Paris Air Show 2025: Lockheed Martin lauds European milestones for F-35 programme

A US Air Force F-35A based at RAF Lakenheath in the UK was on static display at the Paris Air Show 2025. Including these jets, there will be approximately 700 F-35s serving across Europe by the early 2030s. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

Lockheed Martin used the Paris Air Show 2025 to highlight a series of recent milestones for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme in Europe.

Speaking on the opening day of the biennial event running from 16 to 22 June, senior company officials noted recent operational and programmatic achievements across the 13 European customers of the F-35, with discussions to secure further regional sales ongoing.

Multidomain gateway

“In March we had Exercise ‘Ramstein Flag', where for the first time ever we took live classified data from a Dutch F-35A, and we were able to download that data through [a Skunk Works-developed] gateway system, and actually insert it into their command-and-control system. The data was then transmitted to a ground-based rocket artillery system, which engaged a ground target … within minutes,” Greg Ulmer, president of Aeronautics at Lockheed Martin, said.

He added that this was followed up a short time later by the transfer of classified data from a Danish F-35A located at Fort Worth in the US back to its home base in Denmark. This, in turn, was followed in December 2024 by a UK demonstration for Project ‘Demos', “where we again took F-35 access data, and then we shared that with the Royal Air Force (RAF) command-and-control system directly”, he said.