The F-35, the U.S.’s next generation fighter aircraft for the Air Force, Marines, and Navy — each are scheduled to get their own customized version — continues to have have significant problems in development. Simply put, it’s way late, and way overbudget, with the Marine Corp version, the F-35B, the most troubled. That will almost certainly at some point mean the U.S. will have fewer fighter jets, and thus needs fewer fighter pilots and people working on aircraft, and fewer air bases. North Carolina could be a net winner or loser in that — remember that the main East Coast Navy fighter base, NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach, VA has major issues exactly because it is now very much in the middle of Virginia Beach.
Now comes word of the first big change in the Navy/Marine F-35 force. The Marines will acquire five squadrons worth of the Navy F-35 variant, the F-35C, and operate it off aircraft carriers. Interesting.
