Jon Lake reports on the Joint Fight Strike programme, which promises to repeat the success of the F-16.
Lockheed Martin is highlighting the global nature of its Joint Strike Fighter programme.
At a press conference attended by representatives from each of the aircraft's eight partner nations, Lockheed Martin unveiled the astonishing array of approved suppliers to the project. These companies have received letters of intent which validate their technological capability and competence, and which allow them to bid for work on the JSF programme, for which Lockheed hopes to develop a ‘global best-value supply chain'.
These potential JSF partners include 10 companies in Canada, 14 in Denmark, more than 20 in Italy, 16 in the Netherlands, 18 in Norway, and six in Turkey, together with 14 in the UK and about 70 in 25 of the USA's 50 states.
These companies are only entitled to bid for JSF work, however, which will be allocated on a ‘best athlete' basis, and no workshare is guaranteed.
Work on the JSF will be worth fighting for, however, due to the massive size of the programme, and due to the fact that participating companies are permitted (where US Government regulations allow) to use the resulting technology in other programmes.
A JSF contract could thus represent a major technological boost for an industrial contractor. The JSF programme could see the manufacture of more than 5,000 aircraft, with the USA and UK (the only Level 1 partners) expecting to procure some 3,002 aircraft, and with export customers expected to order 2,000 more.
But although Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Turkey have signed up to the SDD phase, none are yet committed to buying any aircraft.
Source: Flight Daily News
