Lockheed Martin announcement 'perfect' timing for Greenville Tech program

News this week that air defense company Lockheed Martin plans in the next two years to move the production of its F-16 fighter jets from Texas to Greenville couldn’t have been revealed at a more perfect time, said Carl Washburn of Greenville Technical College.

“For us two years is perfect,” said Washburn, department head for the college’s Aircraft Maintenance and Technology and Truck Driver Training. “It takes two years when someone starts the program, two years later they graduate. It offers job security for our graduates. It allows Lockheed to hire homegrown technicians.”

On Wednesday, Leslie Farmer, spokesperson for Lockheed’s Greenville operations, confirmed F-16 production would be moving from Fort Worth, Texas, to Greenville at its facility at the S.C. Technology and Aviation Center, or SCTAC.

The move was first reported by Defense One.

Lockheed Martin moving F-16 production to Greenville

Farmer said the last F-16 at the Fort Worth plant will be delivered in September, leaving about two years until production begins in Greenville.

Greenville Tech’s Aircraft Maintenance Program is licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration to train 120 students – 60 on day shift and 60 on night shift. The restrictions are primarily due to the facility's size, Washburn said.

Since the program's inception in 1986, many of Greenville Tech's Aircraft Maintenance Program students have gone on to work at Lockheed. The program is conveniently located across the runway from the company. Some of Lockheed's employees are also adjunct instructors at Greenville Tech.

Washburn said the program’s enrollment could increase as it plans to move this fall into a joint facility with the S.C. Army National Guard.

"Lockheed can hire these students right here and those students can start working compared to if they hired technicians from out of state, because it's not guaranteed those technicians will stick around," he said. "If you train a guy raised in Greenville, he's going to stay in Greenville. It's a win for Lockheed. And, yeah, all that money goes right back into the economy."

The Lockheed facility in Greenville already employs 500 people. That number, Farmer said, is likely to grow with the production shift.

Lockheed builds its case for Air Force training jet contract

Since Wednesday night, Washburn said the program's facility has been abuzz with excitement. Even some of the program's high school students who are participating in a dual enrollment program with Greenville Tech and the Greenville County Public School system are happy about the news.

"It really has excited the students, because they get to see airplanes that Lockheed is building. They realize that could be them in a couple of years," he said, adding not only do students get to see the planes, they can hear them also as they fly right next to the program's classrooms.

"But that coupled with the possibility of the T-50 trainer built here ... that's just good news."

Lockheed Martin dedicates hangar in ongoing bid to win jet job

Lockheed, along with four other companies, are in a bidding to win a contract to build a new training jet for the U.S. Air Force. Landing the contract could mean between $8 billion to $10 billion in business for Lockheed, The Greenville News reported in December. The win would also mean the possible addition of more than 200 new competitive-wage jobs over the next 16 years.

On Nov. 19, 2016, Lockheed's entry into the competition, the T-50A, made its first flight from SCTAC's runway after the company was selected to internally assemble and test its entry into the competition.

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

Though Washburn has never worked at Lockheed, he has worked on F-16s when he was in the Air Force. The production move is just as exciting to him as it is to his students.

“Once it gets in your blood, it stays in your blood,” he said. “Just hearing the T-50 fly around, then the F-16s fly around – that’s awesome.”