NATO member Finland is on the move track to receive his first Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II by the end of next year, as production of the plane began this week at the aerospace company’s Forth Worth facility. However, the F-35 will initially remain in the United States for pilot and maintainer training – with an expected arrival in the Nordic country in 2026.

Finland is set to receive a total of sixty-four fifth-generation multirole fighters, which will replace its fleet of fifty-five Boeing F/A-18C and seven F/A-18D Hornet jet fighters available to its Air Force operated since The first of its Hornets was withdrawn from service in April this year, while the existing fleet of aircraft will be withdrawn from service by 2030.

During a ceremony at Lockheed Martin earlier this week, Colonel Henrik Elo (Ret.), director of the Finnish F-35 program, signed the forward fuselage bulkhead of the “JF-501 National Series, MF Corporation Series -1,” said an international defense analyst. farm » Janes reported.

“The front fuselages of the Finnish F-35A fighters are manufactured in the United States. Once the front fuselage is completed, it moves to the production phase where the four main components of the fighter – the front fuselage, the center fuselage, the wings, and the tail section – are assembled Then the aircraft moves to the final stages of assembly on the production line in Fort Worth,” the Finnish Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement to the analyst company. open source military.

In March, Helsinki announced that an assembly plant for F-35 Block 4 fighter jets would be built locally near Jämsä and serve as part of the production line fifth generation fighters for the Finnish Air Force and other regional partners. It will be operated by the Finnish company Patria and will produce front fuselages and subcomponents. An estimated 100 people will be employed at the factory in various assembly roles.

Future fifth-generation Finnish F-35 fighters

Helsinki chose the F-35 as the winner of its HX Program in December 2021. The Finnish F-35As will be produced in batches 17 to 22 and will be delivered from the end of 2025 with the Technical Refresh-3 (TR-3) standard which enables Block 4 capability. As noted, the The initial aircraft, the JF-501/MF-1, as well as seven subsequent aircraft, will be deployed to Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) in Florida, where they will be used for training Finnish pilots and officials.

Once training is completed, the Finnish Air Force’s F-35A fighters will initially operate from the Lapland Air Wing’s Rovaniemi air base near the Arctic, while a second squadron will operate from the Karelia Air Wing. The current schedule calls for the aircraft to officially enter service by the end of 2026.

Experience and expertise of the author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a writer based in Michigan. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites with more than 3,200 articles published during a twenty-year career in journalism. He writes regularly on military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing writer for Forbes and Liquidation Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can send an email to the author: (email protected).

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