Page 19 - F-35B and USMC

The Integration of the F-35B into USMC Operations

BC: I was conducting a strike mission and Red Air was coming at me. In a 4th Gen fighter you must do a whole
lot of interpretation. You see things in azimuth, and you see things in elevation. In the F-35 you just see the Gods
eye view of the whole world. It’s very much like you are watching the briefing in real time.

I am coming in to perform the simulated weapons release, and Red Air is coming the other direction.

I have enough situational awareness to assess whether Red Air is going to be a factor to me by the time I release
the weapon. I can make the decision, I’m going to go to the target, I’m going to release this weapon.
At the same time I pre-target the threat, and as soon as I release the A2G weapon, I can flip a switch with my
thumb and shoot the Red Air.

This is difficult to do in a 4th Gen fighter, because there is so much manipulation of systems in the cockpit.

All while paying attention to the basic mechanics of flying the airplane and interpreting threat warnings that are
often very vague, or only directional.
In the F-35 I know where the threats are, what they are and I can thread the needle. I can tell that the adversary
is out in front of me and I can make a very, very smart decision about whether to continue or get out of there. All
that, and I can very easily switch between mission sets.

Mo: I was leading a four ship of F-35s on a strike against 4th Gen adversaries, F-16s and F/A-18s.

We fought our way in, we mapped the target, found the target, dropped JDAMs on the target and turned
around and fought our way out.

All the targets got hit, nobody got detected, and all the adversaries died. I thought, yes, this works, very, very,
very well.

Never detected, nobody had any idea we were out there.

A second moment was just this past Thursday. I spent a fair amount of my life as a tail hook guy – [landing F/A-
18s on US Navy Supercarriers] on long carrier deployments.

The last 18 seconds of a Carrier landing are intense. The last 18 seconds of making a vertical landing on this
much smaller USMC Assault Carrier – is a lot more relaxed.

The F-35C is doing some great stuff. Making a vertical landing [my first this week] on the moving ship, that is
much smaller than anything I’ve landed on at sea – with less stress, was pretty awesome.

Sack: It was my first flight at Edwards AFB Jan ’16. I got in the airplane and started it up. I was still on the
deck and there were apparently other F-35s airborne – I believe USAF, I was not aware. I was a single ship, just
supposed to go out and get familiar flying the aircraft.

As the displays came alive there were track files and the SA as to what everyone else was doing in the airspace,
and I was still on the ground. I mean, I hadn’t even gotten my take-off clearance yet.

I didn’t even know where it was coming from. It was coming from another F-35. The jet had started all the
systems for me and the SA was there. That was a very eye opening moment for me.

The second one, took place when I came back from that flight. In a Hornet you would pull into the line and had a
very methodical way in which you have to shut off the airplane and the systems otherwise you could damage
something.

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