, company officials said they believe a key difference was the approaches in meeting short-takeoff, vertical-landing requirements for the Marine Corps.

Boeing opted for a variation of the direct-lift systems used by today's Harrier jets, in which a movable nozzle directs the engine exhaust downward.

Lockheed Martin opted for a different technology: a shaft-driven lift fan mounted behind the cockpit to generate cool-air vertical thrust.

Company officials said the system generates more lift and runs cooler and more efficiently. The cooler air is less dangerous to crewmen on the ground, a consideration for carrier takeoffs and landings, they say.

The production phase of the program, which will overlap the system design and development work, will begin in 2006. The U.S. and United Kingdom military services plan to buy more than 3,000 joint strike fighters.

That production work is valued at $200 billion. There is a potential for an equal number of foreign sales that would double the value of the contract.

Counting foreign sales and the need to provide maintenance and modifications for the fighters over their lifetime, the contract could ultimately be worth as much as $750 billion.

The United Kingdom is a partner in the program and wants the jets to replace its Sea Harrier and GR-7 jets. The U.K. is investing more than $2.8 billion into the development of the joint strike fighter.

Besides the Lockheed work, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems expects to have about 1,200 workers on the project in California, mostly in El Segundo.

However, the company has not yet decided whether the assembly work for the center fuselage will be done in El Segundo or Palmdale.

State and Antelope Valley officials say they are hopeful California can land more work from the program.

California's efforts to attract work from the program has been substantial. Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, was able to get legislation passed granting tax credits on wages and equipment purchases for the next phase of the program.

Antelope Valley representatives also assisted in securing funding to assist with relocating an aircraft test stand needed for the program from Northern California to Edwards Air Force Base. That test stand is now under assembly at Edwards.

``Twenty-two percent to 25 percent of the work is going to California,'' Runner said. ``To me that's a pretty healthy percentage.''

TIME LINE FOR THE JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER

1993: Anticipating the need to replace aging fighter jets used by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the Pentagon launches the Joint Advanced Strike Technology Program. The program combines several existing military jet efforts. The United Kingdom joins the program.

1994: Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman and McDonnell Douglas are awarded contracts to refine designs for a single-engine, single-seat attack aircraft fitting the needs of all the military services. Northrop Grumman and McDonnell Douglas later team up.

1996: The Pentagon awards Boeing and Lockheed Martin contracts to develop two demonstrator aircraft each. McDonnell Douglas, builder of the Air Force's top-of-the-line F-15, merges with Boeing. Lockheed Martin takes on Northrop Grumman as a partner in its joint strike fighter program.

April 1998: Lockheed Martin begins assembling the airframe for its first X-35 at its Skunk Works plant in Palmdale.

April 1999: Boeing begins final assembly of its X-32A at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale.

September 2000: Boeing beats Lockheed Martin into the air as its X-32A aircraft flies from Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base.

October 2000: Lockheed Martin's X-35A makes its first flight from Palmdale to Edwards. The aircraft is flight tested until late November and then sent back to Palmdale to be converted into the X-35B, a short-takeoff, vertical-landing aircraft.

December 2000: Lockheed Martin's X-35C makes its first flight from Palmdale to Edwards.

March 2001: Boeing's X-32B makes first flight from Palmdale to Edwards.

July 2001: Both competitors report they have met all of the government's flight test program requirements. Both teams continue to fly to get as much extra information in as possible before the government deadline to submit their JSF proposals.

August 2001: Both teams submit their proposals and flight test data to the government.

October 2001: The Pentagon, in consultation with the United Kingdom, selects Lockheed Martin to move into the next phase of engineering and manufacturing development in preparation for production.

CONTRACT HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights of the Pentagon's joint strike fighter contract:

--Competitors: Boeing Co., headquarters in Chicago, program management based in Seattle; Lockheed Martin Corp., headquarters in Bethesda, Md., aeronautics division based in Fort Worth, Texas.

--Jet: A fighter plane that will serve the Air Force, Marines and Navy, tailored to meet each service's needs. All versions will have stealth technology and fly at supersonic speeds. The Marine's version will be capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings.

--Cost per plane: $28 million to $30 million.

--Delivery date: 2008 for 14 planes.

CAPTION(S):

4 boxes

Box:

(1 -- ran in Valley edition only) ONE JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER, THREE CONFIGURATIONS

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin Corp.

Associated Press 

(2) TIME LINE FOR THE JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER (see text)

(3) CONTRACT HIGHLIGHTS (see text)

(4) THE NEXT GENERATION'S FIGHTER

SOURCES: Lockheed Martin; Federation of American Scientists; Jane's; White House; Aviation Week & Space Technology; Combat Aircraft journal

Associated Press