Air Power 2017

21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS AIR POWER 2017 85

21 ST CENTURY CAPABILITIES

UK jets and we can fly American jets. Likewise, UK

maintenance crews maintain American jets and there

is absolute synergy on the squadron, commanded

by the head of the USMC VMFAT-501 Squadron.

VALUABLE EXPERIENCE

“What Beaufort gives us is mass,” continues Gp Capt

Townsend. “There are 24 aeroplanes there, and that

gives my maintenance people a lot of aeroplanes to

fix, as well as access to plenty of low observability

materials and use of the Autonomic Logistics

Information System (ALIS). The amount of experience

it has allowed us to build is quite staggering.

“The beauty of what we are currently doing

in America is [that], while we are in a Marine Corps

construct on the East Coast at Beaufort, on the West

Coast at Edwards Air Force Base, 17 Sqn is entirely a

UK squadron. It is set up as a UK squadron and

operates under UK regulatory procedures. So, we’re

learning the UK way of business on 17 Sqn so that

when we come back to RAF Marham in the middle

part of 2018, the 40 617 Sqn maintainers at Edwards

will meet up with their Beaufort colleagues and

the synergy of their experience and the Edwards

experience will hopefully de-risk the stand up

of 617 Sqn from a maintenance perspective.”

There is also a strategic relationship with the

US Air Force (USAF). “Their experience of operating

Corps (USMC). The Lightning Force has a pooling

implementation agreement with the Marines at

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina,

as Gp Capt Townsend explains: “Because the number

of our aeroplanes is low in the early years, we have

elected to pool our resources with the Marine Corps

at Beaufort. We already have a relationship

with the USMC and, of course, like us, they are

operating F-35Bs. We share our aeroplanes.

“We have six UK aeroplanes at Beaufort at

the moment. The USMC has 18. US pilots can fly

A UK F-35B
Lightning first flew
in home airspace in
2016, appearing at
Farnborough and the
Royal International
Air Tat to o
(PHOTO: TIM FELCE)

The F-35B Lightning will place the UK at the forefront of fighter technology,
providing a true multi-role capability (PHOTO: SAC TIM LAURENCE/ © CROWN COPYRIGHT)