1,000+ New Manufacturing Jobs Inbound If LMXT Tanker Selected for Interim KC-46 Adjunct

Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Georgia and Mobile, Alabama plants are in the running to become the LMXT tanker factory, awaiting a contract award from the US Air Force. Lockheed announced the selection of the 2 locations ahead of the final decision, essentially advertising the number of technical manufacturing jobs at stake for the program. 

The LMXT is Lockheed's offering for the USAF's KC-Y "Bridge Tanker" program, a domestically produced version of the Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport. The excessive delays and developmental woes of the Boeing KC-46 tanker has opened up a gap in the tanker race, and the Airbus product has a rare chance to capitalize on their opponents errors. Last summer, the Air Force issued a sources sought alert to find companies to bid for the bridge tanker. With the KC-46 not looking ready for at least a few more years, and the nearly 400-strong, vintage KC-135 fleet having been run ragged for half a century, a turnkey tanker to tide the service over could prove to be a foothold for Lockheed far into the future. No other force on earth has the intense thirst for tanker gas, and the long service life of the KC-135 proves that whatever is selected will serve for decades to come.  

“The Air Force is seeking companies that have the capability to deliver approximately 140-160 Commercial Derivative Tanker Aircraft—at a rate of 12 to 15 per year—to supplement the Air Force Tanker Aircraft fleet at the end of KC-46A production, and bridge the gap to the next Tanker recapitalization phase,” said the USAF document. “The Commercial Derivative Aircraft must be operational by 2029. The Air Force is still finalizing the requirements for this acquisition. However, the baseline for aircraft capability will be based on the requirements from phase one of tanker recapitalization with subsequent and emerging requirements as defined by the Air Force.” The service expects to update the program with a formal RFP by the end of 2022.

Should the Lockheed product be chosen, the LMXT will be built in 2 phases, with it first built alongside A320/220 airliners as an A330 airline at the Airbus fabrication facility in Mobile, Alabama. Once finished, the resulting A330 will be sent to Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Georgia facility to be brought into tanker spec. Georgia is host to C-130J and F-35 assembly lines, already in production, and the expected employment bump would bring another 1,000 new jobs to the 5,000 currently employed there. 

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com