Article Posted on : - May 14, 2012

A Lockheed Martin photo.

FORT WORTH, TEXAS (BNS): Two Lockheed Martin F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) production aircraft were ferried to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida marking the 24th and 25th F-35 deliveries to the Department of Defence.

The 5th Gen multirole fighter jets were delivered to the United States Marine Corps and are now assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing's Marine Fighter/Attack Squadron 501 residing with the host 33d Fighter Wing.

US Marine Corps pilots Maj. Joseph Bachmann and Lt. Col. Matt Kelly piloted the aircraft, known as BF-9 and BF-10 respectively, which departed Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base on Thursday to Florida's Emerald Coast.

The jets became the 10th and 11th F-35s to join Eglin's fleet. Both jets will be used for pilot and maintainer training at the F-35 Integrated Training Centre there, Lockheed said.

One additional STOVL production jet, BF-11, will join the fleet at Eglin in the coming days. All three jets were formally accepted by the US Defence Contract Management Agency (DCMA) on behalf of the Marine Corps with the BF-9 and BF-10 were accepted on May 4 while BF-11 was accepted May on 5. Prior to acceptance, the three F-35Bs underwent a series of company and government checkout flights at Lockheed Martin's F-35 production facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th Gen fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment.

Three distinct variants of the F-35 will replace the A-10 and F-16 for the US Air Force, the F/A-18 for the US Navy, the F/A-18 and AV-8B Harrier for the US Marine Corps, and a variety of fighters for at least nine other countries.