Seventh combat aircraft to be delivered to Norway

F-35 F-35s LockheedA Lockheed Martin F-35A fighter plane. Photo: US Air Force / NTB scanpix

On Thursday night, the seventh F35 aircraft landed at the Luke Air Force base in the United States. Over 10% of deliveries of the combat aircraft have been completed.

 

Norway will acquire up to 52 F-35 combat planes. So far, parliament has given authority to order 40 such aircraft. If the current plan stayes on track, Norway will receive its last aircraft in 2024, the Norwegian Air Force wrote in a press release.


‘This shows that everything is running as planned and on route. The last plane was actually delivered one day early’, said Lieutenant Martin Tesli, the Norwegian chief of the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.


‘Our pilots will get the necessary training, so that the F-35 can start taking over tasks from our current F-16s in 2019,” said Tesli.


In November, the Armed Forces receive the first three Norwegian aircraft on Norwegian soil.


‘I’m looking forward to the first new combat aircraft coming to Norway, and we can start the training from the Ørland Air Base,’ said Air Force Chief, General Maje Tonje Skinnarland.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today