F-35B Lightning

History of the F-35B Lightning

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II embodies capabilities based on thinking developed through evolving requirements since at least 1983, when the US Navy launched its Advanced Tactical Aircraft (ATA) programme to find a stealthy replacement for the Grumman A-6 Intruder.  That same year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began its Advanced Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing (ASTOVL) effort, looking to develop a supersonic successor to the Harrier.

Two classified programmes ran under ASTOVL, which was always intended to produce information of value to the US and UK.  The STOVL Strike Fighter (SSF) research ran from 1987 to 1994 and examined the feasibility of creating the technologies necessary for a stealthy, supersonic STOVL fighter, while the Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter (CALF) programme ran for just a year from 1993, combining the ASTOVL and SSF work into a single effort to provide a Harrier replacement specifically for the US and UK.

Meanwhile, ATA had suffered insurmountable technological and financial challenges and closed down in 1991.  In 1990, however, the US Navy had already turned its attention to replacing the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, for which requirement the USAF’s Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) was seen as a potential basis.  The proposal was examined as the Naval ATF, but dismissed in 1991 as too expensive – ATF ultimately evolved into today’s Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.

The USAF had begun a replacement programme of its own in 1990; the Multi-Role Fighter (MRF) was to succeed the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.  By 1992, MRF was also being considered as a replacement for the USAF’s Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II and US Navy McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C/D Hornet fleets.  But as budgets and forces were cut following the end of the Cold War, F-16 upgrades became more attractive and with its focus on ATF, the USAF ended MRF in 1993.

More or less simultaneously and prior to the termination of NATF, the US Navy returned to the quandary of how to replace the A-6, examining new options under the Advanced-Attack/Advanced/Fighter-Attack (A-X/A/F-A) programme from 1991.  Because it promised to create an aircraft of superior performance and capability, the USAF identified A-X/A/F-A as a potential replacement for its General Dynamics F-111, McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle and Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk platforms.

With NATF cancelled, A-X/A/F-A gained new air-to-air requirements and became the Advanced Attack/Fighter (A/F-X) and although progress was made, Congress became concerned at the number of projects under way with hopes of reaching the same or similar goals.  As a result, A/F-X, ASTOVL and is components were merged under the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) programme in 1994.

JAST aimed to gather and coalesce all the formative technologies existing under the various programmes, but lasted barely a year, becoming Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) when it reached its concept definition phase in 1996.  Late that year, Boeing and Lockheed Martin were awarded contracts to produce two JSF demonstrators each for a competitive fly-off, with Boeing’s aircraft designated X-32 and Lockheed Martin’s X-35.

In 1997, Lockheed Martin added Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace to its team, and the UK has since remained the primary overseas partner on the programme.  The intention with JSF was to create a stealthy tactical aircraft in three major variants: the conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) A-model was primarily an F-16 replacement, the STOVL ‘B’ was intended to succeed the Harrier, and the carrierborne (CV) ‘C’ would belatedly fill the hole left by the US Navy’s A-6, while also replacing some US Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18C/D aircraft.

Boeing was first into the air, with the X-32A, on September 18, 2000.  The X-32B followed on March 29, 2001 and the test programme concluded on July 28.  Lockheed Martin trailed by only a few weeks, flying the X-35A on October 24, 2000.  With ‘A’ testing completed on November 22, the aircraft was modified to X-35B configuration, first flying in its new form on June 23, 2001.

While Boeing had completed CV testing with the X-32A, Lockheed Martin chose to fly a dedicated X-35C, which flew for the first time on December 16, 2000.  The X-35 test programme concluded on August 6, 2001.

On October 26, the Lockheed Martin/ Northrop Grumman/BAE Systems team was announced as winning the JSF contract and the X-35 began to evolve into the F-35 Lightning II.

The UK formally announced its intention to acquire the F-35B Lightning in 2006.  For many years, the country’s JSF programme was known as Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA), which remained F-35B based until the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, which switched the British requirement to the F-35C.  But with the ‘Queen Elizabeth’-class carrier design well advanced for STOVL, rather than the catapult and arrestor (‘cat and trap’) gear required for CV operations, JCA resorted back to the F-35B, at the same time increasingly becoming known as ‘JSF’ by programme insiders.

Squadron Leader Steve Long became the first British pilot to fly an F-35, on January 26, 2010 and in July 2012 the government announced its decision to purchase an initial batch of 48 aircraft.  The first of these was delivered on July 19, 2012, for trials work, a task 17 (Reserve) Squadron assumed in 2014.

The 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review confirmed the UK’s intention to buy 138 Lightnings and subsequent work has seen a massive infrastructure upgrade at RAF Marham, the type’s RAF/Royal Navy main operating base.  

In British service the aircraft is known only as F-35B Lightning, losing its ‘II’ (it is actually the RAF’s third Lightning, after the Lockheed P-38 and English Electric Lightning).  The first frontline Lightning unit, 617 Sqn ‘Dambusters’ arrived at RAF Marham with an initial four aircraft on June 6, 2018.

Six aircraft from No. 207 Squadron, the Lightning OCU, landed at Marham on July 16, 2019, and a second operational unit, 809 Naval Air Squadron (NAS), is expected to begin forming at the Norfolk station in 2023. After trials aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2018 and 2019, operational aircraft from 617 Squadron worked from the ship for the first time in June 2020.

On September 3, 2020, US Marine Corps (USMC) F-35Bs from VMFA-211 landed at RAF Marham ahead of Exercise JOINT WARRIOR, during which the jets will fly carrier qualification training alongside 617 Squadron aircraft. The work is an essential prelude to Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21), planned for 2021 as HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first operational cruise, during which it will embark UK and US F-35Bs.

On their return from JOINT WARRIOR, the combined USMC and UK F-35B force will engage in Exercise CRIMSON WARRIOR from RAF Marham.