Marshall Advanced Composites has signed a £9.5m contract with Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) to manufacture and supply cockpit trim panels for its C-130J Super Hercules airlifter for the next five years.

Advanced Composites General Manager, Carl Morse, said:

We are delighted to have received this five-year contract from Lockheed Martin. It really is testament to the hard work of the team and strength of our partnership with Lockheed Martin.

“We’ve been supplying the panels for over 20 years and have historically been on a series of relatively short term contracts, however our proven ability to drive cost out of the supply, outstanding on-time delivery record and appetite to innovate our processes has given our customer the confidence to make another long-term commitment.

“We are all very proud to be able to play a part in supporting the valuable service of C-130 fleets across the world so often pressed into action to help protect people in critical situations.

The panels are manufactured at Marshall’s composites facility in North Yorkshire from phenolic glass fibre sandwich panels with a Nomex honeycomb core, followed by finishing operations such as painting, electrical assembly and integration to provide Lockheed Martin with lineside kits of plug and play parts to their Marietta facility.

Panels are supplied in various sizes and complexity in kits of 14 or 18 panels to form the centre console in the C-130 cockpit.

Advanced Composites is part of Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, which has been maintaining, repairing and overhauling C-130s for more than 50 years.