A ceremony in Fort Worth was held last Wednesday to commemorate the delivery of the first of 32 fifth-generation F-35A Lightning II aircraft to Poland by Lockheed Martin.
The event was attended by company executives and officials from both Poland and the United States, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Poland, which is part of NATO and the European Union, made a multi-billion-dollar deal with the United States for the aircraft in early January.
“My family literally still lives just a few minutes away from here, and I’ve watched planes fly around this plant literally my entire life, and I consider this facility like a member of my family,” said Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX), who was at last Wednesday’s event, per Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski was also there.
“Our F-35 globalization is a powerful testament that our military alignment is not just a photo-op, but shows true synchronicity between our nations,” he said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, will play host to Polish pilots who will train on the aircraft delivered by Lockheed Martin.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Lockheed Martin began laying off parts of its workforce across the country, including hundreds at its North Texas plant earlier this year.
Two hundred employees in Fort Worth parted ways with the company as part of Lockheed Martin’s effort to reduce costs. The voluntary separations and hiring freezes impacted operations across the company, according to Reuters. Based in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin employs about 122,000 people worldwide, including nearly 19,000 in Tarrant County.