Page 22 - F-35B and USMC

The Integration of the F-35B into USMC Operations

Rather than getting input from the Senior Watch Officer on the ground with regard to our broader combat
SA, we now have that in our F-35. This allows us to share SA from the pilot flying the airplane and interacting
with his sensors. He can share that information, that situational awareness, with everybody from other airborne
platforms to the ground force commander in ways that are going to increase our ops tempo and allow us to
do things that historically we wouldn’t have been able to do.
The ability of the F35 to be able to recognize and identify the types of prohibitive threats that would prevent
us from putting in assault support platforms and ground forces is crucial to the way ahead.

The F-35 can not only identify those threats, but also kill them.

And that is now and not some future iteration.

Question: You are innovating as well with the F-35 as you integrate with your forces.

Can you describe an example of such innovation?
Col. Wellons: Absolutely.

One example has been something we did in the last WTI class, namely hot loading of the F-35 as we have
done with the F-18 and the Harriers in the past.

We worked with NAVAIR and with China Lake and Pax River and came up with a set of procedures that we
can use to do the hot load of an F-35.
We did it successfully at this last WTI class, and it shortens significantly the turn time between sorties.

When you think about us operating in some places around the world we do, the number of additional sorties
we can generate as a result of being able to do that, and the reduction in the vulnerability that we have in
terms of the turn around is crucial.

Also whenever you shut an airplane down, whether it’s a fifth-gen airplane or a legacy airplane, it has a
greater tendency to break.

We did GBU-12 last class, we’ll be doing GBU-32 and AIM-120 this upcoming class.

Question: Obviously, you are working with the USAF and the US Navy on reshaping air operations
affecting the MAGTF, can you give us a sense of that dynamic?

Col. Wellons: For the USAF, the capabilities of the airplane in terms of the sensors that we have, the weapons
that we have, the way that we’re employing this airplane, they’re remarkably similar.

We are in lockstep with Nellis, with the weapons school, with the 53rd Tests and Evaluation Group in terms of
how we’re doing operational tasks, and we are very closely aligned with them in terms of how we employ the
airplane, how we support the airplane.
We do quite a bit of work with Fallon. They are on a different timeline from the Air Force. They’re a couple
of years behind in terms of where they are, but I anticipate that we’ll have similar collaboration with the Navy
as they begin to lean forward into the F35 in the next couple of years.

Biography of Col. James Wellons

Second Line of Defense

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