GKN Aerospace’s (www.gkn.com) Fokker business unit has been chosen to maintain and service the landing gear for F-35 aircraft being operated in Europe and the Pacific region.

The Dutch Ministry of Defence recently announced the company’s selection in a press release after the F-35 Joint Program Office in the USA announced in a press conference that the F-35 landing gear maintenance contract had been assigned to the Netherlands. It is the first time that maintenance work for the F-35 fleet in Europe and the Pacific has been awarded.

The potential value amounts to tens of millions of dollars over the lifetime of the F-35 programme. The contract covers the maintenance of wheels, brakes and shock-strut assemblies of the F-35 landing gear, starting in 2021. GKN Aerospace’s Fokker business unit has many years’ experience in the maintenance, repair and overhaul of landing gear — including the landing gear of the F-16 and the NH90 helicopter.

As well as the maintenance activities, the contract involves the design and manufacture of the F-35 arresting gear and the development of the F-35 composite landing-gear drag brace. Hans Büthker, CEO of GKN Aerospace’s Fokker business unit, said: “Together with our partners, we are proud to expand industrial participation to the F-35 maintenance phase.

“This represents the next step in the F-35 programme, on which we can continue to build in the years to come. F-35 maintenance will create long-term employment for skilled technical employees in the aerospace industry.”


GKN Aerospace has been involved in the F-35 programme since the start, having designed and manufactured electrical wiring interconnection systems, flaperons, in-flight opening doors, cockpit canopies, air-frame parts, engine parts and arresting gear for all F-35 aircraft that are currently flying and in production.