ILIAS Solutions and Lockheed Martin reach agreement on supplier opportunities for F-35

September 2019 news defense aviation aerospace air force industry

ILIAS Solutions, a Belgian logistics software company, announced 15 Sept 2019 that it reached agreement with Lockheed Martin on supplier opportunities. This opens the door for ILIAS Solutions to pursue valuable contracts within the F-35 programme and to provide logistics software solutions to Lockheed Martin and its customers.

ILIAS Solutions and Lockheed Martin reach agreement on supplier opportunities for F 35 01 F-35A Lightning II (Picture source: US Air Force /Staff Sgt. Madelyn Brown)

ILIAS Solutions, based in Brussels, Belgium, delivers a commercial off-the-shelf software suite to support military commanders, doing more with less. The platform covers the entire armed forces value chain. It aligns operations and training with maintenance, supply and procurement. The platform provides the means to assure effective execution of processes, captures key information and enables military commanders to manage their defence capability in accordance with the doctrine and within the constraints of their budgets.

“We look forward to collaborating with Lockheed on the F-35 programme. Working on the F-35 project will allow us to again leap forward in our technical skills and pursue contracts in both the military and civilian sectors,” said Jean-Pierre Wildschut, Managing Director of ILIAS Solutions.

Currently, ILIAS is primarily focused on defence contracts. Their logistics software helps armed services such as the Belgian Air Force and NATO AWACS efficiently manage mission driven logistics. ILIAS Solutions maximizes the availability of the fleet and allows cost efficiencies by creating transparency throughout the end-to-end process.

“ILIAS has been a trusted partner on the F-16 program for decades,” said Yung Le, Lockheed Martin’s Director Business Development. “We look forward to growing our longstanding relationship with ILIAS with the F-35 programme.”

Wildschut said ILIAS expects to pursue contracts with Lockheed Martin that will result in a value of $5 million USD annually – a growth of 15-20 percent yearly over the next five years -- and will double its workforce in this period. He said this work will open doors to additional work with other countries’ fleets, F-35 and potentially additional Lockheed Martin platforms. Earlier this year, ILIAS began supporting two F-16 upgrade programs for Lockheed Martin customers.

“The introduction of the F-16 in the late 70ies built the foundation of the Belgian aerospace industry,” Wildschut said. “In the same way, we expect the F-35, via the ESI programme, will give a new boost to our industry through technology transfer and business cooperation.”

ILIAS Solutions and Lockheed Martin reach agreement on supplier opportunities for F 35 02 Signing of the agreement during Sanicole Air Show (Picture source: Lockheed Martin)