GKN Aerospace

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GKN Aerospace is a British engineering company. Its parent company, the US-headquartered Melrose Industries, was the world’s 90th-largest arms company in 2024, according to SIPRI. As one of Britain’s oldest engineering firms, GKN originally had three divisions: GKN Aerospace, GKN Automotive, and GKN Powder Metallurgy. GKN was acquired by the investment company Melrose Industries in 2018. GKN produces components for numerous military fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, including the F-35 Lightning II. In 2015, GKN bought Fokker Technologies, and in mid-2016, this subsidiary was selected to maintain and service the landing gear on the Lockheed F-35 fleet in Europe and the Pacific. GKN Aerospace provides aerostructures, electrical wiring interconnection systems (EWIS), and landing gear to some of the best-known military helicopters, including the Boeing Chinook CH-47 and Apache AH-64, the Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, and the Leonardo/AgustaWestland AW101. It also produces the composite tail, landing gear, and doors for the NHIndustries NH90. Furthermore, GKN Aerospace reports that it “manufactures lightweight re-usable missile canisters, structural components and missile EWIS,” including for RTX (formerly Raytheon) and Lockheed Martin, both of which are major missile manufacturers. Additionally, GKN is a contributor to the F-35 fighter jet, Apache, and Black Hawk helicopters, which have been extensively used by the IDF in Gaza genocide . GKN Aerospace designs and manufactures the electrical wiring interconnected systems, flaperons, in-flight opening doors, cockpit canopy, airframe parts, and arresting gear for all F-35 aircraft. The company operates seven locations in the UK, though it is unclear which of these are directly involved in F-35 production. GKN in the UK has obtained at least one military export licence to Israel since 2021 and is registered with the Open General Export Licence covering the F-35 programme. In July 2025, hundreds of protestors in the Netherlands marched to the GKN Fokker factory to oppose the export of F-35 spare parts by GKN’s Dutch subsidiary, GKN Fokker, to Israel. Beyond military projects, GKN has significant non-military collaborations with Israeli companies. In 2020, GKN partnered with the Israeli-American company Eviation to produce Alice, the "world’s first all-electric commuter aircraft designed from scratch.