Image reproduced from 自由時報電子報

Reported by Pan Kijia, the F-35A fuselage midsection production facility jointly built by Germany's Rheinmetall and America's Northrop Grumman was officially completed and opened on the 1st. Located in western Germany, this facility becomes the second global production line for F-35 fuselage midsections, with the first batch of products expected to be delivered to the U.S. in the upcoming autumn. This development significantly boosts the production capacity of the F-35 fighter and strengthens the European supply chain.

According to the military news website "Army Recognition," the new facility is situated in Wetz, North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, and was built with an investment of €200 million (approximately NT$6.8 billion). The planned production capacity for this line is expected to reach 30 sets of F-35A fuselage midsections annually, with potential expansion to 36 sets, aiming to produce at least 400 sets over the next 17 to 20 years.

The facility covers an area of approximately 60,000 square meters and includes production lines for manufacturing and assembling F-35A fuselage midsections, logistics, storage, research, testing, and training centers, as well as heavy machinery imported from the U.S. Currently, the facility employs around 200 staff and plans to increase the workforce to over 400 by the end of next year.

Reports indicate that orders for Lockheed Martin's F-35 series fighters have surged, with the German Air Force ordering 35 F-35As and expected deliveries starting in 2027. However, after Turkey's aerospace industry (TAI) was excluded from the F-35 program in 2019, Northrop had to independently produce the fuselage midsections of all F-35 variants, with the Palmdale plant in California responsible for the F-35A midsection. Therefore, the addition of Rheinmetall's new production line will assist in enhancing capacity and speeding up delivery timelines.