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Lockheed Martin Fort Worth

Air Force Plant 4 and the F-35 Production Anchor of the DFW Defense-Industrial Spine

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics operates the F-35 Lightning II final assembly line at Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth, the largest single-program fighter aircraft production operation in the world. The 18,000-acre government-owned, contractor-operated facility sits adjacent to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth (formerly Carswell Air Force Base) and has been producing military aircraft continuously since 1942. Approximately 19,000 Lockheed Martin employees work at the Fort Worth complex. In 2025 the assembly line delivered a record 191 F-35 aircraft — five times faster than any other allied fighter currently in production. In September 2025, Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office finalized the Lots 18-19 contract worth $24 billion for the production and delivery of 296 additional F-35 jets, one of the largest production contracts in program history.

What makes Lockheed Martin Fort Worth distinctive at the Texas Nexus level is the combination of single-program production scale, government-owned facility structure, and the defense-industrial concentration that the operation anchors across the DFW metro. F-35 production at Fort Worth supports U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps procurement plus the international F-35 partner program covering 17 customer nations. Each aircraft delivered represents approximately $80-110 million in unit value depending on variant; record 2025 deliveries plus the Lots 18-19 backlog plus continued international demand position Fort Worth as one of the most consequential industrial operations in the United States and the structural anchor of the broader Texas defense-industrial footprint.

Air Force Plant 4 Operations

Air Force Plant 4 has produced military aircraft continuously since April 1942 when the original facility commissioned to produce B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II — earning the local nickname "the bomber plant" that endures today. Subsequent decades produced the B-32, B-36, B-58, F-111, F-16, F-22 Raptor mid-fuselage subassemblies, and now the F-35. The continuous 80-plus-year manufacturing history reflects sustained federal investment in the facility plus the workforce continuity that complex aerospace production depends on. The government-owned, contractor-operated structure means the U.S. Air Force owns the facility and Lockheed Martin operates production under contract — an arrangement that provides federal control over the strategic asset while leveraging Lockheed Martin's manufacturing capability.

F-35 production occupies the majority of current Plant 4 operations. The assembly line produces all three F-35 variants — the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant for the U.S. Air Force and most international partners, the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing variant for the U.S. Marine Corps and U.K. Royal Navy, and the F-35C carrier variant for the U.S. Navy. Production also includes spare parts, radar units, and missile components that flow into the broader F-35 sustainment supply chain. Final assembly at Fort Worth integrates major subassemblies produced at multiple sites including the aft fuselage and tails from BAE Systems' Samlesbury operation in England, with the Fort Worth facility producing the forward fuselage and wings and joining the major subassemblies into complete aircraft.

Production cadence at Fort Worth has scaled substantially. Annual deliveries grew from approximately 70 aircraft in 2017 to the record 191 in 2025. Department of Defense F-35 procurement for the 2026 budget was 47 aircraft (lower than recent years), but international demand plus the Lots 18-19 backlog plus continued U.S. service procurement requirements through the late 2020s and 2030s collectively support sustained production at current levels. CEO Jim Taiclet has indicated additional orders are expected even as DOD procurement levels fluctuate year-over-year.

Cross-Anchor Position

Lockheed Martin Fort Worth's most operationally significant cross-anchor relationship is with the broader DFW defense-industrial spine. Raytheon McKinney's precision-guided weapons electronics, Northrop Grumman Allen's mission systems, Bell Textron's vertical-lift platforms, and Triumph Group's structural components all operate within the same metro defense-industrial concentration. F-35 supply chain relationships flow through many of these operators — Raytheon supplies missile systems carried by the F-35; specialty avionics and structural components flow through the broader DFW supplier ring; workforce mobility across operators creates the labor pool depth that the broader defense-industrial concentration depends on. The DFW metro is one of the largest U.S. defense-industrial concentrations alongside the Washington D.C. metro and Southern California, with Fort Worth specifically as the largest single-facility anchor.

The F-35 supply chain extends beyond DFW to additional Texas defense-industrial operators. Goff Aerospace and other Fort Worth-area suppliers contribute structural components and subsystems. Suppliers across Houston, San Antonio, and the broader Texas defense-industrial base contribute additional components and services. The Texas Triangle's defense-industrial footprint depends substantially on the F-35 program and the broader Lockheed Martin Fort Worth operations as a customer pull that sustains supplier capability across the state.

The connection to the Texas critical-minerals supply chain runs through the broader F-35 component dependency. F-35 production requires high-performance permanent magnets containing heavy rare earths (dysprosium, terbium, yttrium) for actuator and motor applications. MP Materials Fort Worth's NdFeB magnet production at the Independence facility plus the planned 10X campus at Northlake provides direct in-metro supply for these applications, with USA Rare Earth Round Top providing complementary heavy REE supply through 2028 and beyond. The geographic proximity of MP Materials Fort Worth (Independence + 10X) to Lockheed Martin Fort Worth places critical magnet supply within the same metro as the customer — a structural integration that no other U.S. defense-industrial concentration currently matches at comparable scale.

The semiconductor connection runs through the broader F-35 electronics supply chain. F-35 mission systems, sensor processing, communication systems, and electronic warfare capabilities all depend on advanced semiconductor content. Texas Instruments Sherman SM1's analog and embedded processing silicon, the broader semiconductor design and manufacturing concentration in the Austin-Taylor metro, and the federally-coordinated 3DHI advanced packaging research at TIE NGMM collectively support the F-35 program's silicon needs. The Texas semiconductor and defense-industrial concentrations are increasingly integrated through customer-supplier relationships that the AI-Industrial buildout reinforces.

Why Fort Worth

Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth operations reflect 80-plus years of cumulative facility investment, workforce development, and federal strategic-infrastructure designation. Air Force Plant 4's origins as a World War II bomber facility established the physical infrastructure (long runways, large-bay manufacturing buildings, government-owned tooling and test infrastructure) that subsequent fighter programs built on. The F-16 program from 1976 through 2017 anchored the facility for four decades, providing workforce continuity and supplier-ring development that the F-35 program inherited. The decision to site F-35 final assembly at Fort Worth reflected the existing infrastructure, workforce, and supplier ring depth that no greenfield siting could replicate.

The state-level alignment matters operationally. Texas's regulatory environment for defense industrial operations, state-level workforce development support, and broader pro-business policy framework support sustained Lockheed Martin operations and continued investment. The adjacent Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth provides flight test and operational integration capability that F-35 production depends on. Local government support including the City of Fort Worth and Tarrant County tax structures and infrastructure investment have sustained the facility through multiple program transitions and economic cycles.

The Department of War (renamed from Department of Defense under the current administration) federal commitment to F-35 production at Fort Worth reflects continued strategic-infrastructure designation. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's January 2026 visit to the Fort Worth assembly line and his recognition of the workforce reflect sustained federal alignment with the operation. F-35 program continuity through multiple administrations and budget cycles validates the strategic-infrastructure status that the facility's role in U.S. air superiority capability represents.

Constraints and Considerations

F-35 program demand is the most material constraint on continued Fort Worth operations at current scale. DOD procurement levels fluctuate year-over-year — 2026 budget at 47 aircraft is below 2025's record 191 deliveries — and continued production cadence at Fort Worth depends on continued U.S. service demand plus international partner orders plus follow-on lot contracts. The Lots 18-19 contract provides multi-year backlog visibility but eventual lot transitions through the 2030s create uncertainty about long-term production cadence. Adjacent next-generation programs (Next Generation Air Dominance, Collaborative Combat Aircraft, hypersonic weapons) may eventually transition Fort Worth's production mix toward newer platforms.

Supply chain resilience across the F-35 program's global supplier base is a continuing operational consideration. The F-35 supply chain spans 17 partner nations with thousands of suppliers; component delivery delays, geopolitical disruption, or specific supplier capability issues can affect Fort Worth's production cadence. Heavy rare earth magnet supply specifically has been a focus of recent supply chain resilience work given the historical dependence on Chinese-controlled processing capacity. MP Materials Fort Worth's domestic magnet supply and USA Rare Earth Round Top's heavy REE supply collectively reduce this risk through 2028 and beyond, but supply chain constraints remain a real operational consideration.

Workforce continuity is the third consideration. The 19,000-person workforce at Fort Worth represents specialized aerospace manufacturing capability that takes years to develop. Workforce retention through aerospace industry cycles, retirement of experienced workforce, and continued recruitment of skilled trades workers and aerospace engineers all shape the operation's continued capability. North Texas labor market depth and Lockheed Martin's compensation structure support workforce recruitment, but full operational scale depends on sustained workforce build-up matching production demand.

Watching Items

Annual F-35 production cadence through 2026-2028 validates whether the record 2025 deliveries represent a sustainable operational level or a peak production year. Lots 18-19 contract execution through the production-and-delivery timeline validates the multi-year backlog conversion. International F-35 partner orders shape the customer mix beyond U.S. service procurement. Next Generation Air Dominance program siting and production decisions affect Fort Worth's long-term role in U.S. fighter aircraft production. Adjacent watching items include any new program announcements at Air Force Plant 4 (sixth-generation fighter, unmanned platforms, prospective hypersonic system production), MP Materials 10X campus operational milestones supporting magnet supply, and the broader DFW defense-industrial supplier ring expansion or contraction tracking the F-35 program trajectory.

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