Quickstep signs JSF deal with NG

The LTA, signed in Sydney on February 2, will see Quickstep deliver a key test article to Northrop Grumman, one of the principal F-35 subcontractors, in November 2011. First deliveries of production parts, for LRIP (low rate initial production) lot 5 centre fuselages, will be made to Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, California, facilities in May 2012.

Quickstep will supply up to 16 different JSF components, including lower side skins, maintenance access panels, fuel tank covers, lower skins and inboard weapons bay doors, projected to amount to some 36,000 plus parts over the life of the program.

“We have been working closely with Quickstep since 2010 to help them develop and mature their manufacturing capabilities to reach the highprecision standards required for the F-35,” said Northrop Grumman’s director of F-35 international programs, Dr Ram Ramkumar.

“Quickstep is expected to eventually produce three major groups of parts for Northrop Grumman – up to 16 different parts in all – ranging from the small, average complexity parts covered under the current agreement, to medium and large parts of increasing complexity, both in terms of their shape and the manufacturing processes required to produce them. Northrop Grumman will continue to provide technical assistance to Quickstep as it expands and improves its manufacturing capabilities to meet the F-35 requirements. ” Production of the components is expected to generate Quickstep $50 million in revenue a year by 2015. The LTA will see annual purchase orders placed with Quickstep, with further manufacturing contracts expected to be awarded thereafter.

“This LTA gets us a step closer to meeting our F-35 industrial participation commitment to the government of Australia,” said Ramkumar.

“We look forward to Quickstep’s involvement in the JSF program, and their production of F-35 composites subassemblies that will be delivered to our assembly operations in Palmdale, California. ” The components will be manufactured at a new manufacturing facility Quickstep is to establish at Boeing’s former Hawker de Haviland Bankstown Airport plant, following the signing of a 10 year lease for over 4200m2 of buildings.

This will see Quickstep move in a staged transition from its current West Australian facility to Bankstown, including the transfer of R&D programs involving the company’s proprietary ‘Quickstep Process’ composites manufacturing technology.

Quickstep is also taking over an unspecified number of Boeing’s skilled Bankstown workforce, many of whom have experience working with advanced composites, and will offer its WA based employees the chance to relocate to Sydney, with initial staff members to move to Bankstown shortly ready for manufacturing by the end of the year.

Quickstep CEO Philippe Odouard described the LTA with Northrop Grumman as a “historic day for the company”, signalling “a genuine quantum shift in Quickstep’s development. ” “The international defence industry has perhaps one of the highest barriers to entry of any industry in the world but, for companies that are successful, the contracts are generally large scale and long term.

Quickstep has now earned its place as a supplier for JSF, and we hope many additional aerospace and defence contracts will soon follow,” Odouard said, adding that the NSW state government had also “provided invaluable assistance to facilitate” Quickstep’s move to the former Boeing site at Bankstown, as well as providing access to a strong network of specialist skill sets along the east coast.

Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare noted that Quickstep’s landmark deal as a partner in the JSF program was an example of “how Australian businesses can participate in this major international development initiative. ” The federal government provided $10 million in assistance as an incentive to lure Quickstep to Bankstown. “The Joint Strike Fighter is a long range stealth fighter. It’s the future of fighter planes and part of that will be made here in Bankstown,” Clare said.

In addition to Quickstep’s LTA with Northrop Grumman, Clare announced the signing of a Global Supply Deed with Lockheed Martin, which would “put in place a team of people dedicated to finding opportunities for Australian companies on top of the JSF project. It’s a chance for Australian companies to take their expertise to the world,” he said.

The Quickstep LTA is the first of several agreements which will follow the Memorandum of Understanding Quickstep signed in November 2009 with JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.