Six Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters made a transatlantic crossing this week, before their participation at two major UK airshows. However, the type’s European debut came last month, when two F-35As of the Royal Netherlands Air Force currently based at Edwards AFB conducted a deployment trial and appeared at the air arm’s annual airshow at Leeuwarden. The trips come two years after an engine failure stymied an attempt to debut the jet internationally.
Three F-35B STOVL versions flew from MCAS Beaufort, S.C., to RAF Fairford on June 29 with refueling from two U.S. Air Force KC-10A Extenders. Two were from the Beaufort-based U.S. Marine Corps training squadron VMFAT-101 and the third was a UK Royal Air Force operational test and evaluation example based at Edwards. Their crossing was delayed 48 hours by the unserviceability of one of the KC-10s. They were followed today by three U.S. Air Force F-35A CTOL versions from the 56th Tactical Fighter Wing at Luke AFB, departing from McGuire AFB, NJ.
All six F-35s will be based at Fairford, and will take part in the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) there from July 8 to 10. The F-35Bs will also make flyovers of RAF Marham—the future UK base of the type—and of the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II aircraft carrier now being fitted out in Scotland. During RIAT, the F-35s will participate in formation flypasts for which the event is renowned, including one with the RAF Red Arrows aerobatic team plus two RAF Eurofighter Typhoons.
Only the F-35Bs will appear at the Farnborough Air Show the following week. The flying display at that event has been restricted by safety concerns following the crash of a vintage Hunter fighter jet at an airshow in the UK last August that killed 11 bystanders outside the airfield. The "show center" point for aerobatic displays has been moved westward so that populated areas to the east of the airfield are not overflown. The Red Arrows will perform only flypasts, including one with F-35s to open the show on July 11.
According to the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, the three-week visit of the two Dutch air force F-35As was a success. They were brought across the Atlantic by the service’s own two KDC-10 tankers. The deployment tested the jets’ ability to operate from the relatively small hardened aircraft shelters at Leeuwarden and Volkel airbases, and the support provided by the controversial Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS). Local residents around the two airbases were asked whether the F-35s were noisier than the F-16s that they will replace. They said not.
