Page 55 - F-35B and USMC

The Integration of the F-35B into USMC Operations

Notably, the working relationship with the USMC and its efforts with F-35B integration aboard US Navy ships
is a crucial one for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF will operate the F-35Bs aboard the carrier).

Group Captain Paul Godfrey, a key RAF officer involved with F 35 Lightning II Entry into Service, described
the working relationship with the USMC and USN: “We are training with the Marines and the other air
services as we prepare to embark our F-35s aboard the carrier in three years time. And we are very much
using this time to think through the marriage between the carrier and the airwing and are looking closely at
what the Marines and the US Navy are doing as well.

“In this three year period before we’re bringing our F-35Bs back to the UK, and in the four year period we’ve
got before we declare a carrier strike capability 2020, we can have a really good look at how we want to
do this. And we are looking at a revolutionary way of doing it, rather than an evolutionary way of doing it.”

The Brits and Marines are working closely together to stand up their separate but coordinated capabilities
associated with an F-35-enabled 21st century combat force. The F-35 global enterprise is a key enabler of
collaborative resources. As their own systems and squadron are stood up in the UK to get ready to work with
HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Brits are training on F-35 equipment (including the simulators) at the Beaufort
Marine Corps Air Station in South Carolina.

The close working relationship between the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force with the USMC and the USN
was recently on display during the operational trials of the F-35B aboard the USS Wasp in May 2015, one
of the last steps prior to the F-35B operationally entering USMC aviation. The Brits are integrated members
of VMFAT-501 at Beaufort, and are standing their squadron up there and then will fly to the UK and be
declared operational in 2018.

The Brits had engineers, observers and maintainers aborad the Wasp as part of the operational testing, and
their experience was part of the preparation for the aircraft and its integration with the Queen Elizabeth
over the next few years.

For the last year, Lt. Cdr. Beth Kitchen, OT-1 Evaluations Lead, VFMA-501, for the Royal Navy at Beaufort,
has been in South Carolina working with the Marine Corps at Marine Corps Air Base Beaufort.

“Our programs are aligned and they’re working in partnership in order to develop the capability of the
35B,” she said in a recent interview aboard the USS Wasp during the operational trials. “In terms of this ship
deployment, we’ve got other UK maintainers who have been a part of the detachment.

We’ve got personnel who are working within the power line with the avionics department, as well as any
maintenance control, and they contribute to the maintenance effort in exactly the same way as the Marines
are.

They are trained in the same way in the schoolhouse down at Eglin, but the Marines are also looking at how
the UK conducts maintenance and how that can possibly be involved in the future.”

In other words, the Brits are integrated members of the squadron, and the Marine Corps and British
maintainers are learning together to adapt their different protocols to a common airplane.

Obviously, this will pay real dividends down the road in terms of being to cross deploy at sea.

It is important to fully understand what insertion forces can do for a nation when a mission can be effectively
correlated with objectives set by political decision makers. When publics and governments are looking for

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