# Rheinmetall begins construction of F-35 fuselage plant in Weeze, Germany

Rheinmetall held a groundbreaking ceremony on August 1, 2023 for a new production plant in Weeze, Germany to manufacture central fuselage sections for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The plant costs over EUR 100 million, will create over 400 jobs, and production is set to launch in the second half of 2025.

- Type: New facility
- Announced: 2023-08-01
- Where: Weeze, Germany, Germany
- Value: $110.0M (100.0M EUR)
- Jobs: 400
- Starts operating: Q3 2025
- Status: under construction
- Capacity: at least 400 sections
- Products: F-35 Lightning II central fuselage sections
- Sectors: [Aerospace Components](https://endata.com/sectors/aerospace-components.md)

## Companies

- [Rheinmetall](https://endata.com/companies/2541.md)
- [Lockheed Martin](https://endata.com/companies/6612.md) (partner)
- [Northrop Grumman](https://endata.com/companies/6849.md) (partner)

## Sources

- [defence-industry.eu](https://defence-industry.eu/rheinmetall-begins-construction-of-a-production-plant-for-f-35-fuselage/), 2023-08-02: "On August 1, in Weeze, Germany, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for a new production plant for the central fuselage sections of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II multi-role combat aircraft."
- [edrmagazine.eu](https://www.edrmagazine.eu/ground-breaking-ceremony-rheinmetall-begins-construction-of-state-of-the-art-f-35-factory-in-weeze-germany), 2023-09-09: "Rheinmetall is investing more than €100 million to build a cutting-edge production facility."

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Data from Endata (https://endata.com/). Announcements are summarized from public sources and may be incomplete; check the linked originals.