F-35 fleet surpasses 200,000 flight hours, 400th F-35 delivered

The F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin (Ft. Worth, Texas, U.S.) announce that they have delivered the 400th production F-35 aircraft, and that the overall F-35 fleet has achieved 200,000 flight hours across global operations.

The 400th production aircraft is a U.S. Air Force F-35A, to be delivered to Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The production total is comprises 283 F-35A, 87 F-35B and 30 F-35C deliveries. The 200,000 flight hours is the total for all F-35s in the fleet, including developmental test jets, training, operational, U.S. and international aircraft. Among the three variants, approximately 125,850 hours were flown by the F-35A, 52,410 hours by the F-35B and 22,630 by the F-35C.

“The F-35 is delivering transformational capabilities to the warfighter and with every delivery and every flight hour, the enterprise gets smarter, more mature and more effective,” says Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager of the F-35 Program.

To date, 400 F-35s have been delivered and are now operating from 17 bases worldwide. More than 800 pilots and over 7,500 maintainers are trained. Ten nations are flying the F-35, eight countries have F-35s operating from a base on their home soil, seven services have declared Initial Operating Capability, and three services have announced their F-35s have been used in combat operations.

The enterprise is on track to deliver 131 aircraft to the warfighter this year, up 40% from last year. The F-35 program is expected to complete Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) this year and officially transition from the System Development and Demonstration phase and into full rate production and a focus on development, production and sustainment.

“The F-35 air system is a key enabler of our National Defense Strategy and delivers the combat proven, advanced capabilities our warfighters and partners need to meet mission requirements,” says Vice Admiral Mat Winter, program executive officer for the F-35 Joint Program Office. “This 400th delivery is a significant milestone as the F-35 enterprise continues to grow and expand around the world. The collaborative efforts across the JPO, U.S. services, partners and industry remain focused on driving costs down, quality up and faster delivery timelines across our development, production and sustainment lines of effort.”

In other F-35 news, Magellan and BAE Systems recently announced a ramp-up in F-35 horizontal tail assemblies.