L
ockheed Martin and its international
partners developed the Joint
Strike Fighter (JSF) in three basic
versions: the conventional take-
off and landing (CTOL) F-35A, the short
take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B
and the carrier-variant (CV) F-35C. Since
the rst F-35A ew in December 2006, the
eet has racked up more than 155,000 ight
hours, including more than 17,000 during
development testing.
Already around 500 Lightning IIs have
been ordered by ten customers under 11
low rate initial production (LRIP) contracts
and aircraft are now being seen around the
world. However, it is unclear how big the
eventual assembly run will be.
Delivery of production aircraft began
in 2011 and the F-35B achieved initial
operational capability (IOC) with the US
Marine Corps in July 2015. The F-35A
followed with the USAF in August 2016.
In June this year, the 300th Lightning II
was accepted by the Defense Contract
Management Agency (DCMA) and delivered
to the USAF.
At that time, 197 F-35A, 75 F-35B and
28 F-35C models had been delivered to
six of the original nine partner countries
and three foreign military sales (FMS)
customers. The Block 3F operational ight
program software received eet release inAugust 2017 and deliveries began with Lot
9 aircraft the same month.
The software provided the aircraft with
additional capabilities required for war-
ghting, including enhanced sensors and
targeting, improved data links and threat
countermeasures and additional weapons
capabilities throughout the full aircraft
ight envelope. The system development
and demonstration (SDD) programme
completed all required ight testing on April
11, 2018. By mid-October this year, more
than 690 pilots and 6,300 maintainers had
been trained and more than 320 Lightning
IIs had been accepted.AUSTRALIA
Australia purchased two F-35As as part of
LRIP Lot 6 and serial A35-001 (AU-1) took
to the air at NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve
Base, Texas, on September 29, 2014.
Delivery to the International Pilot Training
Center at Luke AFB, Arizona, followed in
the December. The rst Royal Australian Air
Force (RAAF) pilot completed training with
the 33rd Fighter Wing’s (FW) 58th Fighter
Squadron (FS) at Eglin AFB, Florida, in April- Both F-35As made a short visit to
Victoria, Australia, during the Avalon airshow
how, but in February 2018 they returned to
training duties at Luke.
F-35 LIGHTNING II
COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY
ANALYSIS
Lightning IIs are
rapidly entering
service around the
world and initial
combat missions
have been fl own.
Tom Kaminski takes
a nation-by-nation
look at procurement
and fi elding.
32 Aviation News incorporating Jets December 2018
No.3 Sqn is the RAAF’s rst operational unit to be equipped with the F-35A and, as of
September 2018, had nine aircraft on strength. Australian Department of Defence