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Could you explain to assorted readers the legal basis for bombing Syria from Cyprus?

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The U.S. Navy’s USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier will be headed to sea loaded with war-ready F-35Cs for the first time in 2021, if all goes according to plan.

But the F-35C carrier variant has a long road ahead before it can kick off its first operational deployment.

The Navy version of Lockheed Martin’s new fighter has made major progress over the last year. The “Rough Raiders” of VFA-125, the “Grim Reapers” of VFA-101 as well as VX-9 recently completed carrier qualifications on the USS Abraham Lincoln, greenlighting the first nine F-35C pilots to take off and land. At NAS Lemoore, California, the “Argonauts” of VFA-147, which will support the 2021 deployment, in February began their transition to the F-35C.

The JPO is working to implement three hardware fixes
The Navy will not declare the F-35C combat-ready until it demonstrates 3F capability during IOT&E
IOC will likely happen in 2019
The Navy will continue working on interoperability, communications and weapons integration
Meanwhile, the Joint Program Office (JPO) has resolved three major deficiencies on the F-35C: a “green glow” that obscures pilots’ vision during nighttime carrier landings; violent vertical oscillations during carrier launches; and overloading of the wings when carrying Raytheon’s AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, the aircraft’s primary dogfighting weapons.

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The Royal Australian Air Force has taken delivery of three Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters at Luke AFB in Arizona.

The three aircraft are equipped with the type’s block 3F software, a more capable version than the 3I software installed in its first two examples, says Australia's defence minister Marise Payne.

“These latest aircraft are fitted with the program’s final software system, which unlocks the aircraft’s full war-fighting potential including weapons, mission systems and flight performance.”

She adds that Australia is the first international partner to accept jets with Block 3F software.

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The F-35 program has accomplished the final developmental test flight of the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of the program.

Since the first flight of AA-1 in 2006, the developmental flight test program has operated for more than 11 years mishap-free, conducting more than 9,200 sorties, accumulating over 17,000 flight hours, and executing more than 65,000 test points to verify the design, durability, software, sensors, weapons capability and performance for all three F-35 variants.

While SDD required flight test is now complete, F-35 flight testing continues in support of phased capability improvements and modernization of the F-35 air system.

The final SDD flight occurred April 11, 2018, at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., when Navy test aircraft CF-2 completed a mission to collect loads data while carrying external 2,000-pound GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and AIM-9X Sidewinder heat-seeking missles.

From flight sciences to mission systems testing, the critical work completed by F-35 test teams cleared the way for the Block 3F capability to be delivered to the operational warfighter. More than a thousand SDD flight test engineers, maintainers, pilots and support personnel took the three variants of the F-35 to their full flight envelope to test aircraft performance and flying qualities.

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