PALMDALE TO GET 250 JOBS JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER PART TO BE ASSEMBLED LOCALLY.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman officials announced Tuesday that the company will assemble a major component for the joint strike fighter in Palmdale, creating 250 jobs by 2006 and possibly another 750 when the plane goes into full-scale production.

Northrop Grumman will assemble the next-generation attack jet's center fuselage in Palmdale, while manufacturing fuselage components and basing its engineering and administrative work in El Segundo.

``Performing Northrop Grumman's work for the joint strike fighter in El Segundo and Palmdale allows us to utilize the outstanding skills of the work force in both areas,'' said Gary W. Ervin, Northrop Grumman Air Combat Systems' sector vice president. ``We're proud of our long tradition of excellence in the South Bay and the Antelope Valley.''

Local officials welcomed the company's decision, which came two months after Palmdale offered $500,000 - $2,000 per job for at least 250 jobs - as Northrop Grumman was deciding between El Segundo and Palmdale for the center fuselage assembly work.

``It's fantastic news,'' Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said. ``This is exactly what we've been working for for quite a while.''

More than 3,000 joint strike fighters are expected to be built through the first half of the 21st century for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines, as well as for some foreign countries - meaning the program could be worth $750 billion over its lifetime.

< Great Britain has been a partner since the start, and Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy and Turkey - all NATO allies - have also signed on.

Built in versions that can take off vertically from aircraft carriers or from conventional runways - the single-seat, supersonic jets would replace a range of military jets used for attacking targets on the ground: the Air Force F-16 and A-10, Navy FA-18s, Marin AV-8B Harriers and British Sea Harriers and Harrier GR.7s.

The planes would also carry air-to-air missiles for defending themselves against enemy fighters.

Northrop Grumman officials said the assembly of the first JSF center fuselage would begin next summer at Air Force Plant 42, where the company overhauls B-2 stealth bombers and assembles Global Hawk spy planes and other unmanned aircraft.

Conducting JSF assembly at the same facility will provide significant operational efficiencies, company spokesman Jim Hart said.

``We'll definitely be doing some hiring,'' Hart said. ``In the same time frame we're hoping to go up on Global Hawk, and the B-2 maintenance is pretty steady. We'll have to go out and look for some people.''

Palmdale offered Northrop Grumman the $500,000 under the city's business attraction incentive program, created during the 1990s recession as a way to attract new businesses or encourage local businesses to expand.

The city offered $200,000 during the system development and demonstration phase, which includes building 22 aircraft, and an additional $300,000 when the aircraft moves into production, the mayor said.

Northrop Grumman officials expect to have more than 1,000 people working in El Segundo by the end of next year, and they have leased offices near the company's plant to house JSF administrators and engineers. An additional 200 manufacturing jobs will be added over several years at El Segundo.

Northrop Grumman is a principal partner of the Lockheed Martin team that last October won an $18.9 billion contract, beating out Boeing, for the joint strike fighter system development and demonstration phase.

For their competition, Lockheed Martin and Boeing built prototypes that were tested at Edwards Air Force Base and the Navy's Patuxent River test center in Maryland.

One of Northrop Grumman's primary responsibilities is designing and manufacturing the JSF's center fuselage, which starts behind the cockpit and contains the weapons bay.

The JSF work in Palmdale is expected to account for about 250 jobs by 2006. Northrop Grumman now employs about 1,200 people in the Antelope Valley on the B-2, Global Hawk and smaller unmanned aircraft.

When the joint strike fighter moves into full-scale production, Palmdale employment would peak at about 1,000 around 2010, Hart said.

Lockheed Martin is also expected to manufacture components in Palmdale, although the aircraft themselves will be assembled at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, plant, where it now makes F-16 fighters.

In Palmdale, Lockheed Martin will make the plane's ``stealthy'' components - such as wing edges and antennas - employing about 500 people, who will be transfers from other Lockheed Martin work.

``We're getting a substantial piece of the pie,'' Ledford said.

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Photo:

(color -- ran in AV edition only) Lockheed Martin's X-35C, the Navy version of the company's joint strike fighter, taxis on a Palmdale runway.