Northrop Grumman Cuts Avionics Assembly Time for US F-35 Fighters from Hours to Minutes with Cobot

Northrop Grumman introduced a collaborative robot to fasten bolts on the front housing of the F-35’s AN/ASQ-242 communications, navigation, and identification avionics system. The automated process reportedly reduces a task that took hours to minutes, while artificial-intelligence-assisted inspection helps identify manufacturing defects and improve consistency. The change targets one defined assembly operation rather than production of the entire avionics suite or aircraft. Its value lies in reducing repetitive labour, cycle time, and quality variation while preserving human oversight for setup, verification, corrective work, and engineering control.