NORTH BERWICK, Maine — The good news in North Berwick this week as the Pentagon awarded $2.35 billion in contracts to Lockheed Martin to build fighter jets: the very jets Pratt & Whitney makes engine components for.
Connecticut-based Pratt & Whitney operates a 1-million square foot facility in North Berwick, where they make parts for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, the most advanced fighter jet in the military.
Pratt & Whitney employs more than 2,100 people at the North Berwick facility, where they produce modules, components and parts for military and commercial engines. Approximately 25 percent of the manufacturing there is related to the production of parts for the F135 engine.
The company brings $136.4 million into Maine each year, according to the company.
In September, the Department of Defense awarded Pratt & Whitney $2.2 billion to produce and deliver 112 F135 engines for the U.S. Air Force, 46 engines for the U.S. Marine Corps and 25 engines for the U.S. Navy.
Pratt & Whitney spokesman John Thomas said the Department of Defense has funded the production of more than 400 new F135 engines for the U.S. military and international customers.
Approximately 200 new employees will be hired for the North Berwick facility this year, he said.
Thomas said that combined with the contracts awarded last year, the Lockheed Martin contract validates the Pentagon's faith in the F-35 program.
The contract, Thomas said, "equals years worth of work."