Civilian aviation enthusiasts in Italy have captured the first test flight of a Polish F-35 fighter jet, marking a significant milestone in Poland’s military procurement and delivery schedule. <\/p>\n
The test flight of the F-35 destined for Poland was captured by civilian aviation enthusiasts from Italy. Photographs of the aircraft, bearing the number 3517, were published on Instagram by Diego Mor on July 21, though they were only later noticed by the industry portal “The Aviationist”. According to the photographer living near the Cameri facility, this is also the 100th F-35 aircraft manufactured at that plant.<\/p>\n
The former military airfield in Cameri houses one of only two final assembly lines for the F-35 outside the USA. The main line is located in Fort Worth, Texas, where the vast majority of these aircraft are built, including the first half of Poland’s order. European F-35 buyers can purchase aircraft at the same price from the Italian plant, where components delivered from around the world are assembled into standard A and B versions\u2014the latter for short takeoff and vertical landing\u2014primarily for the Italian, Belgian, and Dutch air forces. A second similar line is located in Japan for its military.<\/p>\n
Production at both facilities takes place under the supervision of US engineers, with the aircraft functioning as global assemblies. Under the Joint Strike Fighter program, numerous countries initially invested in research and development to secure industrial benefits later. The United Kingdom, a Level 1 partner, benefits the most, producing most of the tail sections for all F-35s. The Netherlands and Italy are Level 2 partners, with Italy holding a significant share in wing production for all F-35s. Components manufactured globally are transported to assembly lines; for instance, the main fuselage section of the first Polish F-35 assembled in Cameri was built in 2025 in the USA.<\/p>\n
The selection of the Italian assembly line has been offered to European clients for several years, though Poland’s specific reasons were not widely publicized. Unofficially, the decision aims to accelerate deliveries because the Fort Worth facility faces a much heavier order backlog, producing over 100 aircraft annually compared to Italy’s average of about 10. “The Aviationist” also claims that the Italian facility builds aircraft in the older TR-2 version, featuring an older and less powerful onboard computer. The US now produces only modernized TR-3 units, which have experienced major problems and have not yet been fully approved due to required software modifications. Although Poland formally purchased TR-3 aircraft, Warsaw opted for half of its F-35 fleet in the older TR-2 configuration to speed up delivery, on the condition that the manufacturer will modernize them in the future.<\/p>\n
Choosing the Italian facility likely underpins the revised delivery schedule for Poland’s F-35s. Originally, only a few units were expected to arrive in Poland this year, but the new plan anticipates up to a dozen. A similar number is scheduled to arrive in 2027, effectively concluding deliveries, followed later by aircraft currently used to train Polish pilots in the USA. The entire process will likely conclude by 2029. The catch is that once the US resolves issues with the TR-3 version, half of Poland’s F-35s will require unplanned modernization, likely at the Cameri facility, which also serves as the service center for all European F-35s.<\/p>\n
Poland has ordered a total of 32 F-35 aircraft.<\/p>\n
Edited by Jan Lata\u0142a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Civilian aviation enthusiasts in Italy have captured the first test flight of a Polish F-35 fighter jet, marking a significant milestone in Poland’s military procurement and delivery schedule. First Polish F-35 Spotted in Italy The test flight of the F-35 destined for Poland was captured by civilian aviation enthusiasts from Italy. Photographs of the aircraft, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-and-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}