Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has delivered the first F-16 wing and vertical fin to Lockheed Martin, following the reopening of the F-16 wing assembly line at IAI. As a result of increased worldwide demand for the F-16 Block 70/72, IAI re-opened the assembly lines that had been established in the 1980s to continue production of the F-16 aerostructures assembled at IAI. The F-16 wings and vertical fins will be shipped to the F-16 production and final assembly line in Greenville, South Carolina, USA.
Prior to re-opening the F-16 assembly lines, IAI invested in modernising infrastructure, improving the work environment, and introducing new tools to produce fully compliant F-16 aerostructures. IAI also successfully re-established the supply chain of hardware suppliers to support the assembly lines, checked and verified tooling, carried out necessary first article inspections and conducted training programmes for the F-16 team.
