By Troy Turner
MONTGOMERY – Lightning struck this city, and everyone here to watch had spent years looking to the skies waiting on it.
“Well y’all, the wait is over,” declared Gov. Kay Ivey.
Minutes later, a giant aircraft hangar door slowly began to rise, and there it was: One of the most technologically advanced stealth fighter jets in the world, with red tails on it.
An F-35 Lightning II.
The vision represented far more than just a new fighter jet that has found a home with Alabama’s 187th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard.
More than a weapon
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is the U.S. Department of Defense’s most expensive weapon system program. DOD estimates it will cost nearly $1.7 trillion to buy, operate and sustain the aircraft and systems over its lifetime.
A single aircraft can cost more than $80 million when fully operational.
Three F-35s assigned to serve in the 187th already are on duty and being used in training, with a flight line of 20 F-35s expected to fill the ranks by sometime in 2025.
Albeit a tiny piece of the overall financial pie, Alabama’s share of it will look larger on the local level, as the F-35’s presence promises a wide and important spectrum of influential spinoffs, including economically, politically, educationally and iconically.
The jet itself is an engineering marvel.
DOD approved the F-35 program in 2001 to develop a fifth-generation fighter intended to replace various aging aircraft in military inventories, including the F-16 fighter jet the 187th previously flew; and to provide enhanced capabilities with technological innovations warfighters need in today’s ground-air-space-cyber integrated warfare strategy.
The stealthy F-35 is designed to be difficult to detect using radar, and it includes sensors that can provide insights into potential targets and at greater range. Or as the pilots put it, they can see the enemy before the enemy sees them.
Lockheed Martin is here
Lockheed Martin, which is no stranger in Alabama, is the primary contractor. The defense industry giant already has operations unrelated to the F-35 in Troy, Huntsville, Courtland and Anniston.
Its Pike County facility in Troy is a manufacturing, final assembly, test and storage operation for the company’s missile programs, sitting on 4,000 acres of land with 52 buildings.
It employs nearly 600 workers who support final assembly of missiles that include the Javelin, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and air-to-ground missiles. Since it was first established, nearly 190,000 missiles have been produced at the site.
Lockheed Martin’s facility in Courtland is on the forefront of development with hypersonic technologies, including the Hypersonic Strike Weapon. In Huntsville, the company leads development of the Next Generation Interceptor, which is a missile defense system being designed to serve as a first line of defense against missile attacks.
Even the company’s smaller operation in Anniston plays a significant role, listed as a developer of search and navigation equipment and garnering an annual revenue of $10-20 million.
Meaning, good jobs…
These operations require good talent, and a lot of it, when it comes to filling the ranks of engineers, software producers, technicians, supply chain managers, planners, assembly workers and many more. Most of these are high-paying jobs, doing work that brings top-dollar projects in the billions of dollars from the federal government, and representing similar investment from private industry.
Although the F-35, its technology and support jobs that come with it to Montgomery was a decision that came from the U.S. Air Force for largely defense reasons, including a stellar performance record by the 187th Fighter Wing, the fact that the jet is a Lockheed Martin product is not lost on Alabama’s political and economic leaders.
Governor Ivey, for example, was not looking for a joy ride on a fighter jet when she attended the Feb. 9 official welcoming ceremony the 187th hosted at Montgomery’s Dannelly Field.
“From the steel workers who contribute to the construction and the maintenance, to the brave pilots who soar through the skies, our state plays a vital role in the F-35 program,” Ivey said in her speech. “We thrive on the opportunities these aircraft bring, from the jobs created, to the infrastructure to build them.
“And when an F-35 streaks across the Alabama skies… it’s a clear reminder that our state is at the forefront of defending freedom.” About that:
Alabama’s defense industry
Lockheed Martin’s growing profile in Alabama is not an anomaly.
In fact, Alabama’s leading defense contractor in fiscal year 2022 Department of Defense spending, the DOD’s most recent report, isn’t either of the longtime industry giants here such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing or Lockheed Martin. It is, rather, a company that wasn’t even on the state’s Top 10 list just two years earlier, AlaDefense.com reported last September.
International shipbuilder Austal, or specifically its Austal USA shipyard located in Mobile, garnered more than $748 million in DOD contracts during fiscal year 2022, and it raked in several more high-dollar contracts that will show up on the 2023 report.
Alabama ranks 12th among the states in receiving the most funding from defense contracts, totaling $14 billion and providing salaries for almost 50,000 personnel in Alabama tied to defense work for the U.S. military.
The personnel count includes active military and civilian defense workers in locations such as Maxwell Air Force Base and the Air War College in Montgomery, the Army’s aviation headquarters and post at Fort Novosel (formerly Fort Rucker) in Dale County, the Anniston Army Depot, Navy and Coast Guard ties in Mobile, Air National Guard units in Birmingham and Montgomery, and a major foothold on space and missile defense operations headquartered throughout the fast-growing Huntsville region.
Defense spending provides more than a $3.5 billion payroll in Alabama, according to the DOD.
The $14 billion of overall defense spending in Alabama accounts for 5 percent of the state’s entire GDP.
Alabama’s 2022 Top 10 list includes:
1. Austal $748.1 million
2. Northrop Grumman $692.6 million
3. Boeing $657.5 million
4. M1 Support Services $539.4 million
5. Torch Technologies $504.8 million
6. SAIC $500.4 million
7. Lockheed Martin $462.6 million
8. Parsons Corp. $274.9 million
9. Defense Systems and Solutions $249 million
10. Radiance Technologies, Inc. $219.6 million
Meanwhile, “the F-35 program supports a large base of suppliers, skilled factory labor, maintainers, engineers, administrators, logisticians and trainers. Its economic reach touches nearly every U.S. state and provides countless jobs both directly and indirectly,” according to aerospace consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory.
The firm “estimates the F-35 program’s positive economic footprint is larger than originally thought. Through a broader examination of the supply chain and repair capacity available on the program, and accounting for all work done in both the production and sustainment of these aircraft… the actual annual economic impact of the F-35 program on the U.S. economy is $72 billion.”
The community connection
Dozens of state and local officials attended the F-35 welcoming ceremony that included Air and Army National Guard personnel from around the state and pilots in the 187th Fighter Wing. Almost all when interviewed by AlaDefense.com included economic impact as one of their reasons for excitement.
“A rising tide raises all ships, and something that is good for Montgomery is good for the state of Alabama and neighboring counties,” said Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller. “The 187th Fighter Wing getting the F-35 will be a huge economic impact for the River Region and will certainly be positive for Opelika and Auburn. I commend the governor, local elected leaders and the business community for joining forces to make this happen.”
Congresswoman Teri Sewell, who serves on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that is chaired by fellow Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers of Anniston, said “today’s event is not just a great day for the 187th, but it’s a great day for the River Region and Montgomery.”
“It’s an amazing economic impact,” she said. “It’s an amazing opportunity for our 187th, which has already earned so much attention. And the 187th is a legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, the Red Tails.”
The 187th also is one of only three Guard units in the nation to fly the F-35, and Sewell noted that its runways at Dannelly Field with Montgomery Regional Airport are only a few miles away from Maxwell Air Force Base, where the Air War College is a major component of Air Force training.
The 187th being awarded use of F-35s “is a real credit to the brave men and women who make up the 187th, but also to the fact that this location, being so close to Maxwell Air Force Base, is an opportunity for us to leverage so many different aspects of the Air Force” that exist here, Sewell said.
“This whole community rallied around this opportunity,” she said, adding that new construction and more job opportunities in support of the aircraft will follow the F-35s to Alabama.
The Department of Defense and defense industry consultants tend to agree.
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Troy Turner is the editor-in-chief and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Related photos, stories:
Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller makes a point while talking with others, including Col. Brian Vaughn, commander of the 187th, during the official F-35 welcoming ceremony held Feb. 9, 2024.
Congresswoman Teri Sewell was among those who attended the welcoming ceremonies. Sewell represents the Montgomery area in Congress, where she serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey speaks during the 187th Fighter Wing’s F-35 welcoming ceremony.
