The Defense Department has announced various maintenance and upgrade locations for the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 joint strike fighter in Europe, DoD said Thursday.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, executive officer for the F-35 Lightning II program, said Italy will open facilities for F-35 initial air frame maintenance and repair by 2018 through a $1 billion investment, Claudette Roulo reports.
Bogdan added that the U.K. is being eyed to provide an additional air frame depot site if the Italy-based site shifts toward production, according to the report.
“As Italy builds up their production capability at the FACO, there’s an opportunity later on to add more production capacity to that FACO if other partners and the U.S. want to build their planes there,” he said.
The general added that Turkey will also provide maintenance facility for the Pratt & Whitney-built F-35 engines by 2018 and later Norway and the Netherlands for additional capability, DoD says.
