ITT Exelis has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract from Lockheed Martin to fabricate composite blade seal components for all variants of the F-35 Lightning II program.

This award will support production for LRIP 6 and 7 through 2015. Production of the blade seals will take place at the new Exelis composite design and manufacturing center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Our expertise in fabricating complex, high-performance composite structures provides the highest-quality solutions at the best value for our customer,” said Mike Blair, Vice President and General Manager of the Exelis Aerostructures business.

“With our commitment to operational excellence, we will maximize that value, offering the right processes more efficiently to meet our customer’s needs,” he added.

Exelis has more than 40 years of experience in the design and manufacture of composite structures and assemblies. Composite structures are used increasingly by commercial and military aircraft manufacturers as a proven alternative to metal structures to help decrease an aircraft’s weight and fuel consumption and increase its resilience to environmental conditions and in-flight stress.

As demand increases for these structures, Exelis is positioned with increased manufacturing capacity and breadth of composite process capability to provide customers with optimal solutions to meet their needs.