The aircraft completed its first flight this week at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Fort Worth. The German Embassy in the United States announced the milestone and the planned delivery.
Initial deliveries and pilot training will take place at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas. F-35A operations will subsequently move to Büchel Air Base in Germany.
The acquisition will place Germany within Europe’s expanding community of F-35 operators. Hundreds of the aircraft are already flying with NATO allies, creating a common platform for combined operations.
The German Embassy said the fleet would strengthen interoperability within NATO. It also linked the program to the alliance’s integrated air-defense and deterrence posture at a time of heightened security concerns in Europe.
The first delivery marks a new stage in defense cooperation between Germany and the United States. It also reinforces the industrial and strategic relationship supporting Germany’s transition to the F-35A.
