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F-35 program meets 2015 delivery goal of 45 aircraft

written by australianaviation.com.au | December 23, 2015

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company - Fort Worth - Photos by Beth Steel Document Team Photo Celebration for the Delivery of the OPS 45th 2015 12/17/15 FP160144 Diana Rawlins Run StationThe F-35 program achieved its 2015 delivery target of 45 aircraft, the F-35 Joint Program Office has announced.

Forty-four of the jets were delivered from prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth facility, while one jet was delivered from the Cameri production line in Italy. The delivery of 45 F-35s – the milestone aircraft was a US Air Force F-35A, AF-84 – represents a 25 per cent increase on the 36 jets handed over in 2014.

“Meeting aircraft production goals is a critical stepping stone in demonstrating the program is ready for the expected significant production ramp up,”  Lt Gen Chris Bogdan, F-35 program executive officer, said in a statement.

“It took thousands of people around the world to achieve this milestone and they should all be proud of what they accomplished.”

The 45 F-35 deliveries for 2015 comprised:

 • 26 F-35As for the US Air Force

• 2 F-35As for the Royal Norwegian Air Force (Norway’s first two F-35s)

• 1 F-35A for Italy’s Aeronautica Militare (the first delivery from the Italian final assembly line)

• 8 F-35Bs for the US Marine Corps; and

• 8 F-35Cs for the US Navy/US Marine Corps

“Delivering the most F-35s in program history is a clear demonstration of our growing maturity and stability,”  Lorraine Martin, Lockheed Martin’s outgoing F-35 program general manager, said in a statement.

To date 154 production F-35s have been delivered to six nations – including Australia’s first two jets – since 2011. They have flown more than 45,000 hours and 16,000 sorties, Lockheed Martin says.

The production milestone tops a significant year for the program in which the F-35 was also declared combat-capable after the US Marine Corps declared Initial Operating Capability (IOC) with the F-35B on July 31.

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Comments (9)

  • PAUL

    says:

    Nice work!

  • Raymond

    says:

    Coming together nicely now.

  • Jeff Atkinson

    says:

    Why is everyone keeping Quiet..If it is a Pig it”s a Pig. .Should have bought French.So there..

  • G4george

    says:

    We had French fighters once, they were nicknamed bricks with wings, and I was told that by a person who worked at the government aircraft factory. The Mirage had speed and that was it.

  • craig simpson

    says:

    The rafael is old school and has no stealth capability. Neither does the eurofighter or any of the russians aside from the F22 clone. The F35 is better then the 18’s we currently have and is the best fighter for the missions we will be carrying out. We have never had an air dominance fighter such as the 15 or 22 and the f-35a will have a lot of capabilities that those european and russian 3-3.5g aircraft will never have.

  • Harry

    says:

    I continue to hold series reservations over these aircraft, the F-35s, with inferior aerodynamic performance and as yet unrealised network and electronic warfare software systems. And an poor engine choice of the two possibilities. The problems and cost over-runs compound this. I hope; but realistically in hindsight congress would have killed this program off 6-8 years ago and continued F-22 production… if they had known what was good for them and the trouble brewing in the world. Now its too big to fail and they have to make it work.

    Australia should consider operating more F-18 Growlers in conjunction with the F-35 and possibly even join Israel (and I am sure South Korea would consider it too) in petitioning for F-15SE stealth Eagles. As a form of risk management I would prefer to not solely rely on one highly contentious selection and much criticised aircraft that is the F-35 for my one and only airforce – so critical is it to Australian defence.

  • Doug

    says:

    Super Hornets and Silent Eagles are outdated. If you take the time to analyse the available data on the F-35 you would soon realise what an impressive aircraft it is. The aircraft was specifically designed to counter the threats you will expect to face in the 2020s and beyond … not the 1990s.

    The fact that it is progressing so smoothly through the development and production phases must really irk it critics.

  • Graham

    says:

    There hasn’t been any serious criticism of the F-35. Canada withdrew because of financial considerations but not for any perceived shortcomings of the aircraft itself.

    The only other criticisms have presented without any supporting evidence so they can be disregarded.

  • Harry

    says:

    For Doug, I agree super hornets are outdated, but not growlers with their EW capabilities. F-15 Silent eagle isn’t outdated because it hasn’t even been built. It is a new version of the F-15 with stealth components and powerful modern radar and avionics, greater range, speed and combat load.

    For Doug and Graham, you obviously haven’t been paying attention to serious criticisms surrounding the F-35. These have even been raised numerous times in congress and by official US govt. organisations. Two of the most serious criticisms concern the fact that the F-35 is 10 years behind schedule and with degraded ambitions from its original capability goals (i.e. the goal posts were lowered several times) and the costs have nearly tripled. The amount of criticisms has been so numerous, that the fact that you are unaware means I don’t think you know much about the F-35.

    Nevertheless, the last year showed good progress. The next year will be a key development year for attaining semi-operational capability. So I repeat: I hope it works out!

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