U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will travel to Texas on Monday to visit Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth and SpaceX near Brownsville.
The visits are part of Hegseth’s “Arsenal of Freedom” tour, which the Pentagon said is intended to “fuel a revival of our defense industrial base, ensuring it can supply America’s finest with technologically superior products at the speed of relevance.”
Hegseth will deliver remarks to SpaceX workers alongside CEO Elon Musk at the Starbase facility in South Texas.
In Fort Worth, Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 fighter jet for the U.S. and foreign allies. The program has an estimated annual economic impact of $72 billion and provides more than 250,000 advanced manufacturing jobs, according to Lockheed Martin. In the Fort Worth area, the program supports more than 49,000 direct and indirect jobs and $9.4 billion in annual economic impact.
Political Points
In 2024, Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon reached an initial agreement to build more F-35s.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office says the F-35 “plays a crucial role” in the Department of Defense’s “ability to meet current and future U.S. national security goals,” but at the same time, the program has seen production problems and rising costs as the U.S. military plans to use the jet less.