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.
The U.S. began extensive air and artillery strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria on Dec. 19 in retaliation for the killing of three Americans on Dec. 13 by a gunman affiliated with ISIS, U.S. officials said.
