IGCS International (Dallas, Texas), Lacks Carbon Fiber LLC (Grand Rapids, Mich., U.S.), a division of Lacks Enterprises and Toray Advanced Composites (Morgan Hill, Calif., U.S.) have formed a collaborative effort in support of the Drone Dominance Program, a U.S. Army initiative focused on strengthening domestic high-rate drone and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) manufacturing capabilities.
This collaboration will help bring advanced composite materials directly to the Department of Defense (DOD) for use in rapid and on-demand fabrication of drones for rapid operational development. The three organizations will align their capabilities across advanced composite materials, high-volume component manufacturing and direct-to-government contracting to support Drone Dominance objectives. Specifically, Toray Advanced Composites will be providing pre-impregnated carbon and glass fiber-reinforced composite materials, which will be laminated and processed by Lacks to meet the DOD’s component specifications, and then sold into the U.S. defense supply chain through IGCS.
“Drone Dominance represents a critical opportunity to provide affordable, advanced materials direct to the end user in the U.S. defense industry,” says Russ Spears of IGCS International. “By working alongside Lacks Carbon Fiber and Toray Advanced Composites, we are supplementing the traditional OEM supply chain for unmanned platforms with components that can be integrated by the end user at the depot level, and even potentially in the field.”
Lacks Carbon Fiber sees an opportunity to leverage its large-volume automotive component manufacturing capabilities and strong knowledge of composite materials processing.
