Kitron has received a multimillion dollar contract from Lockheed Martin for production of Integrated Backplane Assembly (IBA) for the F-35 Low Rate Initial Production program, LRIP 11. Deliveries start this year and end in 2018.
The IBA is an advanced and complex high-level assembly.
"After years of supplying for the earlier stages of the low rate initial production program, it is good to see the volume increase to the quantities expected for full rate production," said Hans Petter Thomassen, Managing Director of Kitron Norway.
Norway is one of the international partner countries participating in the F-35 program. Under the manufacturing license agreement between Kitron and Lockheed Martin, Kitron will manufacture, test, maintain and repair the IBA in the F-35.
The F-35 Lightning II is a next generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, advanced mission systems, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and cutting-edge sustainment. Three distinct variants of the F-35 will replace various aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, and 11 international countries.