OREANDA-NEWS. February 15, 2016. Lockheed Martin preferred Final Assembly and Checkout (FACO) site to manufacture its T-50A aircraft offering in the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Pilot Training (APT) competition.

“A number of sites were considered for the FACO location. Following a detailed examination, the Greenville Operations facility was selected based upon the unique requirements of the APT competition and the support and partnership of the state of South Carolina,” said Orlando Carvalho, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. “While the FACO site will be located in Greenville, Lockheed Martin will continue leveraging people and capabilities from across our corporation and our industry partners to win the APT competition.”

Lockheed Martin’s Greenville Operations has a long history of proven performance in aircraft final assembly and checkout, as well as extensive capabilities in modernization and state-of-the-art upgrades on a variety of aircraft platforms. The 227-acre Greenville site has 13 hangars, 1,200,000 square feet of covered space optimized for APT and 8,000 feet of runway. Greenville is also home to a highly-skilled, flexible workforce of Lockheed Martin aviation technicians, engineers, program managers and other experienced personnel.

Lockheed Martin has a long and successful legacy of providing advanced aeronautics systems and training platforms and will leverage that proven expertise to deliver a low-risk, on-time advanced pilot training solution to the U.S. Air Force.