Photo: Lockheed Martin
Call it a slow, ugly, or an overly expensive garbage aircraft as much as you want. But the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II will soon be the backbone of nearly all NATO-member Air Forces going forward, regardless of the public's unnecessarily negative opinion. It's Denmark that's become the latest NATO member to take the F-35 plunge; its shipment of four land-based optimized F-35As arrived at Skrydstrup Air Base in the Jutland Peninsula on October 1st and will be the first to be permanently based on Danish soil. It was an event attended by civilians and military personnel alike.
Over 450 Danish Military personnel and as many as 10,000 locals from around the Jutland Peninsula watched as Lockheed Martin officially transferred ownership of these stunning American-built jets. Each jet can cost upwards of $100 million per airframe, depending on the variant. This latest acquisition serves as an impact statement to the effect that Lockheed Martin won't be slow to supply NATO member states with the most capable stealth fighter platform ever designed.
With the Russian equivalent, the Sukhoi Su-75, still yet to make its first flight, the nearly 1000-strong F-35 airframes delivered thus far prove which side has the leg up in military production capabilities. In a hypothetical future war, these numbers could mean the difference between victory and abject failure. "The arrival of the first F-35 combat aircraft in Denmark is a historic event for the Danish Defence and the Royal Danish Air Force. It is thanks to close and professional cooperation between Lockheed Martin, the F-35 partnership, and the Danish Defence that Danish Defence now cross the threshold into the future of air defense," exclaimed Danish Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen.
As it turns out, Denmark played a vital role in the development of the F-35 Lightning II program. As far back as 2002, when the program was still under the X-35 designation for the Joint Strike Fighter initiative. At that time, Denmark loaned one of its F-16 Fighting Falcon single-engine fighters to the Joint Strike Fighter 461st Flight Test Squadron based out of Edwards Air Force Base in California to serve as a chase plane for the program. Today, a further six Danish-ordered F-35s are stationed out of Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, and a total of 27 F-35 airframes are expected to be delivered to the Danish by the time this international collaboration has finished.
It's all a part of an elaborate plan to station as many as 600 F-35 airframes of all three variants across Europe, and more specifically the Baltic states, by the 2030s in order to counter any Russian or Chinese influence in the region with a strong of an aerial force as has taken hold since World War II. When combined with forces from Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, and Poland, it's bound to be a stealthy fighting force, the likes of which we've never seen before.
With the Russian equivalent, the Sukhoi Su-75, still yet to make its first flight, the nearly 1000-strong F-35 airframes delivered thus far prove which side has the leg up in military production capabilities. In a hypothetical future war, these numbers could mean the difference between victory and abject failure. "The arrival of the first F-35 combat aircraft in Denmark is a historic event for the Danish Defence and the Royal Danish Air Force. It is thanks to close and professional cooperation between Lockheed Martin, the F-35 partnership, and the Danish Defence that Danish Defence now cross the threshold into the future of air defense," exclaimed Danish Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen.
As it turns out, Denmark played a vital role in the development of the F-35 Lightning II program. As far back as 2002, when the program was still under the X-35 designation for the Joint Strike Fighter initiative. At that time, Denmark loaned one of its F-16 Fighting Falcon single-engine fighters to the Joint Strike Fighter 461st Flight Test Squadron based out of Edwards Air Force Base in California to serve as a chase plane for the program. Today, a further six Danish-ordered F-35s are stationed out of Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, and a total of 27 F-35 airframes are expected to be delivered to the Danish by the time this international collaboration has finished.
It's all a part of an elaborate plan to station as many as 600 F-35 airframes of all three variants across Europe, and more specifically the Baltic states, by the 2030s in order to counter any Russian or Chinese influence in the region with a strong of an aerial force as has taken hold since World War II. When combined with forces from Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, and Poland, it's bound to be a stealthy fighting force, the likes of which we've never seen before.
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