Air Force Moving F-22 Maintenance Work from Palmdale to Utah

June 01--Maintenance work for Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor will leave Palmdale in an Air Force cost-cutting move, but the military contractor said it is unclear if jobs will be cut.

The Air Force announced on Wednesday that it will consolidate maintenance for the F-22 Raptor at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The move would save at least $16 million a year amid tightening government budgets, according to an Air Force analysis.

Maintenance work is currently split between Hill and the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. facility in Palmdale.

The move, which will occur incrementally over 31 months, is expected to add 200 long-term jobs in Utah.

However, it is too early to say how the move will impact Lockheed's 3,000 Palmdale employees, Lockheed spokeswoman Melissa Dalton said in an email Thursday evening to the Los Angeles News Group.

"We have not received any official notification of consolidation from our USAF customer," Dalton said. "When the USAF finalizes its plans and notifies Lockheed Martin of its decision to transition this work, we will determine impacts at that time."

Lockheed's F-22 maintenance work in Palmdale goes back more than a decade. The facility is part of Lockheed's famed Skunk Works, where engineers designed the F-22 fighter and U-2 spy plane and currently work on other manned and unmanned aircraft.

Announcement of the move comes on the heels of other aerospace operations announcing they are either leaving Southern California or downsizing.

In early May, Raytheon said the headquarters staff of its Space and Airborne Systems business will move from El Segundo to McKinney, Texas, in coming months as part of a broader company reorganization.

In November of last year, Northrop Grumman Corp. started voluntary buyouts for 200 workers at facilities in Woodland Hills and Salt Lake City.

In 2011, Northrop moved its corporate headquarters from Century City to Falls Church, Va., to be closer to its primary customer, the Pentagon.

In 2010, aerospace giant Boeing Co. announced plans to move two aircraft modernization programs, for the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and the B-1 bomber from Long Beach to Oklahoma City, Okla., in an effort to cut costs.

In a statement, the Air Force praised Lockheed's F-22 maintenance work.

"Palmdale has made a storied contribution to aviation and, while this move makes sense, we are certain this important workforce will continue strongly supporting the Air Force at Palmdale for many years to come," Lt. Gen. C.D. Moore II said.

The consolidation will have a positive impact on Southern California by allowing the Air Force to "strengthen the robust and capable Palmdale workforce on other critical programs within the local area," Moore said.

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