Key Points and Summary – Beyond the battlefield, the F-35 Lightning II program serves as a massive economic engine for the United States, supporting thousands of small and medium-sized businesses.
-This article highlights one such company, Gamma Aerospace in Texas, which supplies components for every F-35 built.
-The F-35 program is the largest in Department of Defense history, with a supply chain of nearly 2,000 U.S. businesses.
-It has an estimated annual economic impact of $72 billion and has created over 290,000 American jobs, demonstrating the vital role of defense procurement in strengthening local communities.
F-35 Becomes A Jobs Engine for Texas, Small Business
Gamma Aerospace, an aerospace manufacturer based in Mansfield, Texas, hosted politicians and local business leaders on August 14 to demonstrate the functionality of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II.
The company, which is one of thousands of subcontractors enlisted to help manufacture components for the fifth-generation multirole stealth fighter, also used the event as an opportunity to praise the impact the program has on small and medium-sized businesses across the United States.
“There’s not an F-35 flying that doesn’t have a Gamma product on it,” Gamma Aerospace president Jason Jackson told attendees.
Jackson added that the F-35 program “supports small businesses like ours across the country, sustaining jobs, fostering innovation, [and] strengthening our communities.”
Gamma is one of 1,000 small businesses supporting the ongoing manufacturing and development of the F-35 platform, alongside an additional 900 larger contractors. The company has supplied parts for Lockheed projects since 1990, having built components for both the F-16 and F-22 jets.
Gamma Aerospace, which was founded in 1971, has more than 100 employees, and according to Jackson, the majority of its business comes from U.S. military projects and aerospace giants.
Lockheed’s Edward Smith, director of F-35 strategic initiatives, praised the work of Gamma and American businesses like it, noting that the project would not be possible without their hard work.
“I love to go out and talk to our suppliers because you are integral to this capability,” Smith said on Thursday.
“When that airplane flies off, whether it’s the flight deck of an aircraft carrier (or) off of an airfield into combat, we rely on the quality and precision of the parts you make to make sure that our men and women who strap this airplane on and do our nation’s bidding come back day in and day out.”Hundreds of Thousands of American Jobs
The official F-35 website describes the program as the “most economically significant” of its kind in American history. Since manufacturing began in 2006, the F-35 program has created more than 290,000 jobs – and data from AeroDynamic Advisory indicates that the platform has an annual economic impact of $72 billion.
Beyond manufacturing, ongoing development of the platform also suggests Lockheed’s efforts – supported by BAE Systems, RTX, and Northrop Grumman – will see more Americans hired to support the development of artificial intelligence systems, cybersecurity tools, and software development.
A white paper published by Lockheed also described the F-35 program as a “significant contributor to the U.S. economy,” noting that it represents the “largest procurement program in the history of the Department of Defenses.”
The program contracts suppliers in almost every U.S. state, with more than 1,700 suppliers worldwide.
About the Author: Jack Buckby
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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