As it returns from its first combat deployment, the Marines' version of the F-35 is no longer a baby-faced boot.
F-35Bs flew more than 100 combat sorties against the Taliban and ISIS while deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, said Lt. Col. Kyle Shoop, commander of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211.
The last few weeks have been a roller coaster for the F-35, from its first combat airstrike, to its first crash, to the Pentagon ordering the entire F-35 fleet grounded as it inspects a possibly-dangerous aircraft part.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter may be named the "Lightning II" in homage to two of Lockheed Martin's World War II-era aircraft, but it turns out at least one variant can't actually handle the lightning at all.
