FIRST F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER TO ARRIVE AT EGLIN THIS MONTH

If you thought the Army’s 7th Special Forces was going to make a positive economic impact to the area, you haven’t seen anything yet. With the training of the Navy, Marines, Air Force pilots and maintainers being conducted here at Eglin AFB, along with approximately 12 other NATO countries and the Israelis, I can assure you the eyes of our military and the military from around the world are upon us and the economic impact will be far reaching for many years to come. STAY TUNED.

First F-35 expected this month
Mona Moore
2011-06-07 19:35:44
Officials at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics are days away from sending Eglin Air Force Base its first of 59 Joint Strike Fighters. “We are very close to delivering the first jet down there and I would say we believe it will happen in the month of June,” said Mike Rein, a spokesman for the company. The arrival of the first F-35 will start a string of deliveries from this month to September. Six jets are slated for delivery by the end of the fiscal year, Rein said. The base will receive the majority of the jets within the next three years. “While we’ll still be delivering aircraft to other bases, Eglin will be the primary focus for the coming years,” Rein said. Since Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates restructured the program last January, Rein said the deliveries are on schedule. The proposed delivery date when the Draft Executive Summary came out last September was four planes in 2010 and 26 planes in 2011. Instead, the first six aircraft will be bought this year and another six the following year. The rate of delivery will eventually increase until Eglin receives its 59 aircraft. Other than test aircraft, Eglin will be the first base to receive F-35s. The jets will be used to train F-35 pilots and maintainers at the 33rd Fighter Wing’s Joint Strike Fighter Training School. The first pilots who will train on the F-35 will be instructors. Some of them, including Marines, are already stationed at Eglin and are a part of the cadre tasked with forming the curriculum. Rein said Lockheed and Eglin plan to have events where the public can see the aircraft sometime this year. Officials at the Pentagon and Eglin said the base is working closely with Lockheed Martin and will announce the jet’s arrival when the date is firmly in place. The Joint Strike Fighter is the country’s first fifth-generation, multirole fighter. “This is going to give our armed forces the capability that they’ve never had before and it is going to be a tremendous leap in technology,” Rein said. “We’re quite excited about it.”