For several years, a recurring theme was how relatively little value creation the F-35 purchase had contributed to on Norwegian soil and how demanding it was for the Norwegian defense industry to gain a foothold within the enormous weapons program.
But the Norwegian industrial companies, which have been patient enough and skilled enough to position themselves, are succeeding well in the fierce competition.
Norwegian industry has now passed a large and round figure: They have so far fought for F-35 contracts worth about ten billion kroner.
Large contracts in the last two years
In 2017, Teknisk Ukeblad was able to point out that there was
little movement in Norwegian F-35 order books in the period from 2010 until then.
The accumulated level was $ 350 million in 2010, $ 358 million in 2013 and $ 380 million at the end of 2016.
But since then, as is well known, the production rate of fighter jets has increased, apart from a slight corona-related decline, and last summer Teknisk Ukeblad was able to
state that the value of production contracts had almost doubled in just one year.
The value had then increased from approximately 4 to 7.5 billion kroner, and since then Norwegian industry has won new F-35 assignments at almost the same pace. The total value is now about ten billion kroner.
This was stated by Lieutenant Colonel Geir Engen in the Ministry of Defense at the Defense and Security Industry Association's (FSI) annual conference INFO / ERFA last week.
The largest new assignment ended up with Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace (KDA), which a month and a half ago entered into an agreement with Lockheed Martin for the production of tail rudders, leading edge of tail fin and fuselage panels for more than 500 aircraft in production batches 15-17 until 2025. The contract is worth 1.75 billion.
Matchmaker and watchdog
For the F-35, the so-called "best value" principle applies, in contrast to traditional repurchase. This means that Norwegian industry must compete for the assignments, here there is nothing that is distributed outwardly.
Norway's participation as a partner in development and further development in the F-35 program gives Norwegian industry the opportunity to compete for parts production and maintenance work for aircraft and engines.
At INFO / ERFA, the management of three Norwegian companies that supply components for the F-35 also participated, namely Kitron, Berget and T&G Elektro.
If these are representative, Engen and his colleagues in the Ministry of Defense do a very good and significant job as a matchmaker and watchdog.
Matchmaker in the sense of helping to make contacts and find relevant Norwegian companies they can promote and record for Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney.
The watchdog function is about continuously making sure that all assignments that are to be advertised actually become so, so that Norwegian industry has the opportunity to compete in this protected market.
Long way in
In this area, the Norwegian authorities have to be vigilant, especially when restructuring is carried out in the US and actors come in without the same stringent attitude to call rules, it was stated at the conference.
The three Norwegian suppliers of the F-35 highlighted staying power as a key feature in this industry. The road in has been quite long, starting with the resource- and time-consuming AS9000 / 9100 certification.
For example, it took 17 years from T&G having its first meeting with Lockheed Martin in 1999 to the first delivery. Five years ago, Kitron still had no real value creation associated with the F-35, while today it accounts for 10-15 percent of their activity.
For Berget, the F-35 is so far not a great financial success, but things look promising in the future, including related to deliveries to the Joint Strike Missile (JSM).
For all the companies, it is also a slightly more difficult value to estimate, namely the reputation that follows from having an F-35 on the CV and what kind of competitiveness this contributes to when they cut contracts in completely different areas than within this program.
Improved sharing access
Brigadier Sigurd Fongen from the Defense Staff attended the FSI conference to provide a status report for the F-35 program.
The fund confirmed
what we already knew , namely that the pandemic has led to delays in F-35 production which also affects Norwegian aircraft, but that all ordered six new aircraft will be delivered to the Air Force during 2021.
He explained that the program is in the middle of a transition where the focus is shifted from production to global support solutions. That is, maintenance, logistics, spare parts - everything you need to operate the aircraft.
According to the Fund, Norway is still struggling a bit with spare parts access, even though it is improving and that in 2020 they noted a positive trend in terms of accessibility.
So far, approximately 650 F-35s have been delivered, and as it looks now, at least five times as many aircraft will be produced as will be in operation by the 2070s. In other words, there are long-term opportunities for Norwegian industry.
The brigadier pointed out that in addition to parts production and maintenance, Norwegian industry also has two other potentially valuable export cards up its sleeve, namely the cannon ammunition Apex from Nammo and JSM from KDA. Both have status as at the end of the development with ongoing integration.
JSM
In connection with the integration work,
JSM was
released from an F-35 for the first time earlier this year.
So far, Norway and
Japan have ordered JSM, and according to KDA, they notice that international interest is increasing for the missile, which is the only adapted weapon room on the F-35 and which is intended for well-defended naval vessels and land targets.
JSM is integrated into the F-35 block 4 which will be ready for the Air Force declares full operational capability (FOC) with its 52 fighter aircraft from 2025.
The aircraft will of course also be upgraded after block 4, and for further development in the period 2025-2030, NOK 6.3 billion has been set aside for Norway.
What kind of capacities will be added here, and which according to the plan will be in place by 2035, depends on what is adopted as a priority by the multinational program office JPO.
In the autumn, a new partnership agreement will enter into force for the eight remaining nations after Turkey was kicked out of the program two years ago because they had decided to buy Russian air defense, specifically the S-400 (SA-21 Growler). .
jos se tulee vain ANG käyttöön eikä aktiivi-USAF:lle.
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