The Royal Australian Air Force’s third F-35A Lightning II aircraft has rolled off the assembly line at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ production facility in Fort Worth.
The aircraft, A35-003, wears 3 Squadron markings which were applied in early November, the final stage in the production process ahead of several weeks of ground and flight testing.
The jet is due to be delivered to Luke Air Force Base in early 2018 to be used for pilot and maintainer training, before being permanently relocated to Australia in 2020.
3 Squadron is due to become the first RAAF F-35 operational unit.
