Maayan Schechter

The Greenville News

Lockheed Martin is moving production of its F-16 fighter jets to Greenville, creating about 250 jobs in two years, according to the company.

Leslie Farmer, spokesperson for Lockheed's Greenville operations, told The Greenville News on Wednesday the F-16 production will be moving from Fort Worth, Texas, to Greenville primarily for economic reasons.

"Certainly, the fact that South Carolina is a right-to-work state ... is an advantage we have here, and it helps our rate structure from an affordability standpoint," she said.

The move was first reported by Defense One at www.defenseone.com. Lockheed Martin has orders for F-16s from several foreign allies, but the U.S. Air Force hasn't bought any of them since 1999, and demand for them has dwindled in recent years, Defense One reported.

Employees of the Fort Worth factory will transition into production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, as the company ramps up production of that model, Defense One reported.

Farmer said the last F-16 from the Forth Worth plant will be delivered in September, and it will take about two years for the company to get production going at its Greenville facility at the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center, or SCTAC.

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Greenville County spokesman Bob Mihalic said the county hadn't taken any action on incentives to lure the company here.

Lockheed already employs 500 people at its Greenville facility.

Farmer said the company likely will train F-16 workers in Greenville Technical College's Aircraft Maintenance Program. She said the company has relied on Greenville Tech's program and its graduating class in the past.

Farmer said Lockheed already has a hangar that can be set up to move the F-16 production line into, so no new construction will be needed.

She said the fighter jets will be flight tested at the company's facility in Greenville.

"It's not a huge footprint," Orlando Carvalho, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Aeronautics business area, told Defense One. "It's not the mile-long factory you saw with the F-35."

Defense One reported that Bahrain is wanting as many as 19 of the jets, with additional orders coming from Indonesia, Colombia and potentially India.

Meanwhile, Lockheed is still in a battle for a contract to build a new training jet for the U.S. Air Force.

Don Erickson, Lockheed's Greenville operations site director, told The News in December that winning the contract would mean $8 billion to $10 billion in business and add 180 to 200 new competitive-wage jobs at the Greenville facility over the next 16 years.

The Air Force is expected to make a decision on that by early 2018.

The plant's main business now is providing aircraft modification, maintenance, repair and overhaul services for both military and civil aircraft.

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