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Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa and Allied Air Command talks about the new F-35 Lightning II facilities on RAF Lakenheath at a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, July 15, 2019.

Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa and Allied Air Command talks about the new F-35 Lightning II facilities on RAF Lakenheath at a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, July 15, 2019. (Christopher Dennis/Stars and Stripes)

Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa and Allied Air Command talks about the new F-35 Lightning II facilities on RAF Lakenheath at a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, July 15, 2019.

Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa and Allied Air Command talks about the new F-35 Lightning II facilities on RAF Lakenheath at a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, July 15, 2019. (Christopher Dennis/Stars and Stripes)

Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa commander, center, and Col. Will Marshall, commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, left of Harrigan, pose for photos along with community leaders at the new F-35 Lightning II facility groundbreaking ceremony on RAF Lakenheath, Monday, July 15, 2019.

Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa commander, center, and Col. Will Marshall, commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, left of Harrigan, pose for photos along with community leaders at the new F-35 Lightning II facility groundbreaking ceremony on RAF Lakenheath, Monday, July 15, 2019. (Christopher Dennis/Stars and Stripes)

An F-15E Strike Eagle taxis by construction for F-35 Lightning II aircraft facilities on RAF Lakenheath, Monday, July 15, 2019. The first F-35 Lightning II are scheduled to arrive in November 2021.

An F-15E Strike Eagle taxis by construction for F-35 Lightning II aircraft facilities on RAF Lakenheath, Monday, July 15, 2019. The first F-35 Lightning II are scheduled to arrive in November 2021. (Christopher Dennis/Stars and Stripes)

An F-15E Strike Eagle taxis by construction for F-35 Lightning II aircraft facilities on RAF Lakenheath, Monday, July 15, 2019. The first F-35 Lightning II are scheduled to arrive in November 2021.

An F-15E Strike Eagle taxis by construction for F-35 Lightning II aircraft facilities on RAF Lakenheath, Monday, July 15, 2019. The first F-35 Lightning II are scheduled to arrive in November 2021. (Christopher Dennis/Stars and Stripes)

Dignitaries grab shovels Monday, July 15, 2019 during the new F-35 Lightning II facility groundbreaking ceremony on RAF Lakenheath. From left, James Hindes, managing director of aviation and defense for Kier Group; Chris Evans, managing director of the civil division for Volker Fitzpatrick; Col. William Marshall, 48th Fighter Wing commander; Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa and Allied Air Command; Keith Maddison, Defense Infrastructure Organization F-35 Program Manager; Lt. Col. Clinton Warner, director F-35 Program Integration Office; Capt. Robert Gilbert, chief of major programs, Program Management Office.

Dignitaries grab shovels Monday, July 15, 2019 during the new F-35 Lightning II facility groundbreaking ceremony on RAF Lakenheath. From left, James Hindes, managing director of aviation and defense for Kier Group; Chris Evans, managing director of the civil division for Volker Fitzpatrick; Col. William Marshall, 48th Fighter Wing commander; Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa and Allied Air Command; Keith Maddison, Defense Infrastructure Organization F-35 Program Manager; Lt. Col. Clinton Warner, director F-35 Program Integration Office; Capt. Robert Gilbert, chief of major programs, Program Management Office. (Christopher Dennis/Stars and Stripes)

RAF LAKENHEATH, England — A $205 million construction project to prepare RAF Lakenheath for the arrival of two squadrons of U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II fighter jets in 2021 officially got underway Monday.

The commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe - U.S. Air Forces Africa, Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, and other dignitaries plunged shovels into dirt at what will become the first permanent site for U.S. F-35s in Europe.

U.K. firms Kier and VolkerFitzpatrick will build a flight simulator facility, maintenance unit, hangars and storage units at the site, in time for the arrival of 48 F-35s in November 2021. The Royal Air Force currently has nine F-35s at RAF Marham, about 25 miles north of Lakenheath.

“This will be a great opportunity to reinforce together how we will train, execute and operate on a daily basis, and allow us to deepen what is a critically important relationship,” Harrigian said at the groundbreaking.

The project is the first in a broad program to support Air Force operations in the U.K. A further $1 billion is expected to be invested in the program over the next seven to 10 years, said the Defense Infrastructure Organization, which last year awarded the contract for the F-35 campus.

“The project team is in good shape — we are on schedule for completion in 2021,” Kier’s managing director of aviation and defense James Hindes was quoted as saying by The Construction Index, an industry website.

The completed campus will host around 1,200 U.S. airmen. Currently, more than 9,100 U.S. servicemembers are based in the U.K, according to Pentagon data.

Recent problems with engine delivery of the F-35A are not expected to delay the arrival of America’s newest fighter jet at Lakenheath, a 48th Fighter Wing spokeswoman said Monday.

Of the 81 engines that were delivered in 2018, 86% were late, according to a Government Accountability Office report in April. That was up from 48% that were not delivered on time the previous year, when fewer engines were delivered.

The delays were due in part to an increase in the “average number of quality issues per engine”— 941 in 2018 against 777 a year earlier, the GAO report said.

United Technologies’ Pratt and Whitney unit, the only company to make the engines, is under a corrective action request from the Defense Contract Management Agency for “poor delivery performance,” according to a July report by Bloomberg News.

dennis.christopher@stripes.com Twitter: @chrisbdennis

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