Jet deal just the start: Bristol

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/10/2010 (5464 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bristol Aerospace had already committed about $120 million to enable it to bid on (and win) parts contracts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter long before the Canadian government’s recent decision to buy 65 of the expensive high-tech jets.

But now the Canadian military is a customer, Bristol officials say they believe even more work is going to come its way.

With at least 200 workers at the Winnipeg plant looking on Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper lavished praise on the skills of the Bristol Aerospace workforce for its success in building state-of-the-art parts for the new fighter jet.

“You are exceptional people,” Harper said.

Bristol had already shipped $35 million worth of parts for the jet program it has been working on since 2003.

Harper was on hand for a “sod-turning” of a new $20-million, 139,000-square-foot advanced composite manufacturing centre, even though construction is well underway with the roof expected to go on in the coming weeks.

Don Boitson, general manager of Bristol and vice-president of Magellan Aerospace, its parent company, said, “The work we’re now doing for the JSF (three different parts packages) will mean about $1 billion in revenue for Bristol through the lifespan of the contract, about 20 to 30 years.”

It will also mean at least 100 Bristol employees will be dedicated to F-35 work for the life of the contract. Bristol has a 700-person workforce and Boitson said the decision as to whether it will need to hire more people will depend on the volume of work it wins from its other customers, including Boeing and Bombardier.

Another Magellan executive said the Canadian government’s recently announced decision to buy some of the multimillion-dollar jets could mean Bristol and its sister divisions of Magellan Aerospace would eventually double the number of parts contracts it wins for the F-35 program.

Magellan CEO Jim Butyniec said, “We have been in the development stage for almost 10 years already. This thing will grow.”

Bristol is supplying parts to three of the major manufacturers of the plane including some parts for a version of the jet Canada won’t even be buying.

While opposition parties attempt to make political hay out of the fact the government did not issue a competitive tender before agreeing to buy the jets, Harper pointed out Thursday it was a previous government that decided to become part of a consortium of nations formed in 1997 to develop the F-35 JSF, and it has already invested $150 million in its development.

In addition to that, the federal government has lent Bristol $43.4 million and the province has also lent it $20 million through the Manitoba Industrial Opportunities Program to assist the company in its cash-flow requirement while fitting out its shop.

“This (choosing the F-35 to replace the Canadian Forces’ aging fleet of F-18 fighters) was and is the right thing to do,” Harper said.

It is still not clear how much Canada will pay for the jets and Lockheed Martin has been called onto the carpet in Washington for cost overruns. The National Post recently reported the Department of National Defence said the cost will be about $70 million per plane for Canada. But some estimates for versions the U.S. military is buying are as high as $135 million each.

Officials from Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the project, were on hand for the event Thursday. Production of the planes is still in the low-rate initial production phase, but will soon kick into full-scale production over the next four years.

Boitson said that means going from one plane a month, to one a week, then to one a day over the four years, eventually getting to 200 planes a year.

The new facility is to be ready for production by next August. Bristol will move its main F-35 work — the horizontal tail components — to the new plant just west of its existing 700,000-square-foot campus of buildings.

Bristol is also making a composite part called a vane box that the engines are housed in as well as some small fuselage panels.

Another Magellan Aerospace company, Chicopee Manufacturing in Kitchener, Ont., has a $60-million contract to produce wing tie bars for the leading-edge flap installation and aft engine thrust mounts for the F-35.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca