The first F-35A Lightning II destined for the Polish Air Force has achieved a crucial milestone as it now stands with weight on wheels at Lockheed Martin’s assembly plant in Fort Worth, Texas.
This development marks a significant step in the aircraft’s progression down the production line.
Earlier this month, the aircraft, known as AZ-01, was assembled using an overhead crane at the plant’s electronic mate and alignment station. This crucial phase involved joining the forward and rear fuselage sections with the wing-centre fuselage assembly.
The F-35A will next move to final assembly where it will receive its control surfaces, final systems, and engine installation.
This F-35A is the first of 32 ordered by Poland as part of its modernisation efforts to enhance its defence capabilities. Upon completion, AZ-01 will be delivered to the Polish Air Force later this year and will initially be based at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas, USA, where Polish pilot training is scheduled to occur.
Got to give to the Poles they don’t mess about when it comes to Defence
They did mess around for decades, they only crossed 2% after 2019 which is one of the reason they are now overspending. Having your neighbouring country invaded while your biggest Allie openly talks about running a protection racket seems to focus the mind.
I believe they put their orders in for the F35s and a number of other high end items and war gamed their ability to withstand Russian invasion. I understand that even with their new purchases Warsaw would be over run in days far too soon for the rest of NATO to mobilise. Then Ukraine began and as you said it focussed the mind.
You think? Who and what with, Russia is just feeding their youth into a meat grinder and that lose is not going down well with the folks. Putin has to watch his back as he trusts NO one at all.
Don’t blame me for reporting the facts. If you’ve a problem with it take it up with Poland’s military planners.
Nath or Nathan?
Russia is in no position to attack anyone in addition to Ukraine without inviting disaster. That fact must be obvious to you. Make a nuisance of itself? Certainly. Likewise China is ultimately going to accept it cannot attack the interests of those countries that it needs to trade with that do not owe it trillions they cannot or have no intention to repay.
I would say that’s a very dangerous game as most analysts shows that china is pretty serious and Taiwan is a red line it will go to war over…this is a nation that killed millions of its own people in a big sociological experiment…it’s pretty much 50/50 that china will go to war with the U.S. over Taiwan…its pissing away many many hundreds of billions of dollars in preparation…including Harding its economy..a massive military build up…civil defence and security……you don’t do what the Chinese are doing unless your very seriously considering war.
It’s very hard to see how they could pull it off Jonathan, a Chinese amphibious invasion of the huge scale needed would be cut to bits as it tried to cross the straight. Chinese airborne forces would face stiff opposition and struggle to resupply, what’s China’s solution, threaten nuclear weapons unless they surrender??? China has to be able to capture and hold airports and ports to be able see an invasion through, their invasion would bog down and likely fail within a week. They might well be outnumbered, but the Taiwanese Airforce have a qualitative and training edge over China,… Read more »
I’m not so sure and to be honest neither is the Taiwanese’s military to be honest..the mismatch is huge and china is not a bankrupt has been power…it’s a superpower that in truth is far more of a threat than the USSR ever was..it’s only really it’s geography that means the west has been able to sit comfortable… if you look at the balance of power is not in Taiwan’s favour.. china has around 1200 5:to 4th generation fighters…the J20 is a bit of an unknown..but most feel it’s far better that SU-57….so how close it is to a F22… Read more »
Well the Americans know an awful lot about the stealth capabilities of a J-20 in reality, as to a degree China will know that of F-22s simply because they have confronted each other on various occasions around the region. Now one has to be careful in taking anything at face value (esp after events in Ukraine) but information that has got in the public gaze tells us the J-20 is up to hundreds of times less stealth capable than a Raptor especially from the front, and that Raptors were able to detect them quite easily and even that a Super… Read more »
Indeed, but unfortunately the F22 is not going to be a consideration in the front end of any Tiawan campaign..and if they are involved it will be a bit later if the US reacted into the theatre..at which point the world is heading to buggered….the air war to prevent an invasion would likely be that 100 F16s and 100 3rd generation and old 4th generation…it’s not much of a deterrent…one of taiwans problems and a big geopolitical issue is no one would sell them top end kit just incase it forces china’s hand…and Taiwan itself has been careful….remember in international… Read more »
Then please explain what the P.L.A. are waiting for?
Well at the moment they are putting about 300,000 tons of warship in the sea every couple of years or so…and will essentially be improving their capabilities faster than tiawan and the US for the next 5-6 years..infact the optimal timing from the point of view of Chinese power is between 2027 and 2030…xi has specifically instructed the nation to be ready for war by 2027….so the reason why is every year is an improving situation for china and will be for the next 6 or so years….
Yes and that is to frighten off the US war would be a disaster for both Countries and in part is why China was very happy to see Russia weaken, frighten and drive Europe out of the US or it so that a large part of its exports could be retained and the US eventually brought back onside by the simple fact China would potentially suddenly control up to 90% of various chip sectors… if they don’t destroy it all in the process of course.
Also don’t forget, in regards to the Russian Ukraine war..it’s a double win for china…Russia was a potential geopolitical enemy..with a real geostrategic set of issues for china…now it’s a nation within its own area of influence…a reasonably powerful ally huge, nuclear power, vast land mass full of resources..with a direct land link and easy sea links…Russia falling into Chinas influence and being a threat to Europe is a huge geopolitical and geostrategic influence and power multiplier…I don’t think people see how that affects the worlds balance of power…once the west was faced with a number of dispersed threats..in order… Read more »
I think that Chinas massive build up more to ensure it won’t be going to war with the US ie that the US simply wouldn’t take the hit of trying to stop it and thus whinge but do little to stop it. An actual war would be a disaster.
I think china will look at the U.S. posture at the time..they will use all the elements of political warfare in the meantime to try and win before it goes kinetic “ part of their paradigms is winning before the armies meet…But if they think the U.S. will join the fight ( and US rhetoric since JB took over is very strong) it’s very possible they will go for strategic surprise and try for a knockout of US western pacific forces to ensure they get a less opposed landing….the vast bulk of US forces are 2-4 weeks transit from the… Read more »
Nath or Nathan…both are fine. Would you and the rest of the reactionary ilk below read my comment. I was reporting what happened before 2019 when Poland was in it’s planning phases. Poland isn’t just making it’s procurement strategy up on the basis of the last few years they’ve been expecting something like this for years….warned the West who laughed at them, they’re not laughing now. The latest round of land purchases is just one pearl in a string of acquisitions that were based on war gaming done years before the invasion of Ukraine. YEARS BEFORE, for those who struggle… Read more »
I think we need to remember how everyone assumed Russia would walk over Ukraine in a matter of days. That this prooved to not be the case was a surprise to many. Russia would be foolish to try anything with Poland now.
‘Would you and the rest of the reactionary ilk below read my comment.’
The only response to my comment to Nath Nathan is abusive. You do not know me or my affiliations and I suspect that goes for others you seek to casually insult. Awareness of Polish history to the present is not confined to yourself.
Are the Polish military planners reporting that? Their original plan was to slow down any invasion till NATO mobilised, these new investments are the last I heard due to the new policy of fighting for every inch of their territory from day 1. Because they know what happens to territory and the people that Russia occupies and the threat of a nuclear response in any counter attack to retake what is now ‘new Russia’. Warsaw must be some 500km from Belarus that’s a lot of land to occupy on a broad front before NATO support arrives judged by Ukranian events.… Read more »
With all the purchases we are making and troops trained plus with proper stocks of ammunition Russia will never overrun us, firepower of our artillery by 2030 will be devastating for them and our air defence will be the strongest in entire Europe. So if Russia wants to invade us they better to hurry up and do it in next 2-3 years.
Poland is rapidly becoming the European No1 military conventional NATO power.
It’s more than capable of throwing back a Russian incursion with heavy losses.
That’s true but we need a time to reach full operational readiness till 2030, all our high ranking military officers say that openly, also we have exactly same problem like majority of NATO that is not enough of new recruits so there is debate now in Poland about return of mandatory military service if we want to complete all our units plus we must rebuild our reserves.
You should certainly be proud of the impressive way Poland is stepping up to the plate!
A first rate NATO country and an example to us all….
Less tv mate
Can you be more specific? I don’t watch TV btw
Like they thought they would overun Ukraine in 3 days? I don’t think so somehow.
Indeed, the Russians have lost a huge amount of their professional trained base and it’s modern equipment.
They are now reliant on warmed over T72’s and 1970’s artillery.
They certainly aren’t in any position to launch an attack on NATO
There are now a number of reports saying that Putin wants to test NATOs resolve. One said he’d even go so far as start a limited attack on a bordering Country. These reports aren’t just limited to Russian news agencies and online propaganda. There are even a few western agencies saying the same. The question would be why? At this point Russia are making limited gains in the Donbass. But at significant manpower and materiel cost. Which to any western country would be unsustainable. However, Russia have ramped up their war materiel production. Where they can now replace these losses… Read more »
Putin has not even succeeded against Ukraine, let alone taking on a country like Poland.
A bit like Ukraine was “over run” in “days” without any air force, let alone F-35, Navy or modern army to speak of?
That is actually the truth, our governments since 1989 did everything to weaken our military potential and now we have to speed up reaming like crazy, whole Europe did the same after end of cold war. Only capable parts of our forces in last 3 decades were SOF, some squadrons of Air Force and tank battalions as at least there was somebody with brain to keep our armored potential on decent level but we gave up to Ukraine over 350 tanks so now must buy from Korea and US.
Atleast they are making it up now, Poland will be quite the military power soon, I just home the Germans get their finger out and support you as well. The Russian’s will have very little chance now especially with Sweden and Finland joining.
I don’t trust much in Germany readiness by 2030, they are just slow with everything atm. Sweden and Finland are definitely very valuable allies but they military rather focus on defence of their own territory, Finns especially, but thanks to them domination over Baltic is almost certain. Russians to have a chance in conflict with us would have to declare full scale mobilisation and we’d all know about it months before anything potentially could happen. More than Moscow invasion on Poland I’m afraid they could try to go into Baltic States though. Generally Russians know that NATO has overwhelming power… Read more »
Russia weapons have been proven to be much better than what’s produced in US and the west generally and their army is battle hardened not like Nato who are fine fighting 3rd class armies or insurgents. The spell has been broken for the rest of the world to see. The combined West cannot even produce enough ammo to fight the Russians for more than few months. The Russians and Chinese both have hypersonic missiles which are unstoppable. The greatest fighting force in the world is a myth. You should read Andre Martanyov’s book ” Losing military superiority” to get up… Read more »
I don’t think Russia will chance it’s arm against Poland..even without NATO…its only chance would be a beheading move and Polands geography is not as open to that move…they would have to build up in Belarus then punch through the main axis of Polish defence….with Ukraine they had an option to try this because most of Ukraines land forces were in the east of the country and well away from the axis of advanced from Belarus…. This would change a lot if Ukraine fell, but there are lots of other places for Russia to expand and work on before it… Read more »
That’s correct conclusion, if Ukraine fell then we have significant problem on our Eastern border but I don’t belive it happens although Ukraine has a big problem with lack of manpower. You are also right that invading Poland is very risky for Russia as our territory is smaller and heavily forested with lot’s of rivers, lakes etc so it’s easier to hide and set up ambushes or shell approaching columns.
I just wish the UK government, either this one or the next, would wake up to the danger decades of cuts has left the UK & peace in Europe in. Poland is on the right track while we’re still procrastinating & denying the danger.
Hopefully will as I’m living in the UK and also want this country to be safe. On the other hand Britain has the best geographical position in Europe and Russian invasion is very unlikely. Poland is on potential frontline though so we do not have much choice, only what angers me and other Poles is that our governments woke up to the situation late as usual when it was obvious since at least 2014 that something major will happen soon.
Who said Ukraine is an Allie? They have killed to many Poles back in a day, no one even like them, plus no one will fight for the corrupt government,
Full of shit.
I can see Poland pushing for B61 bombs now to be deployed on NATO mission from these F35.
Makes a lot more sense Poland having them now than Belgium.
Great to nurd out on the aircraft assembly and see the brilliant tools that the skilled war fighters will use to keep us safe.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them.
R.I.P. 303 Squadron RAF (Polski)
A pilot.
It’ll be nice to see them on the Queen Elizabeth or Prince of Wales one day. I wonder whether they’re planning on doing that.
They won’t be going anywhere near QE and POW – wrong flavour of F35.
Only if they are using a crane to put them on and off again. Poland are getting the A version. You need the short take off and vertical landing B version to get on and off the carriers OR the C version to operate from catapult and arrested landing carriers.
Is there anywhere we’re we can see f35 future orders !?!! How full is the order book? What us the current backlog??
There are 2,500 orders for the F35 spread over the next 14 years. However the majority of orders including ours are done as US military sales. Basically we all club our order together and the Pentagon buys them however the Pentagon does not do multi year purchases as congress won’t authorise multi years budgets. So there is not a massive order book like you find with an Airbus where airlines pay for production slots into the future.
In Polish service the F35A has been given the name ‘Husarz’ after a famed Cavalry unit.
Very apt.
Bunch of overweight armchair quarterback Americans telling everybody how it is and how it would be if Russia invaded us it’s funny.
I note that the US Navy is pushing forward to get LRASM under the wings of P-8 & F-35B/C as fast as it can. A small buy of LRASM for UK P-8 & F-35B would be wise if someone else has paid for integration.
Given what we have seen from Poland to date (though the Tusk government has swerved towards Brussels and the less than obdurate E.U.) I think it would be in N.A.T.O.’s interest to expedite F35 deliveries to that nation rather than some others.
Apparently F35 customers have the choice as to where their orders are manufactured,both Poland and Germany selected Fort Worth TX,but Cameri in Italy is another option,Japan produces its own too.