Paul Giblin

The Republic | azcentral.com

Pentagon's top officer for F-35 program tours Luke Air Force Base.

Construction of facilities outpaces arrival of the stealth fighter jets.

Total build-out at Luke expected to hit %24290 million in 10 years.

With $110 million in construction either complete or underway, Luke Air Force Base is shaping up well to be the world's largest pilot-training base for F-35 Lightning II fighter jets, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher C. Bogdan, the Pentagon's top officer for the F-35 program.

"We have asked them to do a lot here," said Bogdan, who toured the base in Glendale on Tuesday for first time.

"From what I saw today, in terms of the professionalism from the maintainers to the instructors to the civil-engineering crews getting this place ready, this is going to be a showcase for F-35 training for a long, long time," he said.

The F-35, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, is projected to be a mainstay of the U.S. defense strategy for 40 to 50 years.

The radar-evading jet is designed to replace a variety of older planes throughout the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps inventories.

Luke is projected to host six squadrons made up of 24 F-35s each, for a combined total of 144 of the supersonic planes.

Pilots from the U.S., as well as from eight allied countries that helped fund the program, will train side by side on the fifth-generation fighter jets. Furthermore, pilots from additional countries that buy F-35s are expected to train at Luke.

The international aspect of the program puts security considerations at the forefront of planning, Bogdan said.

The first squadron's operations and maintenance facilities are complete, while the second squadron's facilities are scheduled to be complete in November, said Capt. Ryan DeCamp, a base spokesman.

Contacts for the third squadron's facilities have been awarded, and the fourth squadron's facilities are in the design phase, he said.

Construction for a shared classroom building that features cockpit simulators is scheduled to be finished in September.

The total projected cost for renovations and new construction associated with the F-35 program at Luke is $290 million during the next decade or so.

Construction has outpaced the arrival F-35 jets, which cost approximately $131.9 million each, excluding front-end development costs.

With the arrival of a new F-35 Tuesday, Luke has five of the matte-gray, twin-tailed planes on site.

Pilots still are required to limit their speeds and maneuvers in the planes while investigators try to discover the root cause of an engine fire in an F-35 on a runway at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on June 23, Bogdan said.

"We're being very cautious right now in what we're allowing the operational users to do with the airplane, because we haven't quite gotten to why it happened yet," the general said.