InterConnect Wiring has been a Lockheed Martin licensee for F-16 electrical products for over 12 years. This designation is quite an honor for our company. As a licensee for F-16 electrical products InterConnect has supported all of Lockheed Martin’s customers which include over twenty-five nations that fly the F-16. Over the years many people have asked us: (1) what does it mean to be licensee and (2) what are the advantages of being a licensee? The purpose of this blog is to answer these excellent questions.
What Does It Mean to be a Licensee for F-16 Electrical Products?
In 2002, Lockheed Martin approached InterConnect about becoming a licensee for F-16 electrical products. F-16 electrical products include: (1) electrical wiring harnesses, (2) cockpit panels, (3) relay panels, (4) circuit breaker or power panels, (5) multiplex (mux) panels, and (6) cockpit fairing assemblies. Lockheed wanted InterConnect to support their customers by providing quick turnaround orders of F-16 electrical spare parts throughout the world. InterConnect’s job would be to quickly provide part quotes for “onesie, twosie” orders and be able to deliver the orders faster than a normal, large Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) can. This concept has been validated now for over 12 years. Presently, Lockheed Martin sends its customers who need F-16 electrical products to InterConnect for out-of-production, spare parts.
What are the Five Advantages of Being an F-16 Licensee?
The five advantages of being an F-16 licensee are: (1) electrical data, (2) tooling, (3) configuration control information, (4) engineering support, and (5) support and referrals from Lockheed Martin.
The first advantage is F-16 electrical data. When customers send InterConnect Requests for Quotes (RFQ’s) for F-16 spare electrical products and InterConnect does not have the data already in-house, InterConnect sends Lockheed Martin a list of the data needed. The data includes: (a) parts list (AKA a Bill of Materials), (b) Routing List (RL’s) which are electrical “from-to” information for each wire in a wiring harness or panel assembly, and (c) specifications needed for assembly of electrical products as well as non-standard military parts. Typically, InterConnect makes these requests once a week. Lockheed Martin, in-turn, supplies F-16 data to InterConnect in order for InterConnect to respond to RFQ’s and help support Lockheed’s international customers. Support and Sustainment of the F-16 are very important to Lockheed Martin and InterConnect Wiring.
The second advantage of being an F-16 licensee is tooling. Tooling primarily includes a full scale layout drawing for an F-16 electrical wiring harness. These drawing are typically called Harness Assembly Drawings (HAD’s). In cases when a wiring harness was designed in the 1980’s and 1990’s, instead of HAD’s, Lockheed Martin supplies either a photograph of the wiring harness board that was used to build the wiring harness or a drawing depicting the wiring harness.
The third advantage of being an F-16 licensee is configuration control information. Through the license InterConnect can request that Lockheed provide which F-16 wiring harness or panel assembly is on a given aircraft tail number. Likewise, the license allows InterConnect to know which modifications have been done to a given wire harness or panel for a specific F-16.
The fourth advantage is engineering support. As part of the license agreement, InterConnect has an agreement with Lockheed Martin for engineering support of electrical products on the F-16. This Time and Materials (T&M) agreement comes in handy when engineering questions come up such as clarification of engineering drawings and specifications.
The fifth advantage of being an F-16 licensee is support and referrals from Lockheed Martin. Often Lockheed Martin refers their customers to InterConnect for spare part orders. InterConnect gladly assists these customers with their F-16 electrical product needs. Additionally, Lockheed Martin lets other companies know that InterConnect is an F-16 licensee. At last year’s F-16 Technical Coordination Group (TCG) conference in Ogden, UT, InterConnect was chosen by Lockheed to occupy the booth alongside theirs because we are their F-16 electrical licensee.
As you can see, being an F-16 licensee for electrical products has many advantages. InterConnect appreciates the responsibility of being an F-16 licensee and strives to support Lockheed Martin’s customers throughout the world.
If you are an F-16 operator and need a spare F-16 wiring harness or panel assembly, please click here to send InterConnect an RFQ.
