The creation of a Lockheed Martin foreign pilot training center in Fort Smith will have a yearly economic impact of $500 million to $1 billion to the area, local leaders say.
The facility, built at the Ebbing Air National Guard Base adjacent to the Fort Smith Regional Airport, should begin training foreign pilots to fly Lockheed’s F-35 advanced fighter jets in September.
The base will become the new location for the 425th Fighter Squadron, a Republic of Singapore F-16 Fighting Falcon training unit. The squadron had been located at the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.
The move is part of Lockheed Martin’s program of selling the jets to foreign countries and then training pilots at a U.S. base. Lockheed officials say it will cost about $765 million to make the base fully operational.
Poland is the first country expected to send its pilots to train at the base. The country bought 32 of the jets in 2019 for more than $6 billion. The training will last two to three years while pilots learn to operate the jets.
Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Maryland, scheduled an April 16 recruitment event at the Wyndham Fort Smith City Center downtown to interview candidates for jobs at the training base once it opens.
Keith Petrosky, the director of talent acquisition at Lockheed Martin, said the company hopes to hire about 80 people.
“We’re looking for positions to support training instructors for the F-35 jets,” he said.
He said candidates will be interviewed by six-man teams, and decisions for hiring could be made the same day.
Other “support system” jobs in supply, logistics and security could follow, he said.
He said he expects hundreds, if not thousands, will “come from all over” to apply.
“We encourage the community to look at the jobs available,” Petrosky said. “We’re excited to be in the Fort Smith community.”
Tim Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, credited the Ebbing Air National Guard Base already in place for winning the Lockheed Martin facility. Fort Smith competed with four other states.
The base opened in 1954 as the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 188th Wing. It was formerly a fighter wing that had operated F-4 Phantom II aircraft, F-16 Fighting Falcons and A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft.
The Arkansas Economic Development Commission estimated the project will eventually bring 900 military members and their families to the Fort Smith area.
“Today’s announcement [of the Fort Smith facility] … cements Arkansas’ important role in training, equipping and supplying our friends across the globe,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said March 15, when the Air Force chose Ebbing as its new destination.
“Our having Ebbing for 50-plus years was what got us further down the road with Lockheed Martin,” Allen said.
An F-35 takes off from Edwards Air Force Base in California in 2022.
(Photos provided)
He said Lockheed Martin will continue bringing in new workers to Fort Smith once the flight school is operational. He estimated that the economic impact — when considering the number of employees there and any satellite industries that sprout up to support the center — could reach $1 billion annually. In all, more than 1,000 people could eventually move to the area to support the training base.
The Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Field Sustainment team will handle all maintenance for the F-35 pilot training.
Heidi “Splash” Moore, Lockheed Martin senior manager and site leader for Ebbing Air National Guard Base, said an F-35 Full Mission Simulator building eventually will be constructed at the base.
“The flight training mission at Ebbing will be first class from day one because of the highly skilled team of the 33rd Fighter Wing [deployed from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida], the 188th Wing Air National Guard and Lockheed Martin personnel,” she said.
“The Fort Smith community is a real diamond in that it is friendly, enthusiastic and supportive,” Moore added.
Chip Paris, president and CEO of Paris Marketing and Public Relations, which works with the Fort Smith chamber, said the flight school represents the “tip of the iceberg” for the city.
“This will have a cascading effect,” he said. “Subcontractors will come here to build pieces of the [F-35] planes. It will keep growing over time. This will forever change the landscape of Fort Smith.”
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