AIR International – June 2018

ITALIAN F-35A LIGHTNING II MILITARY

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undergoing F-35 pilot conversion and

subsequent appointment as the commander

of 32° Stormo. Marzinotto is well-placed to

give an overview of the service introduction of

the F-35; a revolutionary weapon system.

F-35s procured by Italy to date are from

low-rate initial production lots, which denotes

them as pre-series production aircraft, a result

of the programme’s concurrent development

model, which was used to minimise

completion of this large, complex and

sophisticated weapon system programme.

The term signifi es that the SDD phase would

be undertaken concurrently with the initial

production phase su cient to equip US

and allied air arms with aircraft to begin to

verify the aircraft’s capabilities. Additionally,

pilots, maintainers and associated personnel

could be trained, which in turned allowed

the amount of operating data and feedback

gathered to be increased, thereby accelerating

the aircraft’s SDD phase and progressive

improvement of the fi nal product.

The Italian MoD decided to acquire its own

aircraft from Lot 6, thereby receiving aircraft

confi gured to Block 3i standard, an interim

confi guration ahead of Block 3F, the fi rst

full-up operational standard. As an interim

confi guration, Block 3i o ers substantial

operational capability and can be easily

upgraded to Block 3F standard.

As a Level 2 partner nation, Italy contributes

around 4% of the programme’s overall costs

and automatically follows the upgrade

programme in sync with the US services and

the UK, which is the only Level 1 partner.

Therefore, Italian aircraft are in the same

confi guration as those operated by the United

States. Upgrade of the Italian aircraft to Block

Riccardo Niccoli visited

Italy’s F-35 wing at

Amendola in the southern

province of Puglia

Quinta generazione Italiana