The first delivery of an F-35 outside the United States happened December 3 at the F-35 Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility in Cameri Italy. The first Italian F-35A Lightning II, known as AL-1, to the Italian armed forces, marked a production milestone for Italy’s national defense and aerospace industry.

“When Leonardo DaVinci first envisioned human flight as an Italian creation, there is no way he could have imagined what we have here today,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, F-35 Joint Program Executive Officer. “The F-35 aircraft built here in Cameri will take flight on the wings of Italian craftsmanship, ingenuity, and skill and will help build the first global fleet of fifth generation fighters.”

Italy is the sixth nation to receive an F-35 joining Australia, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States with jets in their service’s inventory.

The F-35s being assembled and delivered at the Italian FACO will transition to Italy’s Aeronautica Militare (Air Force) and Marina Militare (Navy). AL-1 first rolled out of the production facility in March with first flight Sept. 7, one month ahead of schedule. Italy’s first two pilots have begun F-35 flight training at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, where Cameri-built F-35As will be delivered in 2016 to support international pilot training.

“This is a monumental achievement for the F-35 program,” said Lorraine Martin, Lockheed Martin F-35 Program General Manager. “The F-35 provides Italy’s aerospace industry with high technology work, ensuring the future health and competitiveness for their defense industry. To date, Italian industry has contracts worth more than $1 billion, along with opportunities for additional work over the life of the program.”

The F-35 is a next generation fighter which combines advanced low observable stealth technology with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment. Three distinct variants of the F-35 will replace the A/OA-10 Thunderbolt II and F-16 Fighting Falcon for the U.S. Air Force, the F/A-18 Hornet for the U.S. Navy, the F/A-18 and AV-8B Harrier for the U.S. Marine Corps, and a variety of fighters for at least 10 other countries.

Following the U.S. Marine Corps’ July 30th combat-ready Initial Operational Capability (IOC) declaration, the U.S. Air Force and Navy intend to attain service IOC in 2016 and 2018, respectively. More than 150 production F-35s have been delivered to customers and have flown more than 45,000 flight hours fleet-wide.

Press release and picture Lockheed Martin