Delivery ceremony for first Greenville-made F-16 to be livestreamed

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Lockheed Martin will livestream delivery of the first Royal Bahraini Air Force F-16 Block 70 at 11 a.m. on March 10. Senior Bahraini, U.S. government, military and aerospace industry officials will celebrate the event, according to a news release.

The kingdom of Bahrain was the first customer announced by Lockheed Martin when the company moved production of the F-16 to its Greenville site, which had been a sustainment center until then.

Lockheed Martin said in 2017 that Greenville would be the new home for F-16 production and then in 2018 the company announced it had a deal with Bahrain and was in negotiations with several other countries cleared by the Department of Defense to purchase the fighter jets.

Defense Department and government officials have touted the sales as a way to make sure U.S. friends would be equipped to engage entities unfriendly to the United States and allied countries. See related story.

The ceremony, to include high-level speeches and the aircraft's official reveal, will be livestreamed here.

This F-16 Block 70 jet is the first of 16 jets for Bahrain, and took its first flight on Jan. 24. From here, it will begin additional flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base before arriving in Bahrain in 2024.

Six countries have selected Block 70/72 aircraft, the latest model of the F-16. In addition to the current official backlog of 127 jets to-date to be built in Greenville, Jordan has signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance for 12 jets and Lockheed Martin has received a contract to begin its long-lead activities, the news release said. Bulgaria has also signed an LOA for an additional eight jets for its fleet. Once these are finalized, the backlog will increase to 147, Lockheed Martin said.