First aircraft arrives under Lockheed Martin’s F-16 sustainment contract

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Lockheed Martin’s Greenville facility has received its first F-16 fighter jet from the U.S. Air Force as part of a $900 million contract secured in December to provide sustainment and depot-overflow services for an undetermined number of F-16s.

The first aircraft under the contract arrived from Edwards Air Force Base in California on March 9 and will be inducted today to begin work, according to a news release from Lockheed Martin.

“The arrival of this first jet marks the beginning of fighter sustainment work at the site and positions Greenville as an F-16 Center of Excellence, supporting both F-16 production and sustainment operations,” Mike Fox, Lockheed Martin Greenville site director, said in the news release.

The contract also establishes the first ever U.S.-based F-16 industry depot to support government-owned depot facilities and includes depot-level maintenance activities, predefined programmatic work, aircraft modification and unplanned drop-in maintenance, the release said.

The sustainment contract for maintenance and modernization support establishes the first ever U.S. based F-16 industry depot to support the government-owned depot facilities, the Air Force said in a December announcement. There are currently two overseas F-16 contract depots, one in Europe and the other in the Pacific.

“We are excited for this opportunity to expand our partnership with the U.S. Air Force and ensure the continued readiness and capability of the F-16 fleet,” Danya Trent, vice president of the Lockheed Martin F-16 Program, said in the release. “Our team of F-16 experts in Greenville are ready and prepared to meet our customer’s most challenging problems, partnering between production and sustainment operations, giving full life cycle coverage for the F-16.”

To date, 4,588 F-16s have been produced and are currently operated by 25 countries, the release said.