First Italian built F-35 Joint Strike Fighter comes off the assembly line

[Ctwentysevenj]

First Italian-built F-35 rolls out
March 15, 2015 by australianaviation.com.au Leave a Comment

The first Italian F-35A Lightning II has rolled out of the Cameri Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility on March 12.

This first F-35A to be assembled outside of Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant, the aircraft, designated as AL-1, will proceed to additional check-out activities before its anticipated first flight later this year.

As well as building all Italian F-35A and F-35B aircraft, the facility is programmed to build aircraft for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and has the capacity to deliver to other European customers in the future.

In December 2014 the Cameri FACO facility was selected as the F-35 heavy airframe maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade facility for the European region.

http://australianaviation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Italy_FACO_photo_2.jpg

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[Ctwentysevenj]

Picture of the factory
http://www.aleniaaermacchi.it/documents/8005615/13517888/squared_medium_Cameri_s.jpg

[alfieb]

Ridiculous paintjob? Check.
Looks like a modified F1 car? Check.

Yep. It's Italian alright.

[Ctwentysevenj]

Ridiculous paintjob? Check.
Looks like a modified F1 car? Check.

Yep. It's Italian alright.

That is not the final paint job. Will be the most sophisticated fighter in the world. Well the Americans had faith in Italian engineers, by letting the Italians build this aircraft. Also allowing very sensitive technology transfers to The Italians.

[Ctwentysevenj]

http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getasset.aspx?itemid=59511

[Ctwentysevenj]

This is the most sophisticated jet fighter ever to be built in Europe.

[Rudel]

Also allowing very sensitive technology transfers to The Italians.
Not that it matters. Militarily speaking, Italy isn't sovereign.


This is the most sophisticated jet fighter ever to be built in Europe.
It's irrelevant.

[Anglojew]

Italians build the best sports cars so why not the best planes?

[gültekin]

Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI), a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman, delivered its first F-35 Lightning II center fuselage to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin at a ceremony held at TAI's facilities in Ankara, Turkey, on Dec. 11, 2013.

Many high level authorities among whom were the Turkish Deputy Minister of National Defense Hasan Kemal Yardımcı, US Ambassador to Turkey HE Francis J. Ricciardone, representatives from the Turkish Armed Forces, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman participated in the ceremony.

This is the first F-35 center fuselage manufactured by TAI as an international manufacturing partner to Northrop Grumman. The center fuselage will be installed into a U.S. Air Force aircraft at Lockheed Martin's facilities in Fort Worth, Texas.
https://www.tai.com.tr/en/basin-bultenleri/tai-delivers-first-center-fuselage-to-northrop-grumman-under-jsf-f-35-program
https://www.tai.com.tr/en/project/jsf-f-35-program

[Manifest Destiny]

Italians build the best sports cars so why not the best planes?

'Murica.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hennessey_Venom_GT

[щрбл]

The real question is... can it escape a BUK system from the 70s....I bet it goes down faster than an airbus. xD

[Anglojew]

'Murica.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hennessey_Venom_GT


The Hennessey Venom GT is a supercar based on the Lotus Exige manufactured by Texas-based Hennessey Performance Engineering and assembled in England.[2]

I'm saddened by the death of the US car industry. It's a recipe for long-term economic disaster.

[Manifest Destiny]

I'm saddened by the death of the US car industry. It's a recipe for long-term economic disaster.

The brains behind it are American.

[Ouistreham]

Well the Americans had faith in Italian engineers, by letting the Italians build this aircraft. Also allowing very sensitive technology transfers to The Italians.

Bollocks, mate. There's no technology transfer at all. The sole Level 1 partner is BAe Systems of UK, and they loudly complained that the Americans denied all access to really sensitive technologies and know-how (Italy is only a secondary contractor, like the Netherlands or Turkey).


Will be the most sophisticated fighter in the world.


This is the most sophisticated jet fighter ever to be built in Europe.

The F-35 is notoriously a lemon, the costliest useless flying junk ever developed.


Pentagon’s big budget F-35 fighter ‘can’t turn, can’t climb, can’t run’

Americans should be worried.

The U.S. military has grounded all its new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters following an incident on June 23, when one of the high-tech warplanes caught fire on the runway of a Florida air base. The no-fly order — which affects at least 50 F-35s at training and test bases in Florida, Arizona, California and Maryland — began on the evening of July 3 and continued through July 11.

All those F-35s sitting idle could be a preview of a future in which potentially thousands of the Pentagon’s warplanes can’t reliably fly.

To be fair, the Pentagon routinely grounds warplanes on a temporary basis following accidents and malfunctions to buy investigators time to identify problems and to give engineers time to fix them.

But there’s real reason to worry. The June incident might reflect serious design flaws that could render the F-35 unsuitable for combat.

For starters, the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 — which can avoid sensor detection thanks to its special shape and coating — simply doesn’t work very well. The Pentagon has had to temporarily ground F-35s no fewer than 13 times since 2007, mostly due to problems with the plane’s Pratt & Whitney-made F135 engine, in particular, with the engines’ turbine blades. The stand-downs lasted at most a few weeks.

“The repeated problems with the same part of the engine may be indications of a serious design and structural problem with the F135 engine,” said Johan Boeder, a Dutch aerospace expert and editor of the online publication JSF News.

Pratt & Whitney has already totally redesigned the F135 in an attempt to end its history of frequent failures. But there’s only so much engineers can do. In a controversial move during the early stages of the F-35′s development, the Pentagon decided to fit the plane with one engine instead of two. Sticking with one motor can help keep down the price of a new plane. But in the F-35′s case, the decision proved self-defeating.

That’s because the F-35 is complex — the result of the Air Force, Marines and Navy all adding features to the basic design. In airplane design, such complexity equals weight. The F-35 is extraordinarily heavy for a single-engine plane, weighing as much as 35 tons with a full load of fuel.

By comparison, the older F-15 fighter weighs 40 tons. But it has two engines. To remain reasonably fast and maneuverable, the F-35′s sole F135 engine must generate no less than 20 tons of thrust — making it history’s most powerful fighter motor.

All that thrust results in extreme levels of stress on engine components. It’s no surprise, then, that the F-35 frequently suffers engine malfunctions. Even with that 20 tons of thrust, the new radar-dodging plane is still sluggish. The F-35 “is a dog … overweight and underpowered,” according to Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project on Government Oversight in Washington.

In 2008, two analysts at the RAND Corporation, a California think-tank that works closely with the military, programmed a computer simulation to test out the F-35′s fighting ability in a hypothetical air war with China. The results were startling.

“The F-35 is double-inferior,” John Stillion and Harold Scott Perdue concluded in their written summary of the war game, later leaked to the press. The new plane “can’t turn, can’t climb, can’t run,” they warned.

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/07/14/pentagons-big-budget-f-35-fighter-cant-turn-cant-climb-cant-run/

[Smaug]

Ridiculous paintjob? Check.
Looks like a modified F1 car? Check.

Yep. It's Italian alright.

That's not the final paintjob, but a layer applyed directly above the metal to protect it from the enviroment.

[BeerBaron]

The Frenchmen is right, the F-35 is a lemon. Australian airpower wrote a lengthy article about it, and did a film you can find on youtube. In the film there are the designers of the A-10 f-16 and f-15.

It's "stealth" is very limited, and it's time on ground vs time is air is horrible. It's gonna screw the US airforce, thank you military industrial corrupt complex.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Yeah, lookin real nice.........

When are they going to test drive them, against sandal-wearing cave dwellers in toyota pickup trucks.... lol

What a waste of money...

[Ouistreham]

It's "stealth" is very limited

The over-hyped "stealth" factor is a joke (with French or Russian fighter jets as well), for gullible TV watchers only.
Only reduced radar signature can be achieved.
But in real operational configuration, with rockets, bombs and additional tanks under the wings, forget about it.

Do we need to invest in over-sophisticated machines and to spend million dollars only to destroy cheap Toyota pickups with ragheads aboard in the Middle-East or African deserts? The cost-to-result ratio is more than Pyrrhic, it is just unsustainable.

The future belongs to low cost unmanned aircrafts.

Fighter jets are just like the dreadnought battleships around 1900: every major country wanted to have some and wasted nonsensical amounts of money for that, but they never were of any use.

[Rudel]

I'm saddened by the death of the US car industry. It's a recipe for long-term economic disaster.
The car industry is even deader in the UK.


It's gonna screw the US airforce, thank you military industrial corrupt complex.
The US Airforce will just keep using the Apache for everything, as they did before.

[Anthony PV]

I'm saddened by the death of the US car industry. It's a recipe for long-term economic disaster.

Meh, that industry was bound to die anyway... Americans should rather focus on finding ways to replace fossil fuels because once the last drop of oil will be extracted from the ground of this planet... There's gonna be pandaemonium everywhere... :coffee: The primitive tribes of Africa and South America who know how to fend for themselves in the jungle or the savanna and the communities of White Europeans living a pre-industrial lifestyle (like the Amish) will probably be the only ones who will still be there after the coming apocalypse... :p

[BeerBaron]

The car industry is even deader in the UK.


The US Airforce will just keep using the Apache for everything, as they did before.

What are you talking about, the Apache is NOT a replacement for a multi role fighter aircraft, and they certainly don't use it for everything. The apache was originally developed to counter the mass amounts of Soviet tanks, in case they decided to storm into western Europe. And the Army is the primary user, not the airforce.

[Ctwentysevenj]

Bollocks, mate. There's no technology transfer at all. The sole Level 1 partner is BAe Systems of UK, and they loudly complained that the Americans denied all access to really sensitive technologies and know-how (Italy is only a secondary contractor, like the Netherlands or Turkey).










The F-35 is notoriously a lemon, the costliest useless flying junk ever developed.

However still certain amount technology would've had to transfer to Alenia-Aermacchi in order to build the thing. Maybe a bit envious the Italians are building this fifth generation fighter, and it is not being built by Dassault, which build fantastic fighters like the Rafale. If it is a useless junk, how come countries like Australia, Japan, italy, UK , Netherlands, Norway and the USA are continuing to acquire it. I think Denmark maybe think of buying it too. All European F-35s will built by Alenia-Aermacchi, except for the british and Turkish aircraft.

[Ctwentysevenj]

I think I detect a bit of envy from some members. Now the Italians are producing the F-35 JSF, the only production line outside Fort Worth Texas, USA, they playing down the achievements of Italian aerospace. The Italians have been producing Americans designed fighters since the 1950s, which started with the F-86K Sabre for many European air forces. Plus many of their own designs like the FIAT G-91 attack aircraft built for the German Air force, although produced under license by Dornier. Also the AMX attack aircraft. Now the Aermacchi M-346 advance jet trainer may have a good chance winning the US air force new advance jet trainer program, the TX program. Plus designs like the Eurofighter and the Tornado.

[Ctwentysevenj]

Also the F-104 Starfighter also produced by the Italians. Actually they are the only ones to produced the last and most powerful version , the F-104S.

[Ctwentysevenj]

Italians build the best sports cars so why not the best planes?

Other Italian planes, which are considered the best in their class
http://blog.privatefly.com/us/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/products_evo5.png
http://www.hawaiiarmyweekly.com/storage/2012/05/A3_DF_25thCAB_LastMile263_w.jpg
http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getasset.aspx?itemid=54803

[BeerBaron]

I think I detect a bit of envy from some members. Now the Italians are producing the F-35 JSF, the only production line outside Fort Worth Texas, USA, they playing down the achievements of Italian aerospace. The Italians have been producing Americans designed fighters since the 1950s, which started with the F-86K Sabre for many European air forces. Plus many of their own designs like the FIAT G-91 attack aircraft built for the German Air force, although produced under license by Dornier. Also the AMX attack aircraft. Now the Aermacchi M-346 advance jet trainer may have a good chance winning the US air force new advance jet trainer program, the TX program. Plus designs like the Eurofighter and the Tornado.

Playing down the achievements? wtf are you talking about

The fighter was made for a multitude of contributing countries........"joint strike fighter" it was meant to be manufactured outside of the US as well as in it.

[Ctwentysevenj]

https://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=MqdoOQxSdq4

[Smaug]

Not that it matters. Militarily speaking, Italy isn't sovereign.

Nobody in Europe is, except for Russia.

[Be fake]

Bollocks, mate. There's no technology transfer at all. The sole Level 1 partner is BAe Systems of UK, and they loudly complained that the Americans denied all access to really sensitive technologies and know-how (Italy is only a secondary contractor, like the Netherlands or Turkey).





The F-35 is notoriously a lemon, the costliest useless flying junk ever developed.

Italy is a secondary contractor like Netherlans. Turkey is a third level contractor.

There is enough technology transfer to allow us to build all the F35s we wish to have and export them to other countries.

F35 doesn't need to climb and turn because it's a stealth fighter bomber, not an outdated fighter like Rafale or Mig 29 made for dog fight and other tricks which are completely useless in modern warfare.

[Rudel]

And the Army is the primary user, not the airforce.
Mea culpa, I just tend to dismiss the separation between armies as being relevant (and it shouldn't be).

This being said, I highly doubt the usefulness of the F35 as being the versatile multi-purpose machine it needs to be, be it only from a cost/benefit standpoint. It's too expensive to be much more than a prestige acquisition.
If Americans had any sense they'd stick to existing platforms, with a few upgrades.


Maybe a bit envious the Italians are building this fifth generation fighter, and it is not being built by Dassault, which build fantastic fighters like the Rafale.
Never Ouistreham nor myself would express much jealousy over it. They're building a machine that's not theirs.


If it is a useless junk, how come countries like Australia, Japan, italy, UK , Netherlands, Norway and the USA are continuing to acquire it.
The US is known to put other nations under considerable pressure, even racketeering them, to have them buy their weaponry production. This has nothing to do with the inner qualities of the plane (although I'm sure it's an able plane on its own merits).


Nobody in Europe is, except for Russia.
Many armies in Europe are sovereign, include Britain and France. Some aren't, or are in name only, due to "integration" with NATO command, as is the case with Germany and Italy.


There is enough technology transfer to allow us to build all the F35s we wish to have and export them to other countries.
Try that and you'll be branded as a "rogue nation" and will have another score of yanks entering Sicily uninvited.


F35 doesn't need to climb and turn because it's a stealth fighter bomber, not an outdated fighter like Rafale or Mig 29 made for dog fight and other tricks which are completely useless in modern warfare.
There isn't such a thing as pure stealth. Trading actual manoeuvrability on the off-chance that the thing might go unnoticed is nothing but reckless.

[Be fake]

^^

We will talk again when the French build their first fifth generation jet fighter.

[Be fake]

Italians are also building Mangusta attack helicopter (similar to Eurocopter Tiger) and exporting it to Turkey.

http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2014/05/31/361397/88690e53bc19bd4fced5632c541872a8.jpg

[Jerban]

^^

We will talk again when the French build their first fifth generation jet fighter.

French don't need Muricans to build planes ;)

[adsız]

Italians are also building Mangusta attack helicopter (similar to Eurocopter Tiger) and exporting it to Turkey.

http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2014/05/31/361397/88690e53bc19bd4fced5632c541872a8.jpg


Not exactly..


The T129 ATAK is the helicopter selected in 2007 by the Government of Turkey for the Turkish Land Forces; development and production will be assured by the "ATAK Team", a Joint Partnership of Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI) and AgustaWestland. The first TAI-manufactured helicopter was delivered to Turkish Land Forces by the end of April 2014.

T129 is manufactured by TAI in Turkey.

https://www.tai.com.tr/en/project/atak

[adsız]

However still certain amount technology would've had to transfer to Alenia-Aermacchi in order to build the thing. Maybe a bit envious the Italians are building this fifth generation fighter, and it is not being built by Dassault, which build fantastic fighters like the Rafale. If it is a useless junk, how come countries like Australia, Japan, italy, UK , Netherlands, Norway and the USA are continuing to acquire it. I think Denmark maybe think of buying it too. All European F-35s will built by Alenia-Aermacchi, except for the british and Turkish aircraft.

F35 is a joint project. Program participants are USA, UK, Italy, The Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Norway and Denmark.


Industries of each participant countries have been contributing to the program. TAI – Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. has also undertaken important responsibilities.

One of the most complex structural section of the aircraft, "Center Fuselage" is produced by TAI.

Other work-packages are "Composite Components, Air Inlet Ducts and Air-to-Ground Alternate Mission Equipment Pylon Manufacturing".


https://www.tai.com.tr/en/project/jsf-f-35-program

[Be fake]

Production of F-35s in Italy...

http://i.imgur.com/uJxbjyI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/HVKoQAQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RSwRmcH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CdBKzNI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/iKdTd42.jpg

[Ishii]

French don't need Muricans to build planes ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Campini_N.1

Italians neither

[Mario]

French don't need Muricans to build planes ;)

Without Muricans France would be a German colony. ;)

[Rudel]

Without Muricans France would be a German colony. ;)
Now we're an American colony. Equally horrendous fate.

[Ctwentysevenj]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Campini_N.1

Italians neither

The Caproni Campini, one one the first jet aircraft produced, during the second world war.

[Ctwentysevenj]

Italians are also building Mangusta attack helicopter (similar to Eurocopter Tiger) and exporting it to Turkey.

http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2014/05/31/361397/88690e53bc19bd4fced5632c541872a8.jpg

Not exactly, but Agusta Westland have upgraded it with more powerful engines and given a license to Turkey to build it. Other Italian aircraft exported recently

C-27j to the US Army and Coast Guard
http://www.flightjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/c27.jpg

Aermacchi M-346 Master to the Israeli air force
http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getasset.aspx?itemid=54803

[Mario]

Now we're an American colony. Equally horrendous fate.

At least with the Germans, you would still be a 100% European country, and not a sort of Islamic Judaic Brazil like modern France.

:D

[Mario]

Not exactly, but Agusta Westland have upgraded it with more powerful engines and given a license to Turkey to build it. Other Italian aircraft exported recently

C-27j to the US Army and Coast Guard
http://www.flightjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/c27.jpg

Aermacchi M-346 Master to the Israeli air force
http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getasset.aspx?itemid=54803

Italy is also building the military satellite Göktürk-1 for Turkey. :thumb001:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göktürk-1

[Übermensch]

F35<<<sukhoi su-35.

[Mario]

F35<<<sukhoi su-35.

Even Putin is laughing.

http://replygif.net/i/1485.gif

[Übermensch]

Even Putin is laughing.

http://replygif.net/i/1485.gif

Russia has a much more advanced military technology than USA, just notice iskander and topol misseles.
USA have just more money to waste in ''intelligent weapons'' and to send troop everywhere in the world, but Russia is much superior in terms of military technology.
Ti consiglio di leggere questo articolo della pravda https://aurorasito.wordpress.com/2014/11/15/le-forze-nucleari-strategiche-della-russia-sono-piu-avanzate-di-quelle-degli-stati-uniti/

[Mario]

Russia has a much more advanced military technology than USA, just notice iskander and topol misseles.
USA have just more money to waste in ''intelligent weapons'' and to send troop everywhere in the world, but Russia is much superior in terms of military technology.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/uncyclopedia/images/5/5d/Stalin_Jamming.gif/revision/20090221235313

[Übermensch]

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/uncyclopedia/images/5/5d/Stalin_Jamming.gif/revision/20090221235313

Guarda che non sono assolutamente comunista (il mio orientamento politico lo puoi leggere nel profilo) considero comunque Stalin un grande per aver reso la Russia da paese agricolo arretrato in superpotenza industriale e nucleare capace di mettere in difficolta' anche gli USA, inoltre e' stato l'unico ad essere capace di sconfiggere veramente il genio di Hitler (75% delle truppe tedesche perse sul fronte orientale) gli americani e gli inglesi non hanno fatto un minimo del lavoro fatto da Stalin per sconfiggere la Germania Nazional-Socialista, sebbene sia nazional-socialista rispetto Stalin in quanto anche il suo regime era totalitario al pari di quello Hitler (e piu' di quello di Mussolini) e nazionalista (socialismo in un solo paese).

[Rudel]

At least with the Germans, you would still be a 100% European country, and not a sort of Islamic Judaic Brazil like modern France.

:D
I'd rather be a buttsex boy in the harem of a neo-Islamic emirate than anything German.

[Ballist]

Russia has a much more advanced military technology than USA, just notice iskander and topol misseles.
USA have just more money to waste in ''intelligent weapons'' and to send troop everywhere in the world, but Russia is much superior in terms of military technology.
Ti consiglio di leggere questo articolo della pravda https://aurorasito.wordpress.com/2014/11/15/le-forze-nucleari-strategiche-della-russia-sono-piu-avanzate-di-quelle-degli-stati-uniti/

Lmao are you fucking serious? The Soviets literally sent spies to the US to copy off blueprints in factories. They couldn't build anything better than the Americans. You know what they worried about? Quantity. Not quality, quantity. Just look at the T-55 or the MiG 21. The US has technology that would blow the Russians out of the water. Just look at the F22. You know why they aren't selling them? Because they are the best fighter jets, it would make the US vulnerable to be attacked. The F35 could have been better, I think, but the Sukhoi 31 is just another huge hunk of shit that the Russians glorify.

[BeerBaron]

Russia has a much more advanced military technology than USA, just notice iskander and topol misseles.
USA have just more money to waste in ''intelligent weapons'' and to send troop everywhere in the world, but Russia is much superior in terms of military technology.
Ti consiglio di leggere questo articolo della pravda https://aurorasito.wordpress.com/2014/11/15/le-forze-nucleari-strategiche-della-russia-sono-piu-avanzate-di-quelle-degli-stati-uniti/

No, it doesn't, you don't know what you are talking about again.

Building some advanced missiles is a cheap way to look like you are more powerful than you really are, the Russians have been doing this since the Soviet times.

This is what Russia has, some upgraded SU's, a new PAK, some satan missiles, and some decent anti ship missiles.

This is what it doesn't have, the entire support and command and control structure to maintain a long term invasion, or even go up against a moderately powerful country.

If you can't train, maintain, supply any army your handful of good weapons means absolutely nothing. Not only that, the few advanced weapons the Russians have are all for defense, and there aren't many of them, and even fewer that can use them.

[The Lawspeaker]

Italians build the best sports cars so why not the best planes?

Don't ask them to build you any trains (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyra), though...