Originally Posted by
airsound
That word 'operational is a bit puzzling, since IOC is still years away. But I suppose it's a step forward.
Yes, a step forward, but what "operational" means is probably "feed a nice military sounding word to he press" and satiate the slavering maw for another day.
On the plus side, deliver to Hill means that they passed their acceptance test flights, and are thus in the most basic sense operational. They fly and met whatever spec was needed to get the DD-250 signed.
Interesting:
The wings will receive one to two F-35s per month until 72 aircraft have been
delivered.
One reserve wing and one active wing.