Marand steps up to next level of F-35 component manufacturing

Marand has demonstrated their work on the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) component manufacturing to Federal Minister for Defence Materiel, Dr Mike Kelly MP, during a visit to its production facility in Moorabbin.

Work on the vertical tail structures for the global F-35 program was confirmed in March 2011, when Marand announced the signing of a Long Term Agreement (LTA) with BAE Systems for the manufacture of vertical tails for the F-35 Lightning II multi-role fighter, which is being purchased for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

Marand is currently working on the production of a demonstration vertical tail structure with all associated materials and components to support Australian production in the seventh lot of F-35s to be assembled at Lockheed Martin’s Ft Worth plant in the US.

In total, over 3,000 aircraft for several countries are expected to be built under the F-35 program. Accompanying Dr Kelly during his tour of the plant, the General Manager of Marand, Rohan Stocker, said “We are proud to be moving on to this next stage of our involvement in the Joint Strike Fighter program. Marand has been at the forefront of JSF industry involvement since Australia joined the 5th generation fighter program in 2002.”

In addition, Stocker stated, “Marand has, by a long way, completed the most manufacturing work for the JSF program in Australia, with over $100 million of sales to date and forecasts for work now totalling over A$1.1 billion. By far the largest element of that, at around $790 million, is our work on the aircraft’s vertical tails. We are also gearing up our manufacturing facilities, and will have built one of Australia’s largest fabrication, machining and component assembly workshops by the time we get into series production of F-35 vertical tails.”

The first two RAAF F-35As will be delivered to the Australian Government in mid-2014.