Breaking news
F-35 multirole fighter aircraft MRO&U capability to be provided by Italy and Turkey.
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World
Aviation Defense & Security News - Italy & Turkey
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| F-35 multirole fighter aircraft MRO&U capability to be provided by Italy and Turkey | |||
The
US Department of Defense has assigned F-35 Regional Maintenance, Repair,
Overhaul and Upgrade capability for airframes and engines for the European
Region. The assignments were based on data compiled and analyzed by the
F-35 Joint Program Office that was collected from European Partners and
their industries. These initial MRO&U assignments will support near-term
engine and airframe F-35 overseas operations and maintenance and will
be reviewed and updated in approximately 5 years.
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As
part of the F-35 global sustainment strategy, participating nations were
provided with requirements outlining Regional MRO&U, or "heavy
maintenance" needs for both F-35 engine and airframe. Each country
was afforded the opportunity to work with their industrial base to provide
the F-35 enterprise work over and above their own F-35 needs. Regional
considerations such as forward basing, aircraft phasing, and transportation
also contributed to initial assignment decisions. In the European region, F-35 initial airframe MRO&U capability will be provided by Italy by 2018. Should additional airframe MRO&U capability be required, the UK would be assigned to supplement the existing capability. In the European region, engine heavy maintenance will initially be provided by Turkey, also in 2018, with Norway and the Netherlands providing additional capability approximately 2-3 years after Turkey’s initial capability. These maintenance assignments do not preclude the opportunity for other F-35 Partners and FMS customers, including those assigned initial airframe and engine capabilities, to participate and be assigned additional future sustainment work, to include component and system repairs, as the fleet grows and F-35 global presence expands. "This is the first of many opportunities we will have to assign F-35 global sustainment solutions," said F-35 Program Executive Officer, Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan. "As international F-35 deliveries increase and global operations expand, support provided by our international F-35 users becomes increasingly more important. We are grateful for the opportunity to work alongside these nations on a daily basis; this close teamwork enables the US Defense Department to make well-informed, best-value decisions to shape the F-35 global sustainment posture for decades to come." An announcement on the Asia-Pacific region workload assignments will be made at a later date. |
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