Naval Story
Naval Lightning: The F-35B and C
By J.R. Wilson in Naval under Print Edition with 1 comment
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the world’s second fifth-generation fighter (after the F-22 Raptor), is being built in three variants to handle multiservice requirements, including those of some of America’s closest allies. It also is a truly international program, with nine nations involved in the design, funding, and production, most of which have no firm plans at this point to actually procure and operate the new aircraft.
The variants are intended to overcome the inability of any single aircraft to meet significant differences in service and national requirements. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) wants a long-range, lightweight, supersonic-cruise stealth aircraft able to handle both air superiority and air-to-ground missions. So does the Navy, but flying from carriers means the aircraft must have folding wings and a structure that can handle the extreme forces of a catapult launch and arrested landing. Topping the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) requirements list is an all-STOVL (short takeoff/vertical landing) fleet, 
which will be the hallmark of 21st-century Marine Corps aviation.
Because only the U.S. Navy (USN) uses catapult launches, the USN is expected to be the only customer for the F-35C Carrier Variant (CV). For their carrier operations, the U.K.’s Royal Navy and other nations will use the F-35B STOVL variant going to the USMC – the Royal Air Force also plans to use the “B.” Some allies will follow suit and procure the F-35B – or add the USAF’s F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) land-based variant for mixed fleet needs.
From a maritime perspective, then, the F-35C will only affect future carrier operations for the U.S. Navy – although the Navy is trying to persuade the Marines to employ the CV variant, rather than the STOVL, when flying off Navy carriers to reduce the variety of aircraft on board. For all other navies – including small deck ships currently used by the Marine Corps for Harriers, V-22s, and helicopters – the carrier replacement aircraft will be the F-35B STOVL.
In addition to the United States, the cooperating partners (in order of signing) are the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark, and Norway. Each of those shares not only in financing the F-35, but also in decisions on design and equipment to meet jointly agreed-upon requirements. Israel and Singapore are foreign military sales participants, with the same option to purchase the full-up JSF as the cooperating partners…
1 User Comment
Robert F. Dorr
June 24th, 2010
There is quite a bit of speculation in Washington as to whether the Navy may want to reduce its “buy” of the F-35C and put shadows on deck in the form of additional F/A-18E/F Super Hornets beyond the 515 airframes now in the program of record. The Marine Corps has been moving very aggressively with the F-35B and, with an aviator nominated as the next commandant, may continue to do so. There are still a lot of serious people out there who wonder if we mightn’t save some public dollars by purchasing new-build legacy fighters and shrinking the F-35B/C purchase. I’ll leave it to others whether we even need, at all, the short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities that have been so sacred to the Marine Corps for so many decades.
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July 30th, 2010
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