It's a program that draws controversy, critics and glowing supporters alike. The superlatives quoted by those close to the F-35 Lightning II speak of their ‘baby’ in an almost sycophantic manner, yet many are still unconvinced. Indeed, Canada’s insistence that the F-35 remains an uncertain quantity and that an interim batch of Super Hornets is currently a better option will only serve to fuel that skepticism.
The reality is that both the US Marine Corps and the US Air Force have seen fit to press the Lightning II into service. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121 ‘Green Knights’ is set to move its F-35Bs from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, in 2017, and the 388th Fighter Wing (FW) at Hill AFB, Utah, is likely to make a combat deployment later this year.
Upon announcing initial operating capability (IOC), Gen ‘Hawk’ Carlisle, the head of Air Combat Command, said: ‘The F-35A will be the most dominant aircraft in our inventory, because it can go where our legacy aircraft cannot and provide the capabilities our commanders need on the modern battlefield’. Carlisle, like Marine Corps air power chief Gen Jon M. Davis, feels that the F-35 is ready to make a meaningful con…
