Fighters The small aircraft operator in Jämsä rejoices at the jobs brought by the new fighters – This is the front frame of the F-35 machine to be manufactured in Finland

First keep building a new factory hall and at the same time finding skilled workers.

The small Finnish town of Jämsä has rejoiced at the F-35 fighter deal agreed in December. The deal is bringing a large number of new jobs to the Jämsä region, and especially to its smaller Hall operator, to assemble fighters.

That’s good news, because the last time Jämsä was in the big headlines was when UPM closed its Kaipola plant there. More than 400 people lost their jobs.

“Every industrial job has a multiplier effect, ie jobs for subcontractors, among others. In my estimation, there should be more than a hundred new jobs, ”Jämsä, Director of Vitality Anna-Liisa Juurinen says.

The Kaipola plant has also created a new business related to the circular economy and some dozens of jobs. Patria’s F-35 configuration brings them much more.

“It’s also about really long-term jobs, decades,” Juurinen points out.

For Patria, the production of the front bodies of the F-35 fighters, which will start in a couple of years, is a project that will last up to twenty years. It is planned to build 400 of them, the first of which will come from machines purchased by Finland.

That’s where the walls of Patria’s Aerostructures Hall in the Hall will soon meet.

Now in factory halls looks as you might expect in an airplane factory: there are yellow stripes on the floor to indicate where to go. You can’t touch anything right.

In recent years, Jämsä Hall has manufactured parts for Airbus’ civil and military aircraft and assembled the Finnish single-seat Hornets. However, a whole new season is ahead.

“The goal is for production to start in 2025, but before that, a variety of changes will be made and preparations will be made for the industrialization of the project. The entire plot needs to be reorganized, ”says the business director Petri Hepola.

Aircraft installers and engineers will also be needed soon. About a hundred jobs are coming to make the front body.

“There has already been a discussion with educational institutions about what the needs will be. The educational institutions are the vocational colleges of Pirkanmaa and Central Finland, polytechnics and the University of Tampere, where there are certainly people interested in the field. We think there may be some very interesting opportunities for that. ”

In Finland the manufactured front frames are attached to the center frame of the machine at the Lockheed Martin plant in Texas. There, the planes will also be completed there.

According to Hepola, the intention is to manufacture the machine’s hatches and doors as well as components related to national security of supply in Hall. The purpose is also to learn how to repair and maintain parts that are damaged in use.

The “Finland hulls” will be completed during the 2020s. From the 2030s onwards, front frames would be completed in about 30 years and would go abroad for machines to be sold in later stores.

The front frames are so finished in the Hall that you can directly install, for example, screens and a bench. Plug and play, Hepola describes.

“Why not”, says Patria’s employee Sari Vähämäki possible F-35 work. He is just finishing the top parts of the side stabilizers of the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft.

“I still know a little, but there is interest. Isn’t that a flying plane, too, ”he laughs.

“We had such a hunch here that whatever the fighter solution is, then work is likely to come here,” he says.

There were reportedly no favorites, but it makes employees happy that the factory has been working for years again.

There is another long-line maker, the operator, next to a huge tape applicator Marko Mäkynen. He is currently making arches inside the tail of the Airbus A320, in which the carbon fiber epoxy tape applied by Mäkynen brings strength to the structure. He, too, says “yes” to a possible future F-35 job.

“It would be interesting and definitely challenging. I have the papers of an aircraft mechanic in my pocket, so I think the skills are enough. The instructions and training would certainly be good and long, ”says Mäkynen.

“It’s largely played here according to the instructions, no need to move on memory,” he says.

F-35 store will also be visible and felt in another Patria unit, as the machine’s huge Pratt & Whitney F135 engines will be assembled in Nokia’s Linnavuori in a couple of years.

Hornet’s General Electric motors were also assembled at the same location in the 1990s. The castle mountain is also intended to provide sufficient maintenance capacity for the engines.

The manufacturer of the engines is therefore changing, but according to Hepola, the know-how already exists. The line-up will bring several dozen new jobs, some of whom will receive further training in the United States.

The first Finnish F-35s will fly in the United States in 2025 and in Finland the following year.

For the four lost fighter candidates, the Finnish HX project will provide a feedback opportunity at the beginning of the year to review the candidates’ weaknesses and strengths.

The Finnish Air Force now has a huge amount of critical information about the best fighters in the West, as the HX project, which was looking for a successor to the Hornets, went through their characteristics carefully.

“They can ask questions and get feedback from us at the opportunity. For example, about what the whole thing looked like and what their strengths were, ”says Major General of Engineering Kari Renko from the logistics department.

The Finnish and US administrations are likely to sign the final F-35 agreement in the first quarter of the year.

“Such inter-state arms trade signing ceremonies are usually unadorned or non-existent. Now I probably have some sort of opportunity to organize, ”says Renko.