Designed to bolster the domestic defense supply base for uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), the collaboration establishes a direct material-to-component pipeline:
Toray Advanced Composites: Supplies pre-impregnated carbon and glass fiber composite materials.
Lacks Carbon Fiber: Laminates and processes materials into military-spec aerostructures.
IGCS International: Manages direct-to-government contracting and distribution across the defense logistics chain.
Depot-Level and Field Deployability
The decentralized model enables military operators to assemble and iterate small drone airframes directly at depot level or in operational theaters, bypassing traditional OEM procurement lead times.
Russ Spears, IGCS International:
By working alongside Lacks Carbon Fiber and Toray Advanced Composites, we are supplementing the traditional OEM supply chain with components that can be integrated at the depot level or directly in the field.
Ryan Lacks, Managing Director of Lacks Carbon Fiber:
We see an opportunity to combine our high-volume automotive manufacturing capabilities with composite processing knowledge to scale the US defense industrial base.
Eric Smith, Head of Defense Business Development at Toray Advanced Composites:
Advanced composites are central to future defense platforms. This framework allows us to deliver materials directly to end-users, enabling rapid, on-demand small drone deployments.
Company Profiles
Toray Advanced Composites: A global supplier of prepregs, advanced resin systems, and structural composite solutions for aerospace and defense.
Lacks Carbon Fiber (LCF): Specializes in automated tooling, composite testing, and scalable carbon fiber manufacturing backed by 60+ years of high-rate automotive engineering.
IGCS International: Brings 20+ years of defense integration, program execution, and federal procurement management.
