Show Me the Money! Suppliers Around the World
Line Up for JSF Work
When there's money to be made from the Pentagon,
defense contractors sit up and listen. And when the contract is
for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, potentially worth hundreds
of billions of dollars over three decades, defense contractors
from all over the world prick up their ears.
The main contractors-Lockheed Martin (prime), Northrop Grumman
and BAE Systems-will produce an initial 22 aircraft in the program's
$24 billion System Design and Development (SDD) phase. Fourteen
of the aircraft will be for flight-testing, and eight for ground-
and lab-testing.
Attesting to the importance of the F-35 to the worldwide supply
chain of defense contractors, eight countries have joined with
the U.S. to participate-and more importantly, invest-in SDD. They
are: United Kingdom ($2 billion); Italy ($1 billion); The Netherlands
($800 million); Turkey ($175 million); Canada, Denmark, and Australia
($150 million each); and Norway ($125 million).
For individual defense contractors, the top 10 companies or organizations
(the three main contractors each have more than one division in
the top 10) have already received contracts worth about $8 billion.
In addition to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems,
those companies include Honeywell, Hamilton Sundstrand, Parker/Moog,
and Goodrich.
The major JSF companies and their participation are:
Northrop Grumman, El Segundo, California (major subsystems).
BAE Systems, Farnborough, UK (major subsystems).
Lockheed Martin Information Systems, Orlando, Florida (training
systems).
TRW/Rockwell Collins, San Diego, California (communication/navigation/identification
systems).
Northrop Grumman Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector, Baltimore,
Maryland (radar, electro-optical systems).
Lockheed Martin Tactical Systems, Eagan, Minnesota (integrated
core processor).
Raytheon Systems, El Segundo, California (integrated core processor).
BAE Sanders, Nashua, New Hampshire (electronic warfare and
countermeasures).
Honeywell, Torrance, California (power thermal management system).
Hamilton Sundstrand, Rockford, Illinois (electrical power system).
Smiths Industries, Floreham Park, New Jersey/Cheltenham, UK/Grand
Rapids, Michigan (fuselage remote interface unit, tactical data
equipment, electrical power system).
Moog, East Aurora, New York (electrohydrostatic actuators,
flight-control actuation system).
Parker, Irvine, California (electrohydrostatic actuators, flight
control actuation system).
Curtiss-Wright, Lyndhurst, New Jersey (leading-edge flap-drive
system).
Lockheed Martin, Orlando, Florida (missiles and fire-control,
electro-optical targeting).
Eaton, Jackson, Mississippi (hydraulic power generation system).
Kaiser Electronics, San Jose, California (multifunction display).
VSI (Vision Systems International), San Jose, California (helmet-mounted
display).
Marion Composites, Marion, Virginia (radome).
Martin-Baker, Denham, UK (ejection seat).
Fokker Elmo, Elmo, The Netherlands (wiring harnesses).
Fokker Aerostructures, Papendrecht, The Netherlands (airframe
fabrication).
Under SDD, work will be performed by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth,
Texas (66%); Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, California (20%);
and BAE Systems in Warton/Samlesbury, UK (14%).
Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems is responsible for detailed
design and integration of the JSF center-fuselage and weapons
bay, including installation design and integration of installed
subsystems; substantial portions of systems engineering including
operational analysis, mission systems architecture design and
specialty engineering; development of a substantial portion of
mission systems software; ground- and flight-test support; training
courseware; development support in the area of signature/low observables;
and support of modeling and simulation activities including pilot-in-the-loop
simulations.
Northrop Grumman's Baltimore-based Electronic Systems sector will
be responsible for the development and production of the advanced
fire-control radar system and several other key elements of the
aircraft's integrated mission systems.
BAE's participation is broadly based, and extends across the mission
system and the flight controls. UK technology figured heavily
into the JSF design, and UK test pilots and flight-test engineers
were instrumental in demonstrating that technology. BAE Systems,
through Marconi Avionics heritage, has a long history of designing
and producing electronic warfare systems and electronic units
and has demonstrated capability in key technology areas. The company
is regarded as an industry leader for radio frequency (RF) countermeasures,
having provided combat-proven equipment for UK military aircraft.
BAE's 12% share of the F-35 program is forecast to generate as
many as 8,500 UK jobs in its mature phases.
