F-35 Squadron Sent to Japan for First Overseas Deployment

By Tactical-Life

The U.S. Marine Corps is sending a F-35B Joint Strike Fighter squadron to Japan for the aircraft’s first overseas deployment.

According to press release, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121), an F-35B squadron with 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, left Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona on Monday and is now headed for Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.

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It’s been a long road to get to this point. VMFA-121, formerly a F/A-18 Hornet squadron, got its first F-35B way back in 2012. On November 20 of that year, VMFA-121 was named as the Corps’ first operational F-35 squadron. In December 2015, F-35Bs from VMFA-121 took part in Exercise Steel Knight, a live-fire exercise that integrated capabilities of air and ground combat elements to complete a wide range of military operations in an austere environment. The F-35B performed extremely well during that exercise, the Corps says.

In October of 2016, the F-35B was put to the test yet again when it participated in Developmental Test III and the Lightning Carrier Proof of Concept Demonstration aboard the USS America, an exercise meant to show that the aircraft could get the job done …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life