Pilkington Aerospace wins contract to supply Joint Strike Fighter integrated transparency system

Pilkington Aerospace will supply two configurations for the aircraft, one for the US Air Force and US Navy and another version for the US Marine's Vertical Takeoff aircraft.

Pilkington Aerospace was selected against strong competition from other military transparency suppliers. The initial contract award, valued at US$10M, includes design, tooling, qualification, and production of test units. The potential sales for Pilkington Aerospace to support the base production programme is estimated to be US$175M over the next 25 years. If foreign military sales export goals for the aircraft are achieved the programme value will climb to US$230M. With spares, the total value of this business could exceed US$400M over the programme life.

Pilkington Group Chief Executive, Paolo Scaroni, said 'The multi-tasking Joint Strike Fighter represents the future of military aviation, and I'm delighted that Pilkington Aerospace will be playing a significant role in the development of this aircraft. With plans to build over 3000 JSF aircraft for the US and UK Military and some 1000 aircraft for other countries, this contract is of great importance to the future of Pilkington Aerospace'.