C
EREMONIES AND A y -
away at Eglin AFB, Florida,
marked the deactivation
of the US Navy’s rst F-35C
eet replacement squadron
(FRS) and its consolidation
with the second F-35C training unit as
the service moves to conduct all F-35C
ight training at a single base — for
the time being, at least.
Strike Fighter Squadron 101
(VFA-101), the famous ‘Grim Reapers’,
was o cially deactivated on July
1, but the formalities were held on
May 23 at Eglin. On that date the
squadron ew out its last F-35Cs to
NAS Lemoore, California, the home of
VFA-125 ‘Rough Raiders’, which now
becomes the hub training future F-35C
pilots and overseeing the transition
of eet squadrons to the US Navy’s
newest ghter.
Reactivated in 2012 at the Florida air
base, VFA-101 has been engaged in
training the initial cadre of instructor
and test pilots to y the carrier variant
of the Lightning II. Subsequently, the
navy decided to reactivate VFA-125 at
NAS Lemoore as the formal FRS. It was
then tasked with getting the rst eet
F-35C squadron — VFA-147 ‘Argonauts’
— on its feet, which took the F-35C
to initial operational capability (IOC)
in February this year. VFA-147 is
scheduled to deploy on board USS Carl
Vinson in 2021.STAND-DOWN
FOR THE
THE STORY BEHIND THE US NAVY HEADLINES
READY ROOM
VFA-101 ‘Grim Reapers’ completed a
number of embarked deployments for
carrier qualifi cations. US Navy/MCSSA
Krystofer BelknapRICK
BURGESS12 August 2019 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
12-14 Ready Room C.indd 12 21/06/2019 12: