Final Assembly & Checkout Alternatives for the Joint Strike

The Department of Defense asked RAND to examine alternatives for the final assembly and checkout (FACO) process of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The authors considered alternatives to Lockheed Martin's current plan of carrying out all JSF FACO work at its Fort Worth, Texas, plant. RAND looked at single- and multiple-site options for performing FACO at four plants across the country. The authors found that no efficiency, effectiveness, or cost reasons exist to move FACO operations, or to split them between two sites or across multiple sites.