First 6º Stormo F-35A officially presented

On 16 June 2022, the first Aeronautica Militare (ItAF, Italian Air Force) 6º Stormo Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II MM7366/6-01 (build number AL-16) in full livery and with toned down ‘Diavoli Rossi’ markings was officially presented at Ghedi air base.

Ghedi air base, located about 15 kilometres south of Brescia in northern Italy, is the second ItA F-35 Lightning II air base. The other is Amendola air base on the Adriatic Sea coast.

As all Italian Lightning IIs, MM7366 was built at the Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility at Cameri (NO). The FACO in Italy is owned by the Italian Ministry of Defence and is operated by Leonardo in conjunction with Lockheed Martin for the assembly of the F-35A and F-35B variants and F-35A wing production.

On 6 June 2022, after some test and acceptance flights at Cameri, MM7366 was delivered as 'Devil01' to the southern air base Amendola (Foggia). Amendola is the home base of the 13° Gruppo (Squadron) of the 32° Stormo (Wing), which already operates the F-35A. Some personel of the 6º Stormo are deployed there for the on-the-job training.

The second 6º Stormo F-35A Lightning II MM7367/6-02 (build number AL-17) made already its first test flight on 9 May 2022.

Photo by Luciano Zanini