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I talked with the Marines about their flight – they went from Yuma to Pax – and their flight plan
to come over in 2014. They were very helpful. Semper Fidelis is what I have to say about that.

Ninja also underscored that the advantage of learning to operate the aircraft from the
ground up was an opportunity to shape new combat approaches as with all members of
the first ever concurrent state-of-the art international fighter program. Training, Tactics
and Procedures (TTPs) will be applied critiqued and modified over and over bay all Air
warriors in the F-35 global consortium. Diversity of experiences can lead to unity of
purpose to always have the best TTPs to fight and win in air combat.

The pilots interviewed in January and February 2016 at Pax River highlighted a number
of key qualities of the F-35 which they valued and which would allow combat fleets to
shape innovative new approaches moving forward.

Among the key qualities highlighted were the following:

• The excellent flying qualities of the aircraft and the advanced flying controls;

• The human-machine interface which allowed the pilots to focus on the mission,
rather than flying the aircraft;

• The enhanced safety and security with regard to flying off of or onto amphibious
ships or carriers; Because of a very significant feature of the stability of the aircraft
which would directly lead to expanding mission training time versus pure flight train-
ing about the carriers.

• The integration of the sensors along with the touch screens allowing very flexible
management of the mission.

Ninja provided his perspective on the F-35 after he landed in Pax River from the Azores.

The great thing about the F-35 is that the human-machine interface (HMI) is so good and so
built around the pilot that you don’t have to learn how it works. You just use it. You can config-
ure the screens to configure for the mission.

Second Line of Defense Lessons Learned at Pax River
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