FORT WORTH — As F-35 joint strike fighters move from station to station along Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth production line, screens display information that includes the jet's overall sequence number, the military base where it's headed and the country that ordered it.
Those screens have a United Nations feel these days, showing the flags of the United Kingdom, Norway, Israel and others placing orders for the stealthy, 5th-generation warplanes.
“There's huge interest from around the world,” J.R. McDonald, the vice president of F-35 business development at Lockheed Martin, said in an interview. “And obviously the situation in Ukraine makes everybody re-think their protection and their security of their own country.”
Facing upgrade challenges, cost overruns and budget constraints, the Pentagon has moved to at least temporarily reduce the number of F-35s in its annual budget, even as top brass stress they are committed to the plane as the foundation of the U.S. fighter fleet of the future.
In contrast to the U.S. military's brake pumping, international demand has been building for the cutting-edge fighters.
Such foreign sales are unlikely to cause a massive boom in hiring at the plant.
Past up-and-down cycles tied to the ebb and flow of weapons orders weren't great for retention and workforce morale, so today the company has a strategy of maintaining a stable workforce at the Fort…
