Lendlease has been appointed managing contractor for the infrastructure projects at Tindal RAAF Base.

Lendlease has pledged to be a good corporate citizen of the town and said money was already flowing from the vast Tindal  upgrade.

Lendlease chief executive officer (building) Dale Connor said there was still at least four years to go on the half billion dollar upgrade of Tindal.

“Anyone who feels they are missing out still has an opportunity and we will help them,” Mr Connor said.

He said while many Katherine and even Darwin businesses may believe themselves too small to bid for the contract works he assured them they were not.

“Even the sub, sub contractors can bid, someone with a single grader,” he said.

Lendlease has assured Katherine money is already supporting the town.

The Lendlease team visited Jeff Usher of Custom Cabinets Katherine, a winner of a Tindal contract.

The company was stung by claims Katherine was only receiving “crumbs from the table”.

Lendlease has 35 of its own staff living locally and hundreds more contractors either living in the base workcamp or in the town.

Mr Connor said contracts worth $145 million had been awarded to NT contractors.

He said the Defence Department would not allow them to be more specific about successful Katherine contracts but said four had been awarded to Katherine.

He said the peak of the workforce at Tindal, about 250 people, would be early next year and would be maintained at that level for some time.

“We are committed to providing opportunities to Katherine,” he said.

The Federal Government has bought 72 F-35A Lightning II, also called the Joint Strike Fighter, aircraft and associated support equipment and facilities work, with a total budget of more than $12 billion.

The approval included about $1.6 billion in facilities upgrade work mostly to be spent at Australia's two major RAAF fighter bases: Williamtown in New South Wales and Tindal.

The Defence Department expected about $470 million to be spent on the facility upgrade at Tindal.

Lendlease also has the contract to build the base’s new control tower.

The first F-35A aircraft scheduled to arrive in Australia in 2018 although construction work is expected to continue for the next decade.

Tindal will be a key base for the F-35A, as it has been for the F/A-18A/B Hornet.