| Sector: | Defence |
| Customer: | MBDA |
| Duration of supply: | 4 years |
| Contract value: | £8 million |
| Investment: | £1.2m |
Background
STORM SHADOW/SCALP is an air-launched long range, conventionally armed, deep strike weapon, designed to meet the demanding requirements of pre-planned attacks against high value fixed or stationary targets such as hardened bunkers and key infrastructure. Storm Shadow/SCALP is operated from Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale, Mirage 2000 and Tornado. It is in service with the Royal Air Force, the French and Italian Air Force.
Scope of work
As a tier 2 supplier to the defence industry NEC produced the centre section of the missile plus various small parts, which are then assembled to the main body prior to delivery. As the tier 1 supplier, our customer MBDA handled the manufacture and supply of the completed missile.
Cellular Manufacturing
Investment
NEC invested in the region of £1.2m in setting up a bespoke facility for manufacturing of the components. This investment included:
- 3 off CNC machining centres, the largest being 8 metres in length
- CMM inspection machine
- automated fluorescent dye penetrant inspection facility
- painting and slush coating facilities
What did we provide?
NEC had the capability to produce the prototype parts in our existing core machining facilities but to ensure on-time delivery of the future production quantities we proposed cellular manufacturing as the correct route going forward. After producing a detailed cost model for the cell and identifying the correct machinery, equipment and processes this was put forward to MBDA. A 4-year contract was negotiated which justified our investment and gave the customer guaranteed security of supply. The cell produced outstanding quality and delivered to the agreed program for throughout the contract.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
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