Rheinmetall targets Lufthansa for the production of German F-35s
According to German newspapers, German defense conglomerate Rheinmetall could collaborate with Lufthansa's technology division to produce components for the F-35A Lightning II fighter jets
The German Rheinmetall and Lufthansa work together in the production of components for the F-35, a fifth generation fighter developed by the US aerospace group Lockheed Martin.
This is what a Business Insider report revealed this week according to which the German defense conglomerate and the Lufthansa group, which is part of Germany's flag carrier of the same name, will cooperate on German F-35s.
The agreement, which will also include ESG, a German company that produces electronic systems, should be announced on September 19th.
At the moment, neither Rheinmetall nor Lufthansa have commented on these rumors, which were also reported by the German media .
Rheinmetall will produce the central fuselage sections of the F-35A JSF in Germany. Last December, Berlin ordered 35 F-35s for a cost of 8.3 billion euros to replace the old Tornado, supplied to the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) since 1980.
All the details.
WHAT WILL RHEINMETALL DO FOR GERMAN F-35s
On August 1st, the defense group started construction of the F-35A fuselage core section factory at Weeze airport in North Rhine-Westphalia. Operational from 2025, the plant will produce these components for at least 400 aircraft per year, will cover an area of 60 thousand square meters and will create 450 jobs.
“With this agreement, the tank manufacturer wants to significantly strengthen its previously small aviation technology division,” Spiegel claims, adding that Rheinmetall has so far produced drones. Therefore the production of the important component of modern aircraft is a new product line.
THE ROLE OF LUFTHANSA
For its part, Lufthansa Technik has been providing assistance to Luftwaffe aircraft for many years and wants to be more involved in the defense sector in the future, the German newspaper notes. In particular, the Hamburg-based company could take on the maintenance of the aircraft and the supply of spare parts, as it has done for civilian companies for many years, according to Spiegel .
Famous military projects involving Lufthansa Technik include the Boeing Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and the planned Pegasus reconnaissance system, which will be housed in the Bombardier Global 6000 aircraft. Lufthansa Technik is also among the industrial partners in the planned purchase of 60 Boeing Chinook helicopters .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/rheinmetall-punta-a-lufthansa-per-la-produzione-degli-f-35-tedeschi/ on Fri, 08 Sep 2023 05:29:01 +0000.