This is my first post on this important and famous site, allow me to extend my congrats to all the team and guys who contribute in any way to the development of the Community.
As most of you know, IT and NL are having strong industrial relationships due to the deal between both governments to produce two of three Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter batches at one of the two Final Assembly & Check-Out (F.A.C.O.) production plants outside the main at Forth Worth, TX.
The Italian F.A.C.O. is located in Piedmont, northern Italy, south of Malpensa Airport and near to Novara City.
the first 8 aircrafts has been preduced in US and starting from AN-9 ("A" states for F-35 CTOL variant, "N" the country code assigned to Netherlands and "9" is the production number), the production and testing is completely under the Italian F.A.C.O. managed by Lockheed Martin and Leonardo Aircrafts for the account of Italian Defense Minister.
CAM_3167 by Gianluca Conversi, su FlickrUp-to-date, 6 aircrafts have been assembled tested and 5 delivered.
AN-13 has been officially commissioned by RNLAF two weeks ago and AN-14 is currently under final revision before delivery; based on rumors, it should reach Leeuwarden within November.
AN-15 should start testing flights within end of the year, but it depends by the current Covid-19 situation.
Here below all Netherlands' F-35 stealth jets' photographies taken around Cameri AFB:
AN-9
NK1_5282 by Gianluca Conversi, su FlickrAN-10
CAM_2724 by Gianluca Conversi, su FlickrAN-11
CAM_3050 by Gianluca Conversi, su FlickrAN-12
CAM_3110 by Gianluca Conversi, su FlickrAN-13
CAM_3601 by Gianluca Conversi, su FlickrAN-14
CAM_3683 by Gianluca Conversi, su Flickr
NK8_0213 by Gianluca Conversi, su FlickrThank you.
Photos: © PSC/GLC Photo (Gianluca, Almos, Giovanni)
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