Australian industry has now been awarded more than AUD1 billion (USD786 million) in subcontracting work on the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter aircraft programme and the government said it is planning to secure more.

The Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, today announced that Australian industry has been collectively awarded over $1 billion in production for the F-35 program.

Australia’s third F-35A aircraft has rolled off the assembly line at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, marking another major milestone in Australia’s F-35A Project.

With just over a year until the first two F-35A aircraft arrive in Australia, RAAF Base Williamtown personnel have joined other subject matter experts to assess the base’s readiness to support critical F-35A air operations.

The warehouse and distribution centres will enable the program to optimise and manage aviation inventory, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) stated.

Less than 500 days remain until the first two Australian F-35A aircraft arrive in Australia for permanent basing in Williamtown.

The Australian Ministry of Defence has released the latest version of Lightning News, sharing news and information about Australia’s F-35 Lightning II.

Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, has joined Rockwell Collins Australia at its facility in Sydney to witness the production of its 100th Optical Assembly for the F-35 electro-optic distributed aperture system (DAS).

Adelaide-based defence companies are in line to win hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work as the Federal Government’s purchase of 72 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft creates thousands of jobs across Australia.

Hundreds of millions of dollars will flow into the Hunter, off the back of news Australia will handle maintenance and repairs for the Joint Strike Fighter in the Asia Pacific.

In a major win for the nation’s defence industry, Australia has been chosen to provide Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade for the componentry of the Joint Strike Fighter in the Asia Pacific Region worth approximately $100 million to our economy, creating and sustaining hundreds if not thousands of jobs.

Kim Gillis, the Department of Defence’s deputy secretary for its capability acquisition and sustainment group, told the 2016 Defence Industry Conference he believed there was no other program that better demonstrates the value of partnerships to build capability.