Air force picks five contract manufacturing companies to build wiring harnesses for F-16 jet fighter fleet

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – U.S. Air Force combat aircraft avionics experts are looking to five electronics contract manufacturing companies to provide wiring harnesses and kit assemblies for the Air Force F-16 combat jet fleet.

Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hill air Force Base, Utah, has awarded a collective $900 million eight-year contract to these companies to provide low-cost and rapid delivery of diverse harness parts and kits for the F-16 jet fighter fleet to include all Block aircraft.

The companies are:

Cherokee Nation Aerospace and Defense LLC in Stilwell, Okla.;

Interconnect Wiring LLP in Fort Worth, Texas;

KIHOMAC Inc. in Reston, Va.;

Parts Life Inc. in Moorestown, N.J.; and

Richard Manufacturing Co. in Ogden, Utah.

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Cherokee Nation Aerospace & Defense offers manufacturing capabilities to support the U.S. government and OEM partners. The company's manufacturing division produces aerospace wiring harnesses, electro-mechanical assemblies, aviation sheet metal and machined parts, tactical trailers, and shipping and storage containers.

Interconnect Wiring provides electrical products and services, modification and repair of wiring harnesses and panel assemblies, engineering design, and aircraft wire removal and replacement. The company is the original equipment manufacturer for many F-16 electrical products such as wiring harnesses, cockpit panels, and power-distribution panels.

KIHOMAC Inc. provides services in acquisition, armor systems calibration, complex manufacturing, data development, field tech support, reverse engineering and prototyping, software engineering, sustainment, systems engineering, and measurement science.

Parts Life makes electrical and electronic assemblies, high-reliability electronics, electro-mechanical assemblies, fiber-optic assemblies, electrical components, wiring harnesses, wiring assemblies, cable and conduit assemblies, adapter and connector assemblies, panel and switch assemblies, and box and enclosure assemblies.

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Richard Manufacturing provides wiring harnesses for control systems, ground support cables, power cables, EMI-shielded cables, flexible and semi-rigid coax cables, molded cables and modules, matrix relay assemblies, control and switch panels, test consoles and test sets, electromechanical assemblies, and printed circuit board assemblies.

On this contract, the five companies will do the work in Ogden, Utah; Fort Worth, Texas; Stilwell, Okla.; Moorestown, N.J.; and Reston, Va., and should be finished by May 2031.

For more information contact the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hill Air Force Base online at www.hill.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1583368/air-force-life-cycle-management-hill-afb-site/.