Lockheed Martin Corp. won a $3.5 billion contest to build fighter jets for the Polish air force yesterday, assuring that production of its popular but aging F-16 warplane will continue beyond 2010.
Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski announced that Poland will buy 48 of Lockheed Martin's F-16s to replace its Soviet-era fleet of MiG-21s and MiG-29s.
He credited the F-16's technical capabilities, its compatibility with other NATO air forces, and economic incentives offered by Lockheed Martin as the key factors in the decision. Poland also had considered the French Mirage 2000 jet and the Swedish Gripen.
As with all F-16s, the radar and much of the planes' electronics will be built by Northrop Grumman Corp. in Linthicum. Lockheed Martin will begin delivering the planes to Poland in 2006.
"The time to boost the efficiency of the Polish military has come," Szmajdzinski said at a news conference in Warsaw. "This is an important moment for the Polish economy."
And it was an important moment for Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, whose 27-year-old F-16 fighter is being phased out by the U.S. Air Force but has enjoyed a successful and profitable second life on the foreign market.
The company lobbied hard for the F-16, enlisting the support of American diplomats, securing guaranteed financing from Congress and even playing a role in influencing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to extend membership to Poland in 1999. President Bush made personal appeals to Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski to buy the American-made F-16, during meetings this year.
With European-made fighter jets winning accolades in former Soviet-bloc countries, Lockheed Martin and federal officials considered the Polish contract a vital opportunity to reassert the F-16's dominance around the world. Poland will be the 24th country to fly the F-16, the ninth in Europe.
"There was a fear that this whole new NATO-expansion market would go European," said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst for Teal Group Corp. in Fairfax, Va.
`Jewel in the crown'
"But this pretty much puts an end to any worry about that. Poland was always the jewel in the crown."
More than 4,000 F-16s have been sold since the plane first flew in 1976, and Lockheed Martin has hundreds more on order at its Fort Worth, Texas, assembly plant.
That same Texas plant is developing the F-16's successor - the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - and continued production of the F-16 is considered important to the stability of the work force there.
At Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector in Linthicum, workers will equip the Polish planes with radar and surveillance equipment that rivals anything in the American arsenal.
A Northrop Grumman spokesman could not quantify the Polish contract's value for the local division, but said the F-16 program is one of the plant's oldest and most successful, dating back several decades to when the operation was owned by Westinghouse Electric Co.
"Obviously it's a significant win for us and continues our rich legacy of support for the F-16," said Jack Martin, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman's Baltimore-area division.
Military lauds decision
American military officials also praised Poland's announcement, saying the decision to buy F-16s will place the Eastern European ally in elite company with some of the most advanced air forces in the world.
The version of the F-16 planned for Poland will be among the most sophisticated ever built, on par with those in service in the U.S. Air Force.
The plane has been used in combat by the U.S. Air Force over Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
"The advanced F-16 will establish Poland's air force as an important contributor to NATO and an aviation leader in Central Europe," said a statement released yesterday by the U.S. Air Force.
"As a result of this historic decision, Polish and American pilots will now both fly the same aircraft. This means that we can train together and fly together while both using the F-16. In addition, our maintenance and logistics personnel will share many common tasks and equipment."
Shares of Lockheed Martin rose 80 cents to $57.70 on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, while Northrop Grumman shares lost 7 cents to $97.92.
