IN Brief:
- Mobix Labs has secured its first F-16 production order for EMI-filtered connectors and has begun deliveries.
- The components are manufactured at its military-approved Irvine facility for a US aerospace sustainment contractor.
- The order follows an expansion that doubled the manufacturing floor supporting Mobix’s EMI defence and aerospace business.
Mobix Labs has secured its first production order for EMI-filtered connectors supporting the F-16 fighter fleet, with initial units already delivered and the remainder scheduled to ship over the coming weeks.
The order was placed by an unnamed veteran-owned US aerospace sustainment contractor supporting the US Air Force F-16 fleet. Mobix has not disclosed the contract value, component quantity or aircraft subsystem involved, so the development is best treated as a new qualified component-production position rather than a wider F-16 upgrade award.
The connectors are being manufactured by the company’s EMI Solutions operation at its military-approved facility in Irvine, California. The site is now the primary production and operations centre for Mobix’s electromagnetic-interference business.
Mobix completed the move into the expanded Irvine facility in June. The company says the relocation doubled the size of its manufacturing floor while consolidating West Coast production and operational functions previously spread across a larger footprint.
The F-16 order gives that investment another active military programme. Existing work at the facility includes components supporting the F-22 and communications hardware for a multi-year US Navy programme, creating a production mix in which relatively small electronic and interconnect parts feed several much larger defence platforms.
Filtered connectors have a specialised role inside those systems. Aircraft contain radar, radios, navigation equipment, electronic warfare systems, processors, sensors and power electronics operating close together, creating multiple opportunities for electromagnetic interference to couple into wiring and sensitive circuitry.
An EMI-filtered connector incorporates suppression close to the electrical interface rather than relying entirely on separate downstream filters. The objective is to reduce unwanted energy before it propagates along the harness and interferes with equipment that has to maintain reliable signal and power performance.
Mobix’s broader connector portfolio can integrate planar arrays, ceramic filtering elements or chip capacitors depending on application requirements. Those options allow filtering behaviour and packaging to be tailored to different interfaces, although the company has not identified the specific filter architecture used in the new F-16 order.
That limitation matters because the exact component should not be inferred from Mobix’s catalogue. A general product range may demonstrate manufacturing capability, but it does not establish connector type, pin count, attenuation requirement or installation location on the aircraft.
What is confirmed is that the F-16 production parts are EMI-filtered connectors manufactured through EMI Solutions. Initial deliveries have already left Irvine, which distinguishes the announcement from an early design win that may still require qualification or production approval before hardware reaches the customer.
Qualification is commercially important for aerospace components because changing an approved part can carry costs far beyond its unit price. Materials, dimensions, filtering behaviour, environmental performance and manufacturing processes may all form part of the approved configuration, leaving customers reluctant to move to an alternative supplier without a clear technical or supply reason.
For suppliers, that can create long-duration sustainment positions once a component enters a fleet. Replacement parts, depot maintenance and configuration updates continue after original aircraft production, provided the component remains approved and the supplier can maintain the required process and documentation.
Mobix acquired EMI Solutions in 2023, bringing more than two decades of filtered-interconnect experience into the group. Since then it has pursued production positions across military and commercial aerospace rather than treating electromagnetic interference as an isolated component market.
The F-16 joins the F-22, F-35 and F/A-18 among fighter programmes that Mobix says use its components. The company reported earlier this year that F-22 component orders had increased by approximately five times compared with previous activity, giving the Irvine operation another defence production stream before the F-16 work began.
Those programme names should not be mistaken for equal contract scale. Mobix has not disclosed how many components it supplies to each aircraft family or the revenue represented by the new F-16 order, and its role remains several tiers below platform manufacture.
That is precisely why the production development is relevant to the wider industrial base. Modern fighter output and sustainment rely on large numbers of specialist suppliers whose connectors, seals, electronics, fasteners and other comparatively inexpensive parts still have to be qualified and delivered on schedule.
A missing filtered connector can delay completion or maintenance even if engines, radar and other high-value assemblies are available. Supply resilience therefore depends partly on manufacturers that rarely appear in major platform contract announcements but occupy approved positions that cannot be replaced instantly.
The expanded Irvine facility provides Mobix with more floor space, but aerospace production depends on process consistency rather than area alone. Filtering elements have to be installed reliably, electrical performance verified and assemblies built to withstand the shock, vibration and environmental conditions associated with military aircraft.
Increasing throughput without preserving those controls would create rework or rejection downstream, where the cost of a component problem can be considerably higher than its manufacturing value. The useful measure of the June expansion will therefore be repeatable output and delivery performance rather than the size of the new manufacturing floor.
The F-16 contract has already moved into production, with the first units shipped and the balance due over the coming weeks. No follow-on volume has been announced, leaving repeat orders as the next indicator of whether the initial position develops into a sustained programme.
For Mobix, that is the more significant threshold. Adding a fighter programme to a customer list is useful; maintaining a qualified component in regular sustainment production is what turns the programme into durable manufacturing work.
