Soaring Above the Production Line<\/p>\n
Recently, the first F-35A Lightning II\u00a0aircraft\u00a0for the Luftwaffe, or German Air Force,\u00a0progressed further in its journey through the mile-long production line at Lockheed Martin\u2019s Fort Worth, Texas site, as it was hoisted by an overhead crane to the final assembly station.<\/p>\n
5th\u00a0Gen German Air Defense Takes Shape<\/p>\n
The airframe entered\u00a0final assembly with its\u00a0weight on wheels for the first time and its\u00a0four major components \u2013 the\u00a0wing and the\u00a0forward,\u00a0center\u00a0and aft fuselage \u2013\u00a0freshly\u00a0mated. These pieces were\u00a0joined together\u00a0at an electronic mate and alignment system using advanced laser-guided\u00a0fixtures.\u00a0In final assembly, the engine will be installed, and control surfaces and final systems will also be added.<\/p>\n
This major\u00a0milestone comes on the heels of German State Secretary Nils Hilmer\u2019s\u00a0visit<\/a>\u00a0to the Fort Worth site last November for a forward fuselage bulkhead signing. This\u00a0aircraft\u00a0is\u00a0one of the first\u00a0eight\u00a0German F-35s currently taking shape\u00a0at the Fort Worth facility.\u00a0German\u00a0F-35s\u00a0started\u00a0major assembly<\/a>\u00a0at the Marietta, Georgia site\u00a0in December 2024.<\/p>\n Looking Ahead for the F-35 Germany Program<\/p>\n From major assembly, the\u00a0aircraft\u00a0will receive its paint and final finishes, including its stealth coating,\u00a0ultimately preparing\u00a0it for first flight and an official roll-out ceremony later this year.\u00a0Germany\u00a0has a total of 35 F-35As in its program of record. The first\u00a0eight\u00a0German\u00a0F-35s\u00a0will be delivered to\u00a0Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for pilot training.\u00a0<\/p>\n The F-35\u2019s\u00a05th\u00a0Generation technology, including stealth, advanced sensors and information fusion, provides\u00a0Germany with\u00a0unmatched defense capabilities. It will deliver sovereign security and deterrence from\u00a0evolving\u00a0threats for decades to come\u00a0while ensuring interoperability with key allies amid a robust and growing\u00a0European\u00a0F-35 fleet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soaring Above the Production Line Recently, the first F-35A Lightning II\u00a0aircraft\u00a0for the Luftwaffe, or German Air Force,\u00a0progressed further…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[976,969,975,974,970,5,971,968,972,973],"class_list":{"0":"post-1141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-f-35-production","9":"tag-f-35a","10":"tag-german-air-defense","11":"tag-german-air-force","12":"tag-german-f-35-lightning-ii","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-germany-air-power","15":"tag-germany-f-35","16":"tag-lockheed-martin","17":"tag-luftwaffe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}