Our team at Samlesbury have completed the 250th aft fuselage for the F-35 Lightning II programme.

Manufactured on our state-of-the-art integrated assembly line, the section will be equipped and rigourously tested. Once this is complete, the fuselage will be transported to Lockheed Martin's final assembly facility in Fort Worth, Texas, where it will be integrated with the rest of the aircraft.

Jon Evans, Head of F-35 Lightning II Production Delivery for BAE Systems, said: 'Completion of the 250th aft fuselage of the F-35 Lightening II demonstrates the progress we have made and underlines our ability to deliver to the programme. Every part we produce not only benefits our own business and workforce, it also helps create work for 500 UK-based supply chain companies involved in the programme.'

The assembly facility at Samlesbury is presently undergoing a 4,500m² expansion which is due to be completed by January 2017. When the new facility is complete, it will be capable of manufacturing 160 aircraft sets per year, an increase of more than 150% from current levels.

The expansion will also provide more capacity, including larger areas for the paint shop and sub-assembly activity.

Our Company is producing the aft fuselage for every F-35 Lightning II and also manufacture vertical and horizontal tails for the programme. Further information on the F-35 Lightning II can be found here »

BAE Systems plc published this content on 11 July 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 12 July 2016 09:03:09 UTC.

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