Northrop Shortens Production Interval for F-35 Center Fuselage; Brian Chappel, David Tracy Comment

Northrop Grumman has curtailed the interval time of its F-35 Lightning II production to three days from the previous four-day interval.

Northrop kicked off the production of the center fuselage for BK-10 for the U.K. on Aug. 11 under the newly set interval, the company said Thursday.

“This increase in tempo on our F-35 integrated assembly line is part of a coordinated, pre-planned effort by Northrop Grumman and its suppliers to help meet rising F-35 production requirements,” said Brian Chappel, vice president and F-35 program manager at Northrop Grumman.

David Tracy, director of Northrop Grumman’s F-35 center fuselage integrated product team, said it will take nearly nine months to fully implement the new production interval on all stations of the F-35 assembly line.

Northrop plans to shorten the F-35 Lightning II production interval to a day and a half in 2018 under the full rate production plan.