Lockheed & South Korea Roll Out The New F-35 Lightning II
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Lockheed Martin and South Korea rolled out the first Korean F-35A Lightning II fighter jet during a ceremony this morning in Fort Worth.
Aerospace leaders and officials from the U.S. Air Force, Korean Air Force, and Department of Defense were all on hand to celebrate the roll out of the first F-35A for the Republic of Korea Air Force.
The stealth jet is being touted as the "most advanced fighter aircraft ever built."
The Republic of Korea Air Force plans to receive more than three-dozen F-35As through the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales program and all of the fighters will be built at Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth.
The first aircraft will be delivered to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona -- where Korean fighter pilots will train.
During the ceremony there were lot of comments about the impact the F-35A will have on the economy and on global safety and security. "Today we celebrate our shared vision to protect our citizens, to ensure peace in the Asia Pacific region and more over to ensure peace around the world," Orlando Carvalho, the executive vice president of Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics.
The F-35A aircrafts are scheduled to be completed and arrive in 2019.