The joint venture of Leonardo and Lockheed Martin on May 5 rolled out the first F-35B Lightning II built at the Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility in Cameri, Italy. The aircraft is also the first short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the fighter assembled outside of the U.S.

Plans call for a first flight of the inaugural F-35B fighter in late August, followed by delivery to Italy’s Ministry of Defense in November. After a series of confidence flights, an Italian pilot will fly the fighter early next year to the U.S. Navy’s Patuxent River, Maryland, naval air station for required electromagnetic environmental effects certification. The next Italian F-35B is scheduled for delivery in November 2018.

Italy’s defense ministry owns the FACO, which Leonardo operates in conjunction with Lockheed Martin. The facility employs 800 people who assemble the F-35B STOVL and the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variants and produce F-35A wings. The current program calls for the FACO to produce 30 F-35Bs and 60 F-35As for Italy along with 29 F-35As for the Royal Netherlands Air Force. It has capacity to deliver more fighters to other European partner countries.

The FACO to date has delivered seven F-35As—four that are now based at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona for international pilot training and three that are stationed at Amendola Air Base on the Adriatic coast. The facility will deliver two further F-35As for the Italian Air Force this year.

Gen. Claudio Graziano, Italy’s chief of defense; Gen. Carlo Magrassi, director of national armament; Adm. Mathias Winter, F-35 Joint Program Office deputy program executive officer; Filippo Bagnato, Leonardo aircraft division managing director; and Doug Wilhelm, Lockheed Martin F-35 program management vice president, spoke at the roll-out event.

In a separate development, the U.S. Air Force announced on May 6 that the F-35A will appear at the Paris Air Show in June, reversing its earlier decision to skip the biennial event. In a statement, the service noted that eight F-35As and several hundred airmen deployed to Europe for the first time in April to train with allied nations.

“The F-35A strengthens partnerships and improves regional stability,” stated Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein. “We welcome the opportunity to further demonstrate the revolutionary capabilities of this aircraft.”