GKN Aerospace is a British engineering company. GKN Aerospace’s parent company, 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 investment company Melrose Industries in 2018, despite concerns that the American conglomerate would strip the UK company of its assets. GKN Aerospace contains its military production. The company describes its business as designing and manufacturing “innovative smart aerospace systems and components.” In 2024, GKN Aerospace made sales worth UK£ 3.47 billion. It counts 16,000 employees globally across 12 countries.
Military aircraft
GKN produces components for numerous military fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. These include 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. It also produces other F-35 Lightning II kit including outboard leading flaps, drag chute fairing and the arresting gear system, among others. Other craft for which it manufactures components include the Saab JAS 39 Gripen E, critical to the Swedish air force, and the Lockheed Martin C-130 military transport aircraft.
GKN Aerospace provides aerostructures, electrical wiring interconnections systems (EWIS), and landing gear to some of the best known military helicopters including the Boeing Chinook CH-47 and Apache AH-64, Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, and Leonardo/AgustaWestland AW101. It also produces the composite tail, landing gear, and doors for the NHIndustries NH90. In 2023, GKN teamed up with Airbus to provide engineering, EWIS design and manufacturing, and other support to the delivery of 14 H225M helicopters for to the Dutch military.
Drones
GKN designs and builds a wide range of components for drones. These include the composite tail for the General Atomics MQ-9B SkyGuardian drone. The RAF uses MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones, which it calls Protector aircraft; GKN produces all the v-tails for these drones.
Alongside Anduril, GKN is providing the mainframe for the British Army’s Project NYX, launched in 2025 to pair autonomous tactical drones with AH-64E Apache helicopters. In 2025, GKN was also designing a new drone for the Swedish military. Work on the new drone would involve engine work in Sweden, airframe manufacturing in the Netherlands, and GKN teams overseeing production across the UK.
Missiles
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 major missile manufacturers.
Controversies
Israel and the Palestinian territories
GKN is a contributor to the F-35 fighter jet, which has been extensively used by the IDF in its Gaza campaign. GKN Aerospace designs and manufactures the electrical wiring interconnected systems, flaperons, in-flight opening doors, cockpit canopy, air frame parts and arresting gear for all F-35 aircraft. The company has 7 locations in the UK though it is unclear which if any are involved in F-35 production. GKN in the UK has obtained at least one military export licence to Israel since 2021. In July 2025, hundreds of protestors in the Netherlands marched to the GKN Fokker factory to oppose the export of spare parts for the F-35 by the GKN’s Dutch subsidiary, GKN Fokker, to Israel. GKN has significant non-military collaborations with Israeli companies as well. In 2020, GKN was involved with an Israeli-American company, Eviation, to produce the “world’s first all-electric commuter aircraft designed from scratch.”
