Northrop Grumman is to assemble centre fuselages for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) at its plant in Palmdale, California, where it maintains B-2 bombers and assembles Global Hawk unmanned air vehicles.
Assembly of the first centre fuselage is to begin in the third quarter of next year at the company's facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. An initial 22 aircraft are to be built under the $18.9 billion system development and demonstration contract awarded to the Lockheed Martin-led team in October last year.
Northrop Grumman says JSF work in Palmdale will account for 250 jobs by 2006. In addition, the company is expanding its operations at El Segundo, California, to house its JSF programme administration and engineering work, in addition to initial manufacturing and composites fabrication. JSF work will involve more than 1,200 people at El Segundo.
Source: Flight International
