MORE PRODUCTION FOR SKUNK WORKS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works will pick up more work on the F-22 fighter now under production in Georgia and is in line to do work on the joint strike fighter if Lockheed Martin wins that contract in three years, company officials said Monday.

The Palmdale F-22 work force will start off with 40 employees and grow to 220-plus jobs at the peak of production. No job figures were available for the JSF work.

``This decision is much more important than just more F-22 work,'' Paul Martin, Skunk Works executive vice president, said in an announcement to employees in the company newsletter. ``This means the Skunk Works will build the edges for the Joint Strike Fighter and other aircraft. The JSF fighter program involves almost 10 times the number of aircraft as the F-22 program, which will give the Skunk Works much more production base extending well into the 21st century.''

To accommodate the production work, the Skunk Works plans to add 140,000 square feet of floor space at its Plant 10. The work will be done in two phases, the first to be completed in 2001 and the second to be completed in 2003.

For the F-22 Raptor, the Skunk Works employees will fabricate flight control surfaces -- the rudders, the wing fixed leading edge, the leading edge flap and the wing tip. The company will serve as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, which is assembling the F-22 in Georgia.

Skunk Works already is doing some work on the F-22 program, including the ailerons, vertical tail trailing edge and the aft boom trailing edge.

The F-22 production contract will begin July 1, 1999, with an initial production rate of four ``shipsets'' per year growing to 36 per year in 2004. A total of 339 F-22 aircraft are planned to be produced through 2013.

Skunk Works officials attributed their selection for the work to internal efforts to reduce their costs. The company launched an initiative called Lean Enterprise to lower their quotes on components they produce.

``It's a matter of cutting our waste and doing things more rapidly,'' said Skunk Works spokesman Ron Lindeke.

Lockheed Martin is competing with Boeing for the production for the JSF program, which is expected to total more than 3,000 aircraft. A winner will be selected in 2001.

The joint strike fighter would replace the Air Force F-16, the Navy FA-18 and the Marine Corps vertical-takeoff AV-8B Harrier. The F-22 succeeds the Air Force F-15.

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.

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PHOTO (Color) Lockheed Martin Skunk Works will fabricate flight control surfaces for the F-22.