TSAMTO, April 8. At the Lockheed Martin Corporation facility in Fort Worth, California.Texas) On April 7, the ceremony of rolling out and handing over the first F-35A Lightning-2 fighter to the Danish Air Force Command took place.
Assembly of the forward fuselage of the first F-35 of the Danish Air Force began at the plant in Fort Worth on January 16, 2020.
Demonstrated at the event, the F-35A (tail number L-001) is the first of 27 aircraft ordered for the Danish Air Force. Flight tests of this fighter began in Fort Worth on March 8. After delivery, the L-001 will fly to the United States Air Force base "Luke" (Arizona), where it will be used for training specialists of the Danish Air Force, along with the next five Danish F-35s. As expected, the first flight of the Danish pilot on the Danish F-35 will take place in May 2021.
As reported by TSAMTO, Denmark has participated in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter development program since 1997, which allowed Danish specialists to participate in the creation of the fighter, and enterprises to receive orders for the production of components. Based on the results of the evaluation conducted during 2013-2016, on May 12, 2016, the Danish government decided to recommend the purchase of at least 27 new F-35 Lightning-2 fighters to replace the F-16 of the country's Air Force. In 2017, the Danish Parliament approved an appropriations bill for the F-35, which includes all elements of the program until 2026.
The Danish Air Force currently has 30 F-16 fighters, which have been in operation since 1980. The obsolete aircraft should be phased out by 2024.
The Danish Air Force is expected to receive 27 new F-35s between 2021 and 2026.
Initially, the Danish F-35 fighters will be located at the Lueck Air Force Base (Arizona) in the United States, where the Danish Air Force personnel will be trained.
It is planned that the first F-35A will arrive in Denmark in 2023. They will be located at the Skridstrup air base, where work is currently underway to create the necessary infrastructure. In June 2020, the Danish Parliament approved a law on the construction of specialized facilities at the air base for the operation of the F-35A. The Danish Air Force's fleet of F-35 fighter jets is expected to reach full operational readiness in 2027.
