Three U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter jets make their first transatlantic flight from MacDill AFB in Tampa to Gloucestershire, England. They were refueled 15 times over the Atlantic by two USAF KC-10 Extender air tankers at their first Transatlantic Flight.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole fighters. The fifth-generation combat aircraft is designed to perform ground attack and air defense missions. The F-35 has three main models: the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, the F-35B short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant, and the F-35C carrier-based Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) variant. On 31 July 2015, the first squadron of F-35B fighters was declared ready for deployment after intensive testing by the United States Marines. On 2 August 2016, the U.S. Air Force declared its first squadron of F-35A fighters as combat-ready.
The F-35 is descended from the X-35, which was the winning design of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. It was designed by an aerospace industry team led by Lockheed Martin which also manufactures it. Other major F-35 industry partners include Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney and BAE Systems. The F-35 took its first flight on 15 December 2006. The United States plans to buy 2,457 aircraft. The F-35 variants are intended to provide the bulk of the manned tactical airpower of the U.S. Air Force, Navy and the Marine Corps over the coming decades. Deliveries of the F-35 for the U.S. military are scheduled to be completed in 2037 with a projected service life up to 2070.
F-35 JSF development is being principally funded by the United States with additional funding from partners. The partner nations are either NATO members or close U.S. allies. The United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Turkey are part of the active development program; several additional countries have ordered, or are considering ordering, the F-35.
The program is the most expensive military weapons system in history, and it has been the object of much criticism from those inside and outside government—in the US and in allied countries. Critics argue that the plane is "plagued with design flaws," with many blaming the procurement process in which Lockheed was allowed "to design, test, and produce the F-35 all at the same time, instead of ... [identifying and fixing] defects before firing up its production line." By 2014, the program was "$163 billion over budget [and] seven years behind schedule." Critics further contend that the program's high sunk costs and political momentum make it "too big to kill."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II
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