Ramping Up

As the future of manufacturing in Australia continues to make headlines and with the first aircraft for the RAAF due to roll out of the factory within months, we survey some of the Australian companies forming links in the F-35 global supply chain

A report released at the start of the year cast doubt on Lockheed Martin’s assessment of the number of jobs created in the US by the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. While the F-35 Lightning II prime contractor maintains that the program supports more than 125,000 direct and indirect jobs, and forecasts that this figure could more than double with the advent of fullrate production, the Center for International Policy claimed the assertion is exaggerated.

The report’s findings sparked debate about the true value of the program to the US economy.