F-35Bs showcase their STOVL capabilities that can be useful for remote airfield ops.
Taken on May 6, 2015 the following footage features two F-35Bs from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, based out at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, practicing short take off and vertical landings as part of required flying field carrier landing practices (FCLP) at the station’s auxiliary landing field.
Although the F-35B has been developed to meet the requirement of the nations that operate ski-jump ramp-equipped aircraft carriers, it could also attract the interest of those air forces that need to disperse their aircraft to remote locations in order to safeguard their own efficiency after the first day of war. In fact, its STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) capabilities enable the F-35B to operate from quickly-prepared landing strips close to the front and away from the fixed airfields that would rapidly come under attack during wartime.
This is the reason why Israel would be ready to buy the F-35B as well.
Needless to say, operating from a remote field is something more than taking off and landing from a simulated U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship…
