The F-35C Lightning II will provide a low-observable capability to the Carrier Air Wing, while unmanned solutions have been downgraded to performing tanker support as opposed to the strike role, for the time being…
FORCE REPORT | US NAVY CARRIER AIR POWER
THE LOCKHEED MARTIN F-35C carrier variant (CV) first flew on June 6, 2010. In addition to its tail hook and modified landing gear, the aircraft has a larger folding wing than the other two Lightning II models.
Four development F-35Cs were produced and the CV variant made its maiden arrested landing at sea aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) on November 3, 2014, during the initial at-sea developmental testing I (DT-I) phase. Conducted aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) in October 2015, DT-II was intended to test the suitability and integration of the F-35C in an at-sea environment. Testing also evaluated the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS), which provides an adverse-weather precision approach and landing capability. DT-III was conducted aboard the USS George Washington (CVN 73). It began on August 14, 2016, off the coast of Virginia. Among the jets were two test aircraft operated by VX-23 and five operational models from VFA-101 ‘Grim Reapers’.
