Lockheed's 10-Year F-35 Deal Locks In $9 Billion a Year for Texas

By Olivia Hart

A 10-year production agreement covering F-35 Lots 21 through 30, unveiled in October 2026, anchors an economic engine worth roughly $9 billion a year across Fort Worth and North Texas. The deal commits Lockheed Martin to a $7 billion capital investment to expand manufacturing capacity and grow the global spare parts pool.

That commitment buys certainty, but the source materials say nothing about contract price per jet, delivery volumes per lot, or penalty terms — the numbers that would let an outside analyst judge whether the framework favors the Pentagon or the contractor. What is documented is the regional payoff.

What does the decade-long deal actually lock in?

The agreement replaces annual negotiations with a fixed production horizon running through the mid-2030s. By eliminating year-to-year procurement uncertainty, the framework secures steady, high-wage employment for Fort Worth's skilled assembly and engineering workforce at the mile-long line at Air Force Plant 4.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, headquartered in Fort Worth, ranks among the largest private employers in Tarrant County. It directly employs approximately 20,000 workers across manufacturing, engineering, software development, and logistics.

The employment picture widens considerably once contractors and induced consumer spending are counted. F-35 production and sustainment support more than 49,000 direct and indirect jobs across the region, spanning municipalities from Arlington and Grand Prairie to White Settlement and Weatherford.

In plain terms: for every worker Lockheed hires directly in Tarrant County, more than one additional job depends on the program somewhere in North Texas.

How much do these defense jobs pay?

A September 2026 study by the Perryman Group put hard numbers on the wage premium. Direct private-sector defense jobs in North Texas pay 41 percent above the regional average. Indirect defense-related roles pay roughly 5 percent more than average.

A 41 percent premium is substantial, but it is a regional average, not a guarantee for any individual household, and the study offers no breakdown of how many workers sit at the top of that distribution versus the bottom.

The gap between direct and indirect pay also matters for expectations. A machine-shop welder on an F-35 supplier contract earns a materially smaller premium than a Lockheed engineer, even though both jobs depend on the same production line.

How large is Tarrant County's share of the defense economy?

A 2026 North Texas Commission report found that Tarrant County captures the largest share of the region's defense economy. The county generates $12.8 billion in annual economic impact and supports 98,800 defense-sector jobs countywide.

That figure counts the whole defense sector, not just the F-35 program — meaning the fighter jet's $9 billion regional impact represents roughly 70 percent of the county's total defense economy. The program is not merely a participant in Tarrant County's industrial base; it is the load-bearing wall.

The concentration cuts both ways. A framework that runs a decade insulates the corridor from annual budget fights, yet it also ties a large share of regional employment to a single weapons platform and its ability to hold global demand through the 2030s.

What does the deal mean for suppliers?

Local F-35 production directly engages roughly 60 small- to mid-sized businesses within Fort Worth, according to the Fort Worth Chamber. The program connects to a network of more than 850 suppliers across Texas.

The October 2026 agreement positions that pipeline for growth. The $7 billion capital investment translates into sustained contract demand over the coming decade for regional precision-machining, tooling, and electronics firms across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

The Chamber did not publish figures on contract values flowing to those small and mid-sized firms, so the distribution between Lockheed's internal expansion and external supplier awards remains an open question.

Where do the tax dollars go?

Beyond private payrolls and business-to-business spending, the defense ecosystem generates substantial public revenue. Across North Texas, the sector produces $1.5 billion annually in local tax revenue alongside $1.76 billion in state tax revenue.

Those dollars flow directly back into city budgets, supporting road improvements, public safety, and local school districts in Fort Worth and its surrounding cities.

For residents, the combined $3.26 billion in annual state and local tax revenue is what converts an aerospace contract into repaved streets and funded classrooms — the visible return on an otherwise distant industrial program.

What happens after the mid-2030s?

The production horizon ends in the mid-2030s, and the source materials are silent on what replaces it. No follow-on program, no extension mechanism, and no transition plan for the 20,000 direct workers appears in the announcement or the cited studies.

What the deal does ensure is continuity in the near term. As global demand for the fifth-generation fighter remains strong, the 10-year framework keeps Fort Worth's aerospace corridor a centerpiece of North Texas economic growth well into the next decade — leaving the decade after that as the region's next open negotiation.