As it seeks to solidify its role in the commercial aviation sector,
Vought Aircraft Industries also hopes to increase its share of military
business, said company executives.
Since it became an independent company nearly one year ago, Vought,
based in Dallas, has remained primarily a supplier for the commercial
aviation industry. During the next five to 10 years, however, the
plan is to grow from a 70/30 ratio of commercial-military work to
an even 50/50, said Gordon Williams, Vought’s president and
chief executive officer, in an interview during the 44th Paris Air
Show, where his company was making its first appearance since Northrop
Grumman Corp. sold Vought to the Carlyle Group, a private investment
firm in Washington, D.C.
Vought specializes in aircraft wings and large vertical and horizontal
structures.
“Our goal is to have a 50/50 balance between military and
commercial. If we get too much of either, things get out of wack,”
said Vernon H. Broomall, the company’s vice president for
technology and business development. Vought’s annual military
sales range from $300 million to $400 million, out of $1.2 billion
in overall sales.
Both Williams and Broomall agreed that Vought “missed the
boat” when it was left out of the Joint Strike Fighter competition.
The JSF could be the largest military aircraft program this century,
and Vought would have wanted to participate, but was unable to do
so, because, when the JSF teams were formed, the company was still
owned by Northrop Grumman.
Northrop Grumman joined Lockheed Martin’s JSF team before
it sold Vought. Vought’s absence from JSF, Williams said,
is “a hangover from having been owned by Northrop Grumman.
... When we left [Northrop], it was too late.” During the
five-year period when Vought was part of Northrop, “our percentage
of military business went down significantly,” said Broomall.
“Now, we are independent again. So our intention is to bring
back more military business.”
Military aircraft prime contractors are more interested in systems
integration and electronics work than in manufacturing, said Williams.
“They make very little of the airplane, [but] they put it
together and they support it.” For Vought, that opens up new
opportunities to provide components that the primes don’t
want to build themselves, he said.
“Our strength must be [to help primes] transition from development
to production,” said Williams. “We purposely avoid spending
money to develop design capabilities.” Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop
Grumman have those skills. “We concentrate on manufacturing
skills to help those primes take the design into production. To
do that, you need to be on the leading edge of new material system,
new manufacturing processes,” said Williams. The key to success
in this market, he explained, is to come up with ways to lower the
costs and the weight of aircraft components.
Looking ahead, Williams said, “there is not a whole lot of
new aircraft starting in the next five years.” But Vought
expects to become involved in remanufacturing programs, working
with Pentagon prime contractors.
Both Northrop Grumman and the Boeing Co. are among Vought’s
top military customers. “We are the largest supplier to Boeing
for the C-17 Globemaster [cargo airplane for the U.S. Air Force],”
said Broomall. Vought makes the engine nacelles, accessory doors,
vertical and horizontal stabilizers, the rudders and elevators and
the aerial refueling receptacle. In July 1997, Boeing and Vought
signed a $1.9 billion deal for production of major components for
80 C-17s over a six-year period.
Under contract to Northrop Grumman, Vought provides components
for the U.S. Air Force’s E-8C Joint STARS surveillance aircraft,
the Navy’s E-2C Hawkeye maritime radar plane and makes the
all-composite wing assembly for the Air Force’s Global Hawk
unmanned airplane (UAV).
“We see a great future in Global Hawk,” said Broomall.
He predicted that up to 50 wings could be built, assuming that Global
Hawk is sold internationally. “We are still studying that
market segment. It’s a new area,” he said. Even though
Vought is participating in the Global Hawk program, “I can’t
say we understand [the UAV sector],” he said.
“In my old Air Force career, I was involved with UAVs,”
Broomall said. But the technology “wasn’t there. ...
They crashed a lot.” Systems such as Global Hawk appear to
“work very well,” he said. The U.S. Air Force plan is
to buy six Global Hawks.
Another source of new military business could be the U.S. Navy’s
P-3 Orion program. Vought was selected by Lockheed Martin to provide
new or remanufactured P-3 wings, assuming that the Navy decides
to replace its older airplanes and chooses Lockheed as the prime
contractor.
The aircraft subassemblies industry has undergone a rapid consolidation
in recent years, said Broomall. Vought has two main competitors:
GKN Aerospace, in the United Kingdom, and The Aerostructures Co.,
in Nashville. The latter, like Vought, is owned by the Carlyle Group.
In Europe, Vought is interested in working with Airbus. “We
are always in discussions with Airbus,” said Williams. So
far, however, “we have not found a fit” between the
two firms.
According to Broomall, there is a possibility that Vought could
become involved in the Airbus-led A400M European military transport
plane. Airbus, he said, is interested in selling the A400M in North
America. “We may get to the point that we can help them sell
that airplane in the United States.” Vought employs more than
5,000 workers in five assembly plants located in Dallas; Hawthorne,
Calif.; Stuart, Fla.; Milledgeville, Ga. and Perry, Ga. Most of
its commercial work involves components for Boeing’s entire
line of passenger jets and for Gulfstream regional and business
jets.