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| Lockheed Martin Has Sold 865 Units F-35 Lightning II And Printed 1,810 Pilots |
International Military - Lockheed Martin until November 2022 has delivered 865 units of F-35 Lightning II fighter jets and scored 1,810 pilots of this single-seat fifth generation aircraft. As for the F-35 technicians, 13,250 people have been successfully educated.
In accumulation, the F-35 Lightning II has recorded 590,000 flight hours from 26 bases that operate the aircraft nicknamed Lightning II. As many as 16 countries have operated/ordered the F-35, namely the United States, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
One country that has ordered the F-35 and trained its pilots has been canceled by the US, namely Turkey. While the United Arab Emirates ordered 50 F-35s, their status is still being delayed by the US.
The F-35 Lightning II prototype first flew on December 15, 2006. The F-35 is built by Lockheed Martin as a single-seat multirole stealth fighter. In the US Air Force (USAF), this aircraft is projected to replace the role of the F-16. The F-35 has electronic warfare capabilities and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, in addition to being a combat aircraft.
Lockheed Martin is prime contractor for the F-35 Lightning II, along with prime partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems developing the F-35 in three main variants, namely the Air Force version of the F-35A, Marine Corps F-35B and Force version of the F-35C. Sea.
The X-35 as the F-35 prototype was selected in 2001 in the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) competition against the X-32 developed by Boeing. The development of the JSF F-35 Program is principally funded by the United States and additional financial support from partner countries that are members of the F-35 Program, namely the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Italy, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Turkey. And recently Turkey has been excluded by the US from the F-35 Program because Ankara purchased the S-400 air defense system from Russia.
The F-35 first entered service in the US Marine Corps in July 2015, namely for the F-35B variant. A year later in 2016 the F-35A entered service with the USAF and the F-35C entered service with the US Navy in 2019.
The F-35 was first used in combat by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in 2018. The US plans to purchase 2,456 F-35s by 2044 to fill the needs of the USAF, US Navy and US Marine Corps. The F-35 is also proclaimed to be a NATO force until 2070.