AFA NEWS: Digital Engineering Key to New F-16 Manufacturing Line
F-16
Air Pressure photograph by Tech. Sgt. John Raven
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Lockheed Martin’s just lately reestablished F-16 manufacturing line in Greenville, South Carolina, has been outfitted with new digital engineering know-how that executives say will improve effectivity and cut back prices.
The power — which is producing F-16 Block 70/72 fighter plane — was stood up three years after Lockheed’s F-16 line in Forth Price, Texas, wrapped up manufacturing.
“We’re making investments throughout the manufacturing line,” mentioned Greg Ulmer, govt vp for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. “We’re not simply selecting up the manufacturing [line] … because it was and reimplementing.”
As an alternative, the corporate is updating it with new applied sciences resembling automation and digital engineering and manufacturing processes, he mentioned Sept. 21 throughout a briefing with reporters on the Air Pressure Affiliation’s annual Air, House and Cyber Convention.
“We’re very targeted on lowering prices … for the F-16 and enhancing the product high quality as we go,” he mentioned. “This was a part of Lockheed Martin’s imaginative and prescient actually to construct a digital-based manufacturing facility that works sooner and smarter.”
The Air Pressure additionally plans to create a digital twin of the F-16 that may assist enhance sustainment and modernization efforts, Ulmer mentioned.
“This effort actually does assist lay the inspiration and the groundwork for a large number of potential future efforts relative to F-16 digital engineering,” Ulmer mentioned.
The manufacturing line in Greenville will play an essential function in assembly an elevated demand for F-16s internationally, he mentioned. There are greater than 3,000 F-16s working in 25 completely different nations, together with about 900 for the U.S. Air Pressure, he famous.
5 nations have chosen the most recent technology of Block 70/72 F-16s and there’s a backlog of 128 plane, Ulmer mentioned. Lockheed Martin sees the potential for as much as a further 300 F-16s based mostly on worldwide curiosity.
5 nations at present have orders with the corporate together with Bulgaria, Slovakia, Bahrain and Taiwan. A fifth nation has requested to stay nameless, Ulmer mentioned. The corporate is trying towards new alternatives in Europe, the Center East, South America and the Indo-Pacific areas.
“We’re persevering with to see vital demand for the F-16 internationally,” Ulmer mentioned.
In the meantime, F-16s ought to start rolling off the Greenville manufacturing line within the fourth quarter of 2022, however Ulmer mentioned it was too early to say what number of.
The road may also facilitate depot work. Lockheed was awarded a contract final yr for F-16 work inside the contiguous United States and about 10 plane are at present within the “depot movement,” Ulmer mentioned.
“That is the primary F-16 depot of its variety within the continental United States,” he mentioned. Because the “unique gear producer for the F-16, we’re at present positioned to offer essentially the most complete information of this plane and set up … [a] Heart of Excellence for the F-16.”
The corporate plans to rent “a number of hundred jobs” within the Greenville space to help the manufacturing line, Ulmer mentioned.
Matters: Air Energy