Sounds like good value for money if four F-35s can do the work of 12 or 13 aircraft of the previous generation:
Originally Posted by Flight Global 28 Feb 2017
The United States Marine Corps says that its three squadrons of Lockheed Martin F-35B fighters are performing well in exercises.
“We’ve got a real winner on our hands,” says USMC Lt. Gen. John Davis in a media briefing. He states that exercises have shown the short-takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 to be a potent “killing machine.”
The Marines have three squadrons equipped with the aircraft. VMFA-121 and VMFA-211 have achieved initial operating capability. VMFAT-501 is a training squadron.
VMFA-121 has deployed ten jets to Japan. Six more F-35Bs will deploy to Japan in mid-2017, bringing the squadron to full strength. Later, some of these aircraft will be deployed on an amphibious warship. Davis says that exercises show a very strong success ratio for the type.
“In one scenario where I would normally send in twelve to thirteen fighters and maybe lose half, I can instead use four F-35s. The can get in, crush the target, and get out.”
In another exercise, a force of four F-35s and four older fighters were deployed against a force of 20 “bad guys.”
“Let’s just say that the eight fighters had a good day, and the twenty had a very bad day.”
The Marines aircraft are using the type’s 3I software, which offers an interim capability until the upgrade to 3F...