LONDON \u2014 Two of the principle companies involved in developing the F-35 Lightning II strike jet have teamed with a British state-owned components repair operation in a bid to secure a significant long-term deal to become the avionics sustainment hub for the aircraft in\u00a0Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A team involving BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and the\u00a0Defence Electronics and Components Agency (DECA) are expected to submit a proposal to the F-35 Joint Program Office in August to secure one of the region’s key support contracts for the aircraft, said executives familiar with the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the involvement of BAE and Northrop Grumman but declined to say anything about whether DECA would have a role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“BAE and Northrop Grumman, along with other industry partners, have been assisting the UK MoD in developing a solution for the provision of F-35 maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade services. However, at this stage, we cannot discuss the makeup of the bid, as to do so could undermine our position in the down-select process,” a ministry spokesman said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
DECA’s involvement is, in essence,\u00a0mandated due to US government insistence that some avionics repairs on the jet here are only undertaken by UK government employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The fact is some repairs will be ring-fenced between industry and government,” according to an executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “That is the basis on which the aircraft has been bought.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MoD\u00a0spokesman did not respond to a\u00a0question about whether there is a government-eyes-only\u00a0lock on the repair and overhaul of certain F-35\u00a0avionics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based at Sealand, northern Wales, DECA supports Tornado strike jets and Chinook helicopters for the British\u00a0military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agency was formed last year when the government opted not to privatize the business as part of the sale of the Defence Support Group to Babcock International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BAE confirmed it is part of the team working the sustainment center proposal, but Northrop Grumman referred inquiries to the MoD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Executives here said other teams in Europe were also forming to bid for the work. Italy is likely to be among the country’s putting forward proposals, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain’s interest in hosting the European avionics repair center was first revealed by the UK’s defense procurement minister, Philip Dunne, during a visit to the US earlier this year,\u00a0but the makeup of the industrial team behind the proposal was not released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
News of the makeup of the British team comes ahead of the F-35 jet’s appearance next month at the Royal International Air Tattoo and the Farnborough air show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The executive said the value of the avionics repair deal depends on the eventual size of the F-35 fleet in Europe but that revenues could be measured in “hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s a significant work package and an important part of the framework of the global support program [being introduced for the F-35],” the\u00a0executive said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Turkey and Italy have ordered the jet while nations like Belgium, Finland and Spain could eventually add their names to the customer list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italy, Turkey, Norway and the Netherlands have already secured either airframe or engine support contracts as part of the European element of the global support program being implemented by the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Italians also have an F-35 final assembly and checkout line operating at the Cameri Air Base in northern Italy as part of their industrial effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aside from prime contractor Lockheed Martin, BAE and Northrop Grumman are the two largest contractors in the F-35 program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s not clear what avionics are involved in the repair proposal but industry executives here said they would be major, high-value components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Northrop Grumman supplies\u00a0a range of key systems including the radar , electro-optical and communications subsystems as well as the communications, navigation and identification avionics and other systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BAE’s involvement is likely to center on the company’s logistics management and fleet-support expertise gained from\u00a0supporting Royal Air Force Typhoon, Tornado and Hawk jets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Europe’s largest defense player already has a substantial stake in the F-35 program producing the\u00a0aft fuselage in the UK and key electronic warfare and systems at its US operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In April, the company secured a\u00a0\u00a3114 million (US $152 million) deal from Lockheed Martin to build F-35 maintenance, logistics and training facilities at RAF Marham, the base earmarked to be the home of the British Lightning II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The detailed arrangements relating to who exactly undertakes the maintenance\u00a0and other work at Marham\u00a0still has to be hammered out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A team involving BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and the Defence Electronics and Components Agency are expected to submit a proposal to the F-35 Joint Program Office in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3351],"class_list":["post-29894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"SIYFM7ZK3NBCVEQCPHSYLHHPQU","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2016\/06\/29\/bae-northrop-partner-with-uk-agency-for-f-35-bid\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n