Northrop Grumman Completes Center Fuselage For First F-35 Aircraft In Japan

(RTTNews) - Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) said that it has completed the center fuselage for the first F-35 Lightning II aircraft to be assembled in Japan's F-35 Final Assembly and Checkout or FACO facility in Nagoya, Japan. The center fuselage, designated AX-5, will be integrated into an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant.

The center fuselage is a core structure of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. As a principal member of the F-35 industry team, Northrop Grumman designed and produces the center fuselage for all three F-35 variants: the F-35A; the F-35B short takeoff vertical landing variant; and the F-35C carrier variant.

The AX-5 center fuselage is one of 42 center fuselages that Northrop Grumman will produce for Japan. It is the 207th center fuselage that the company has produced at its Palmdale site, and the 30th such unit delivered this year.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will perform final assembly and checkout of the Japanese F-35As. The process includes mating the center fuselage to the forward fuselage/cockpit and wings produced by Lockheed Martin, and the aft fuselage produced by BAE Systems.