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BAE wins its first F-35 LRIP contract

FARNBOROUGH, England, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- British company BAE Systems has won its first F-35 Low Rate Initial Production full funding contract worth more than $50 million.

"The contract will see the company deliver the aft fuselage and empennage -- vertical and horizontal tails -- as well as key mission and vehicle systems for two Conventional Take Off and Landing -- CTOL -- variants of F-35," BAE Systems said in a statement last week.

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"This is a significant milestone for BAE Systems and for the F-35 team. The start of Low Rate Initial Production marks the transition from development to production of the F-35 program and is a major step towards making the F-35 available to customers worldwide," said Tom Fillingham, managing director, F-35 Lightning II, BAE Systems.

"We will start assembly of the aft fuselage and empennage for these first production aircraft in 2008 and the first F-35 aircraft is scheduled for delivery to the U.S. Air Force in 2010," Fillingham said.

"Low Rate Initial Production --- LRIP -- is funded on an annual basis known as 'lots'. The numbers of aircraft increase in each 'lot', which will result in a ramp-up in production rates for the partner companies -- Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. By 2015 the program is projected to reach Full Rate Production -- FRP -- when the program partners will deliver the aircraft at a rate of one a day," BAE Systems said.

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"This LRIP contract award comes on the back of our continued deliveries in the System Development and Demonstration phase of the program. BAE Systems is now manufacturing all three F-35 variants concurrently and we are starting assembly of a new aircraft set at a rate of one a month – unprecedented for this phase of a development program. This puts us in an excellent position to transition into the LRIP phase of the program smoothly," Fillingham said.

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