The F-35 Lightning assembly line outside Milan and why NATO's stealth fighter is now made in Italy

The F-35 Lightning II Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility in Cameri, Italy, operated by Leonardo, is one of only three F-35 assembly lines worldwide—and it’s ramping up production in 2026. The plant builds identical-capability stealth fighters for Italy, the Netherlands, and other European NATO partners, while serving as the continent’s primary sustainment and maintenance hub for the program.

Why Is the F-35 Being Built in Italy?

The F-35 program maintains three global assembly lines:

Fort Worth, Texas — Lockheed Martin’s primary production facility
Nagoya, Japan — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, primarily for Japanese aircraft
Cameri, Italy — Leonardo, serving European NATO customers

Italy’s involvement traces back to its role as a Level Two partner in the Joint Strike Fighter program in the early 2000s. The partnership agreement included industrial workshare proportional to Italy’s investment. Cameri became the crown jewel of that arrangement, keeping aerospace engineering talent employed in Europe and building institutional knowledge of fifth-generation manufacturing.

The facility employs more than 3,000 workers—engineers, technicians, and quality control specialists—all trained to Lockheed Martin’s standards but employed by Leonardo. This technology transfer gives Lockheed distributed production capacity and reduced risk, while Italy gains cutting-edge aerospace manufacturing expertise that feeds its broader defense industrial base.

What Does Cameri Actually Produce?

Cameri assembles full-spec F-35A models (conventional takeoff) and F-35B models (short takeoff and vertical landing). These are not watered-down export variants. Same stealth coating. Same sensor fusion. Same mission systems. Jets rolling out of Cameri are identical in capability to those produced in Fort Worth.

Beyond final assembly, the facility also manufactures wing structures for the global F-35 supply chain, contributing components to aircraft assembled elsewhere.

Which Countries Receive F-35s From Cameri?

The European F-35 operator list is extensive and growing: Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, Finland, Germany, Czech Republic, Greece, and Switzerland. The Italian Air Force alone is slated to receive 90 aircraft, while the Netherlands committed to 52.

As more nations come online, Cameri’s production tempo is increasing. Leonardo has invested heavily in expanding capacity to meet demand from a continent standardizing on a common fighter platform.

Why Does a European Assembly Line Matter Strategically?

From a logistics and sustainment perspective, having an F-35 maintenance, repair, overhaul, and upgrade hub on European soil changes the operational calculus for every NATO operator in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa:

Faster turnaround — No transatlantic shipping for heavy maintenance
Shorter supply lines — Depot-level work available in theater
Higher fleet readiness rates — Reduced downtime for European operators

The F-35B variant assembled at Cameri is particularly significant. These STOVL jets operate off smaller carriers and austere forward bases. The Italian Navy flies them from the carrier Cavour, and the Royal Air Force operates the same variant from Queen Elizabeth-class carriers. In-theater assembly and maintenance capability keeps these naval aviation assets mission-ready at rates impossible if every heavy maintenance action required a return to the United States.

What About Production Resilience?

Having stealth fighter production on European soil means NATO’s defense industrial capacity isn’t bottlenecked through a single facility in one country. If something disrupted the Fort Worth line—natural disaster, supply chain failure, or conflict—Cameri can continue delivering aircraft to allied nations. That redundancy is deliberate strategic architecture.

The facility is also positioned to take on additional roles as the program matures, potentially including technology refresh work where older Block Three aircraft receive upgrades to Block Four standards with new processors, software, and electronic warfare capabilities.

How Does This Affect General Aviation?

The F-35 program drives avionics technology, materials science, and manufacturing processes that eventually reach civil aviation. The sensor fusion concepts in the F-35’s helmet-mounted display system share lineage with synthetic vision systems appearing in Garmin panels. Advanced composites developed for stealth airframes influence materials used by Cirrus and Textron in next-generation designs.

For pilots flying in Europe, the operational impact is more immediate. As European nations receive more F-35 deliveries and conduct increased training sorties, airspace restrictions around NATO bases change. Understanding where these squadrons operate and when they’re active becomes part of responsible preflight planning.

Key Takeaways

Cameri produces full-capability F-35A and F-35B fighters identical to those built in Fort Worth, Texas
Over a dozen European NATO nations are receiving or have committed to F-35s, with Cameri as the continental production and sustainment hub
The facility employs 3,000+ workers and represents one of the largest technology transfer arrangements in defense history
Production redundancy is deliberate — distributed assembly protects against single-point-of-failure disruption to allied air power
Fifth-generation fighter technology in avionics and materials science continues to influence civil aviation development