Lovitt to supply parts for Super Hornets

Lovitt Technologies in Melbourne, Australia, has won a contract with Boeing worth nearly $1 million for wing parts for all F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters worldwide. Lovitt Technologies was started in 1954 by George Lovitt as a supplier of machined parts for the automotive sector. It now employs around 80 staff involved in machining, assembly and testing of aero structures. Minister for Defense Materiel Jason Clare praised Lovitt as an example of Australia's high-value engineering sector and what it can bring to global supply chains. "This is an outstanding achievement for Lovitt Technologies and is the result of their hard work and demonstrates their high level of manufacturing capability," Clare said. Lovitt Technologies also recently won another contract with Boeing to supply machined parts for Boeing's tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey. The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing similar to a helicopter and a short takeoff and landing capability like that of a turbo-prop aircraft. Around 160 have been built since production began in 2007 and Bell and Boeing are hoping for export orders, initially to Canada, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Lovitt also has supplied machined parts and sub-assemblies for Boeing's early warning and control aircraft the Wedgetail. The contract on the AIR 5077 was through Boeing's manufacturing subsidiary Hawker de Havilland and was for modifications on the 737's airframe to accommodate the AEW&C system. "The contract awarded to Lovitt also reinforces Boeing's ongoing commitment to Australian industry through the Global Supply Chain Program. "The value of export contracts won to date that have been facilitated through the Global Supply Chain Program is now more than $446 million," Clare said. The Ministry of Defense said Lovitt is one of several Australian companies successfully finding places in global supply chains. Their work has meant substantial export orders for manufactured goods, thanks to help from the government's Global Supply Chain Program that started in 2009. Six global defense prime contractors -- Boeing, Raytheon, Thales, Northrop Grumman and more recently BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin -- are in the program implemented through the Defense Materiel Organization. Lovitt Technologies also has been under contract to the Plessey Co. -- eventually owned by BAE Systems. Lovitt manufactured enclosures, cases, lids and covers for Plessey's Raven radio that was designed and developed for the Australian military.