Aviation Week & Space Technology - January 15, 2015

its FACO in Nagoya in the center of
the island chain.
The foreign facilities include the
same electronic mating and assembly
(EMAS) tooling—only in fewer num-
bers—used by prime contractor Lock-
heed Martin at its final assembly plant
in Fort Worth, and they were designed
with maintenance work in mind. Four
EMAS stations are at the Cameri site,
but the facility includes 11 worksta-
tions, at least five of which are initially
configured for MRO work.
The first Italian-assembled F-35A is
slated to roll of the Cameri assembly
line by March.
Much of the work in Italy will be
managed by Alenia, which is owned by
Finmeccanica, a company lately em-
broiled in controversy. Company CEO
Mauro Moretti says the work will have
“significant technological content and
will generate sizable economic and oc-
cupational returns.” He sees the work
as part of a larger strategy as the
company works to overcome a severe
dip in stock value in the wake of cor-
ruption probes that landed Moretti’s
predecessor, Giuseppe Orsi, in jail in

2013. “Today’s acknowledgment is the
      result of an efective strategy at the
      national level. It stands out as a key
      factor in the path to relaunching the
      group with a focus on enhancing its
      core business areas of excellence,”
      Moretti says.
      Work on the Japanese FACO in
      Nagoya began last May, and the first
      major subcomponents are slated to be
      loaded into the EMAS tooling there in
      December 2015. The first Japanese-
      assembled F-35A is slated to roll out
      of the facility in 2017.
      Design of the Nagoya site was driven
      by the constraints of its location in a
      densely developed area. A small physi-
      cal footprint forced planners to design
      a “vertical” FACO, Bogdan says, not-
      ing that it will incorporate elevators
      to move aircraft among various floors
      for different workstations. Tokyo’s
      first four jets will be assembled in
      Fort Worth. Bogdan, who visited Na-
      goya about six months ago, says he is
      “amazed” at the pace of work to build
      the facility up there. He provided no
      economic impact data for Japan.

Turkey was not a surprise choice for

the engine work in Europe. F135 man-

ufacturer Pratt & Whitney has agreed

with the Turkish military to build an

engine facility there, and the company

has arrangements with local companies

to build parts for the propulsion system.

Norway’s state-owned AIM Norway

will oversee its work eventually.

The three engine facilities in Eu-

rope—in Turkey, Norway and the

Netherlands—were selected because

the program required at least three

separate engine test cells to service

the number of fighters expected to op-

erate in the region. No single country

was able to spend millions of dollars to

house multiple test cells, driving the

partners to establish multiple plants.

The Pentagon plans to use these fa-

cilities around the globe for repair of its

aircraft to avoid having to transit fight-

ers to and from the continental U.S.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is planning for

F-35A and C repair at Hill AFB, Utah;

the Marines’ F-35Bs will be overhauled

at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina.

As the maintenance footprint for the

F-35 takes shape, the Pentagon also an-

nounced late last year that Lockheed

Martin’s F-35 facility in Forth Worth

in 2014 met its goal of delivering 36

F-35s—the most in a single year. This

batch included the first Marine Corps

F-35C as well as six other Cs for the

U.S. Navy, four F-35Bs for the Marines

and 25 F-35As (including the first two

for Australia). c

AviationWeek.com/awst AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/JANUARY 15-FEBRUARY 1, 2015 51

Alenia employees use an EMAS
station that replicates those used
at the primary assembly site in Fort
Worth to mate F-35 structures at
Cameri.

Angus Batey London

Staying Alive

Germany may revive Euro Hawk program

with U.S. Navy’s Triton

G

ermany may turn to the U.S.

Navy’s Northrop Grumman

MQ - 4C Triton to resurrect its

Euro Hawk program and claw back

some of the nearly €600 million ($750

million) invested in the project. The

May 2013 cancellation resulted from

concerns about the system’s ability to

satisfy airworthiness regulations nec-

essary to permit flight in civil airspace.

However, another Northrop Grum-

man Global Hawk derivative—the U.S.

Navy’s MQ-4C Triton—may enable

the German defense ministry to re-

start the airborne signals intelligence

capability, filling a gap left since the

German navy’s fleet of five Br.1150 At-

lantique aircraft were retired in 2010.

According to Lt. Col. Roland Runge,

the Luftwafe’s unmanned air system

(UAS) tactics and air reconnaissance

branch head, and the former lead of-

ficer on Euro Hawk, a similar platform

ofers one of only two possible options

to deploy the Euro Hawk’s sensor

package. With investment in the pay-