BAE Systems challenges Lockheed on F-16 upgrades

Inside a hangar at Alliance Airport, two F-16s await a major overhaul.

The fighter jets, which arrived from South Korea last month, will be the first to be worked over by engineers at BAE Systems, a British company that won a $1.3 billion contract to install new avionics and other systems on that country's fleet of about 130 F-16s.

To handle the work, BAE has set up shop at Alliance in space formerly occupied by Bell Helicopter. It has hired 175 workers, plans to expand its workforce to 300 by the end of the year and broke ground on a 40,000-square-foot expansion that will add a systems integration lab.

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