Spirit AeroSystems Belfast Advances Ground-breaking Project for UK Ministry of Defence

BELFAST, Northern Ireland, April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE: SPR) Belfast announced today it will lead Team MOSQUITO, comprising Spirit Belfast, Northrop Grumman and Intrepid Minds, on further development of the Royal Air Force's ("RAF") Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) concept to full demonstration capability. Initially supporting more than 100 STEM jobs at Spirit Belfast's facility, the project has the potential to sustain further expertise in the wider UK supply chain. 

Exploiting agile design principles, sophisticated digital applications, and advanced manufacturing skills, the team will generate knowledge and evidence for a potential follow-on project.  Findings could lead to this revolutionary capability being deployed by the RAF to enhance protection, survivability and information advantage to aircrews.

Drawing on its expertise in advanced composite manufacturing solutions, Spirit Belfast will adapt its award-winning resin transfer infusion technology to produce a lightweight vehicle capable of uncrewed, high-speed flight. Benefits of using extensive composite components, compared to all-aluminium aerostructures, include both reduced maintenance and fuel consumption for aircraft operations.

"Spirit Belfast is delighted to lead the delivery of a national programme enabling the development of cutting-edge technologies while maintaining critical skills in the UK," said Scott McLarty, Senior Vice-President of Spirit AeroSystems, Airbus Programs. "Supporting the MOD's strategic objectives on pace, affordability and operational capacity, Team MOSQUITO will help drive collaborative innovation and competitive advantage. We are excited to develop this relationship with a view to contributing to a more sustainable industrial base for UK defence."

In addition to the provision of systems engineering support, Northrop Grumman will supply its international DA/RC (Distributed Autonomy / Responsive Control) technologies, gateway offerings and advanced mesh networking capabilities to the aircraft. These enable seamless human-machine collaboration and cooperative mission management across distributed manned and unmanned assets.

"Our team will help deliver the required development cost and time savings by providing our expertise in Agile development and DevSecOps to enable a model-based, digital design approach," said Katharine Sealy, Director of National Security Solutions, Northrop Grumman UK. "By applying modern software development practices to a digital engineering environment, we aim to dramatically reduce the time required to build a flying demonstrator while allowing for seamless integration of additional future capabilities."

Intrepid Minds will cover the complete avionics system, power, lighting and integration with the ground control station. As part of this project, the company brings its own Adrestia system currently being deployed across the air, surface and subsurface domains. Having already integrated into many civil and defence systems, Intrepid Minds is using that speed of development to generate a cohesive structure across all partners and suppliers.

"As specialists in the unmanned and autonomous field, Intrepid Minds has a proven record in developing the art of the possible", said Intrepid Minds Managing Director, Adam Smith. "Our ability to pull in the best technologies from suppliers and integrate them centrally with our Adrestia system and Spectre hardware can rapidly enhance a system of systems approach. We are delighted to be involved in developing potential UK sovereign capability in ways that could work across the services."

On the web: www.spiritaero.com  
On Twitter: @SpiritAero

About Spirit AeroSystems Inc.
Spirit AeroSystems is one of the world's largest manufacturers of aerostructures for commercial airplanes, defence platforms, and business/regional jets. With expertise in aluminium and advanced composite manufacturing solutions, the company's core products include fuselages, integrated wings and wing components, pylons, and nacelles. Also, Spirit serves the aftermarket for commercial and business/regional jets. Headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, Spirit has facilities in the U.S., U.K., France, Malaysia and Morocco. More information is available at www.spiritaero.com.

About Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defence and cyberspace to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 97,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.

About Intrepid Minds
Intrepid Minds products are found in both defence and civilian operations. With a backbone in innovation and R&D, our uncrewed products cover the air, ground, sea-surface and sub-surface domains in some of the world's most hostile environments. Constantly developing in house and integrating with the best of external technologies allows many of our products to have unique characteristics not found elsewhere.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that may involve many risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "could," "continue," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "forecast," "intend," "may," "might," "objective," "outlook," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "will," "would," and other similar words, or phrases, or the negative thereof, unless the context requires otherwise. These statements reflect management's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown. Our actual results may vary materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such forward-looking statements and that should be considered in evaluating our outlook include, without limitation, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations; the timing and conditions surrounding the full worldwide return to service (including receiving the remaining regulatory approvals) of the B737 MAX, future demand for the aircraft, and any residual impacts of the B737 MAX grounding on production rates for the aircraft; our reliance on Boeing for a significant portion of our revenues; our ability to execute our growth strategy, including our ability to complete and integrate acquisitions; our ability to accurately estimate and manage performance, cost, and revenue under our contracts; demand for our products and services and the effect of economic or geopolitical conditions in the industries and markets in which we operate in the U.S. and globally; our ability to manage our liquidity, borrow additional funds or refinance debt; and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These factors are not exhaustive and it is not possible for us to predict all factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in our forward-looking statements. These factors speak only as of the date hereof, and new factors may emerge or changes to the foregoing factors may occur that could impact our business. Except to the extent required by law, we undertake no obligation to, and expressly disclaim any obligation to, publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE Spirit AeroSystems

Related Links

www.spiritaero.com