Lockheed Martin F-35C fighters from the US Marine Corps (USMC) took part in recent US air strikes against targets in Yemen, marking the first known combat flight for the carrier-based variant of the prolific multi-role stealth fighter.
The strikes, which took place on 9 and 10 November, involved a number of platforms, including F-35Cs and unspecified US Air Force (USAF) assets, according to the Pentagon.
Washington deployed six Boeing B-52 heavy bombers and squadron of Boeing F-15E strike fighters to the Middle East at the start of November.
Those combat aircraft are meant to offset the looming departure of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier from the region. The Pentagon ordered the Lincoln to the Middle East in August to replace another, the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, whose air wing does not include the stealthy F-35.
The US Naval Institute’s fleet tracker still showed the Lincoln’s carrier strike group as being in the Gulf of Aden as of 12 November.
Before it departs the Middle East, the Lincoln’s Carrier Air Wing 9 appears to have made history. Until now, there have been no officially confirmed combat actions involving the carrier-based C variant of the F-35.
Carrier Air Wing 9 includes three navy squadrons of Boeing F/A-18E/F strike fighters, one squadron of EA-18G electronic attack fighters and a single USMC squadron of F-35Cs.
Assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314, those aircraft are the only F-35Cs known to be currently operating in the Middle East and likely the ones that participated in the recent strikes on Yemen.
Photos released by the USMC on 7 November show F-35Cs launching from the Lincoln, conducting what the service calls “routine operations”.
The Pentagon did not immediately confirm to FlightGlobal that the action represents the first combat flight for the F-35C.
Conventional take-off and landing F-35As from the USAF and Israel are known to have completed combat sorties, as have short take-off and vertical landing F-35Bs with the USMC and UK Royal Air Force/Royal Navy.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh on 14 November seemed to imply there was no special reason the carrier-launched F-35s were used for the recent operations over Yemen.
”It really depends on the mission, the operation, what’s available and what we need to accomplish,” Singh says. “Different aircraft are used at different times.”
The USA is the only global operator of the F-35C, including squadrons belonging to both the US Navy (USN) and Marine Corps. The F-35B is able to operate from smaller light aircraft carriers present in the fleets of Japan, Italy, the UK and the USA.
The air strikes in question targeted facilities belonging to the same Iranian-affiliated Houthi groups in Yemen that have been engaged in an all-out air war against commercial and military shipping traffic in and around the Red Sea for most of the past year, a retaliation for Israel’s protracted military campaign in Gaza and now Lebanon.
“These facilities housed a variety of advanced conventional weapons used by the Iran-backed Houthis to target US and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” says Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder.
The Yemen strikes were overseen by US Central Command, which at the same time ordered lethal action against other targets in Syria connected with the Islamic State terrorist organisation.
The actions followed two attacks against US troops stationed in Syria on 10 November, which involved rockets and one-way uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
“Attacks against US and coalition partners in the region will not be tolerated,” says General Michael Kurilla, the Pentagon’s commander for Middle East operations. “We will continue to take every step necessary to protect our personnel and coalition partners and respond to reckless attacks.”
On 11 November, two USN guided missile destroyers were attacked by at least eight on-way UAVs, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles during their transit of the Bab el Mandeb strait, according to the Pentagon.
The naval vessels were able to defeat the incoming threats with unspecified protective measures.
