Marietta Starts F-35 Production Work

Lockheed Martin will begin manufacturing F-35 center wing sections Friday at its plant in Marietta, Ga., the company has announced. Marietta is the current site of F-22 production. This work will occupy more than 320,000 square feet of production space at the site and is expected to employ more than 600 workers by 2016 as the F-35 program ramps up to full-rate-production rates of one aircraft per workday. “Marietta’s available facilities, tooling, and worker experience with the F-22 are key enablers for F-35 program production,” said Larry Lawson, Lockheed’s F-35 general manager. The move will alleviate capacity constraints at Lockheed’s facility in Fort Worth, Tex., where final assembly of the F-35 takes place, said company officials.