Lockheed moves F-16 Production Lines from Texas to India

http://www.investors.com/news/lockheed-moves-f-16-production-line-from-texas-to-india

Looks like an intermediate term top in LMT.

 

Next move is the F-22 production line to Saudi Arabia.

 

Managing by following the leader:

Let's offshore State Department to Queen Elizabeth's wanna-be's in London.

 

Apparently, Mossad is the best intel. We can move CIA headquarters over to Israel. Syria has some cheap land.

 

That's looks like a topping formation to me. I'd say short tomorrow's open, with a stop above today's high. LMT has some structural organizational issues.

 

Was someone new confirmed to oversee the arms control department?


Also, mandatory: are we winning yet? But, but, mah "keeping jobs in 'merica"

 

LMT is not foolish. F-16s are generation old planes i.e. much less in demand today. F-16's latest model Block 70 costs $105M a piece which is equivalent to 4++ generation Rafales and Eurofighters which try to compete with F-35s.

Moving F-16s to India will be more for spare parts and repair hub type scenarios. In addition LMT hopes to bag orders from India itself to replace aging Mig-21s in its fleet. This move is mainly to prolong the lifespan of F-16s line by bringing the costs down and keep it competitive.

 

And teaches India how to manufacture fighter jets.

 

While we forget how.

 

India already has a fighter jet Tejas which is equivalent F-16 C/D 40/50 block versions.

But no doubt, there will some technology leak as a result of moving production to India. Still better than Chinese hacking/stealing technologies via various other means.