About eight months after the Marine Corps deploys its first squadron of F-35Bs aboard an amphibious warship in the Pacific it will send another squadron aboard a ship bound for the Middle East, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, the service’s chief of combat development and integration.

The Marine Corps plans to deploy six F-35Bs aboard LHD-1, the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship in the Pacific. Another six will deploy to U.S. Central Command aboard LHD-2, the USS Essex, a few months later once that ships receives the equipment and modifications necessary to deploy with the F-35.  

“Not only are we going to do one, we are going to do two,” Walsh said Tuesday during a Defense Writers Group breakfast meeting with reporters in Washington, D.C. “That’s quite the challenge, to put two squadrons aboard two ships and deploy them.”

The Marine Corps' short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B performs a vertical landing. Photo: Lockheed Martin.
The Marine Corps’ short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B performs a vertical landing. Photo: Lockheed Martin.

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, based in Yuma, Ariz., became the first squadron to declare its F-35s operational when its 16 aircraft achieved initial operational capability (IOC) last summer. Six of its aircraft will deploy aboard the Wasp while 10 stay based in the United States as the “parent squadron,” Walsh said. The same deployment structure will be done aboard the Essex.

“We can change that mix depending on the mission,” Walsh said. “We could probably put up to 1 – all of them – onto the Wasp, but we would be moving capabilities off there.”

The Marine Corps wants to “exploit fifth generation” as it replaces its legacy F-18 Hornets, AV-8B Harrier jump jets and EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft, all with the F-35B.

“If you take a look at an amphibious ship, we have never had that kind of capability,” Walsh said. “It is forcing a lot of change within the Navy because before fifth generation, our airplanes were CAS, close air support aircraft. Now, with that aircraft … it’s not just close air support, it’s going to open missions up across the battle force.”

Integration of the Navy and Marine Corps versions of the F-35 will come much later in its operational history. The Air Force declared its first squadron combat ready last month. The Navy’s scheduled objective date for F-35C IOC is August 2018 with a threshold date of February 2019.

As it did with the F/A-18 Hornet, the Marine Corps finds itself out front of the larger, better funded services in flying its version of the F-35 and creating a concept of operations around the aircraft’s fifth generation capability. The Air Force has had some experience with fifth-gen aircraft in the F-22 Raptor while the Navy has had none, though it does fly the larger, more capable F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

“That’s probably not the way we would have liked it in the beginning,” Walsh said. “I probably would have liked the Air Force or the Navy out in front of us and pulling us along and drafting off of them.”

Walsh brushed away concerns over the F-35’s cost overruns and developmental delays by comparing the troubled program to the initial reception of the V-22 Osprey. Plagued by fatal malfunctions and mishaps in its early fielding, the V-22 has since gained a vaunted place in the Marine Corps aviation fleet, extending its expeditionary reach and airborne maneuverability, he said.

“There were a lot of naysayers on the V-22. We stuck with that airplane and now we are really reaping the benefits of that airplane today across the globe,” Walsh said. “We feel the same way with the F-35…We have had a vision for this aircraft for a very long time.”

That vision now includes the integration of a laser weapon when the size, weight and power of directed-energy systems allows them to be carried aboard fighter aircraft, Walsh said.

“Absolutely,” Walsh said when asked if the Marine Corps would consider mounting a laser weapon aboard an F-35. “As soon as we can miniaturize it, we can put it on F-35s, Cobras, any of those attack aircraft.”

The Air Force is leading the effort to develop a laser weapon suitable for use aboard aircraft It has plans to mount one on a KC-130 Harvest Hawk and then to work on reducing size, weight and power (SWAP) to make a laser suitable for other applications like vehicle-borne counter-UAS and airborne attack.

“Ground-based air defense is something we see as something we can use effectively in the future against air threats,” he said. “Guided rockets, artillery, mortars, UAS, aircraft, cruise missiles, all that starts getting into the power of the laser and how much you can use.”

The Marine Corps is teaming with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) on a set of technologies called “future naval capabilities” that includes a GBAD on-the-move system. ONR recently demonstrated a 10-kilowatt laser that could be fitted on a vehicle. The goal is to ramp up power generation to 30kw in the same mobile package, Walsh said. The intent is to field a vehicle equipped both with the laser and a FIM-92 Stinger man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS), Walsh said.

“When we come off a V-22, we want to have that kind of capability with us as much as we can,” he said.