NORTH BERWICK — It was a cause for celebration Friday at Pratt & Whitney, a major manufacturer of aircraft engines and parts, as officials from the company, along with defense contractor Lockheed Martin, congratulated their crew on building F135 engines for the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet.

While the facility already produces the engines, many more will be made there in the coming years, according to William Begert, vice president of business development and aftermarket strategies at Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies based in Hartford, Conn.

“We’ve been in a heck of a political battle,” Begert said to a crowd of employees, media and officials gathered for the occasion.

Begert said the future of the F-35 was unclear last year, but with a competing F136 engine “dead,” the F135 will continue to be built in North Berwick, to be installed in the new F-35s constructed by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. military, as well as U.S. allies abroad.

Locally, the impact could mean up to 400 new jobs, according to Michael Papp, general manager of Pratt & Whitney in North Berwick, which currently employs more than 1,300 people.

The demand will depend on congressional funding, and contracts change from year to year. But, company officials say, the F-35 is the fighter of the future.

“It’s the most powerful fighter plane ever built,” Begert said of the fifth-generation aircraft.

The F-35 is expected to replace the U.S. military’s aging fourth-generation fighters. On average, Begert said, U.S. fighter planes are 22 years old. When first introduced in combat, in the early 1990s, those planes were state of the art, and the first time one was struck down was about a decade after its introduction.

Begert said the F-35s should not be shot down for decades to come due to the stealth technology employed, which keeps enemies from identifying the aircraft on their radar.

Stephen Callaghan, director of the F-35 program at Lockheed Martin in Washington, also took the opportunity to thank Pratt & Whitney’s North Berwick employees and speak about the significance of the fighter planes.

“What you’re doing here is extraordinarily important,” said Callaghan. “It’s a program that’s vital to our national defense.”

In addition to thanking the employees, officials said they wanted to show the staff in North Berwick what their engines are powering, which is why a cockpit demonstrator was brought to the site Thursday. Rick Royer, a systems engineer with Lockheed Martin, was standing by the simulator Friday morning, assisting those interested in trying their hand at “flying” the F-35.

“It shows them the capability of a fifth-generation airplane,” Royer said.

He said small groups of employees were visiting the simulator throughout the day Thursday and Friday, and many offered positive feedback. The six- to seven-minute experience in the pilot’s seat shows the exact screens a military pilot would see, Royer said, and utilizes the newest technology.

As production increases, Papp, the general manager in North Berwick, said Pratt & Whitney will need to hire more workers. The company is currently partnering with York County Community College in Wells and Southern Maine Community College in South Portland to offer apprenticeship programs to further the education of its employees as well as support work study programs to train a new generation. The company also works with high school technology centers in Sanford and Biddeford, as well as other area high schools, to offer job shadowing and training programs.

To continue this work, and to keep hiring local people, Begert said congressional support and funding is a necessity. Although the program has been impacted from some cuts to the federal budget, the major concern is sequestration of the federal budget. The Budget Control Act approved in 2011 included $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts, which are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2013. If Congress cannot come up with another plan before the end of the year, the cuts would deeply impact defense spending ”“ and in turn, companies like Pratt & Whitney.

However, Begert said, Pratt & Whitney has produced 50 of the F135 engines so far, and he’s confident the company will make many more.

“There’s nothing else like it in the world,” he said.

— City Editor Robyn Burnham can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 329 or rburnham@journaltribune.com.