Advanced carbon fibre composite manufacturer, Quickstep Holdings, has been selected for more work in the global F-35 program following a recent visit to the US by Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price.
Quickstep has been awarded 10 new composite parts in support of the Joint Strike Fighter Program.
Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Melissa Price MP, recently returned from the US visiting Lockheed Martin and their F-35 partner Northrop Grumman to advocate for more Australian involvement in the global F-35 program.
“I knocked on the doors of the Pentagon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman to fight for more Australian F-35 work,” Minister Price said.
“This is a great start, but I will continue to advocate for more Australian work in the F-35 program.
“This assignment is a testament to Quickstep’s invaluable work in the Australian defence industry and its export success.”
Quickstep’s major manufacturing site is in Bankstown, Sydney, but the company maintains niche manufacturing capacity at Geelong, including making carbon fibre parts for a portable super-lightweight x-ray machine being developed by South Australia’s Micro-X. It is also producing a carbon fibre ramp for wheelchair access to trains for Victoria’s Lockelec Innovation, which in turn supplies rail operators.
The company moved its R&D facility from Germany to Waurn Ponds in 2015.
General manager of corporate affairs, Carl de Koning, told a meeting of the Advanced Fibre Cluster recently that commercial aerospace opportunities for the hi-tech manufacturer would more likely be based in Victoria.
Nov 2019