Defending the Line

At a time of looming Defense Department cutbacks, Northrop Grumman Corp. is accelerating the use of its new automated production line in Palmdale to make the fuselage for the F-35 Lightning II, hoping the move will demonstrate the company’s ability to thrive in the more austere budgetary climate to come. The move to prove the program’s value also aims to protect hundreds of Valley jobs. There are 650 employees working on the F-35 program alone at Northrop’s Palmdale facility. Hundreds more work at the small- and medium-sized suppliers in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys making actuators, fasteners, and specialty machined parts. The Palmdale assembly line became active last March and made 22 fuselages in 2011; it expects to produce 43 this year. The aircraft will come in different models for use primarily by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, plus several foreign militaries. As of 2010, the Pentagon planned to buy 2,400 F-35s from the main contractor, Lockheed Martin. That number is now in question in face of the Obama Administration’s decision to look for nearly $500 billion in defense spending cutbacks over the next 10 years. A more detailed budget naming specific programs slated for budget cutbacks or elimination will be released in early February. Until then, Northrop remains focused on producing the fuselages on order, said Michelle Scarpella, vice president for the F-35 program at Northrop. “I do not have any concerns and I have a plan of action,” Scarpella said. The assembly line is a culmination of everything that Northrop has learned about manufacturing over the past 10 years and uses the most modern technology available to make the aircraft parts more efficiently and less costly, she said. The fuselage moves between work stations using automated guide vehicles, and a robotic system completes the interior and exterior drilling. The plant is in a limited production phase for the fuselage, turning one out every five days, Scarpella said. Getting the automated line in operation was not without bumps, as technicians needed to work out how to optimize the workflow. “We had to work out the tweaks and learn how to build a product in an efficient way,” Scarpella said. The current F-35 production timeline would have Northrop going to full-rate manufacturing on the fuselage in 2018, producing one a day. Whether those production figures are met is up to Congress, which will receive the Pentagon’s budget proposal next month. Already there is talk and published reports that the number of F-35 orders will be reduced. U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, had no details but did confirm that orders would be scaled back. McKeon’s district includes the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, home to many defense industry suppliers. “The environment on the Hill is people want to cut, cut, cut,” McKeon said. “They want to solve problems developed over decades in two budget sessions. To take a heavy portion out of defense is irresponsible.” McKeon is concerned about the proposed White House cuts for two reasons: a weakened military and the loss of jobs. The Aerospace Industries Association estimates that more than 1 million jobs could be at risk by the proposed defense budget cuts. The AIA already projects that military aircraft sales in the U.S. will drop by $1.4 billion in 2012. Santa Clarita defense suppliers have made gains with missile contracts but there is the expectation that major programs like the F-35 will be geared down, said Josh Mann, manager of business retention and market for the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp. “The F-35 was expected to be a very large, long-term contract,” Mann said. S&H Machine in Burbank supplies machined parts for the Lighting II and that has President David Fisher concerned because so many of his customers have defense contracts. Making parts for aircraft or ground vehicles that may not go into full production for several years is the chance that manufacturers take, Fisher said. S&H also makes parts for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, and large transports C-130 and C-5. It also supplied the F-22, which went out of production last year after funding was cut, costing the company a good chunk of business, Fisher said. Now, Fisher is waiting to hear whether the F-35 will bring the same bad news. “We keep reading about budget overruns,” he said. “They could cancel a version of it and all that development work we have done is for nothing.”