Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, Md., announces that its new F-16 tooling and equipment previously in Fort Worth, Texas, has since been installed in a newly-refurbished hangar in Greenville, South Carolina, where the company will begin manufacturing F-16 Block 70 aircraft later this year.
Demand continues to soar for new production F-16s and F-16V upgrades. Bahrain became the first F-16 Block 70 customer in June 2018, Slovakia signed Letter of Agreement in Dec. 2018 for 14 Block 70 aircraft, and Bulgaria and the U.S. Government are currently negotiating Bulgaria’s planned acquisition of new F-16 Block 70 aircraft. The U.S. State Department also recently approved the proposed sale of 25 new production F-16 Block 72 aircraft and F-16V upgrades for Morocco.
More than 400 new jobs will be created to support the F-16 production line in Greenville. F-16 production also supports hundreds of U.S.-based Lockheed Martin engineering, procurement, sustainment and customer support jobs and thousands of U.S. supplier jobs. A significant portion of F-16 production occurs in the supply chain, which currently includes more than 400 U.S. suppliers in 41 states.
To date, 4,588 F-16s have been produced, and approximately 3000 operational F-16s are in service today in 25 countries.
