The F-35’s Carrier Variant Is Finally Going to Sea
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson will embark on a new deployment sometime this year.
The carrier’s air wing will include the F-35C, the carrier variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, for its first-ever cruise.
The deployment will also include the Navy’s new CMV-22 Osprey in the transport role.
Sometime later this year, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson will leave its homeport of San Diego and head for the Western Pacific. The carrier will bring along two new additions for the cruise: the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter and the CMV-22 Osprey tiltrotor.
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The deployment will mark the first time in more than two decades a new carrier strike fighter has gone to sea. The Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, will go to sea with Carrier Air Wing 2, whose four strike squadrons mostly include F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
The F-35C is the carrier variant of the F-35 series of fighter jets. The -C model features more robust landing gear to handle carrier takeoffs and landings, folding wings to fit on a crowded flight deck, larger wings, a slightly larger payload, and a slightly longer operating range.
The F-35C squadron that’s scheduled to depart with the Vinson is Strike Fighter Squadron 147 (VFA-147), the “Argonauts.” VFA-147 completed carrier qualifications in 2018 and is based at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California.
The Navy’s first CMV-22 Ospreys are also joining Carrier Air Wing 2. The CMV-22 is the carrier onboard delivery transport version of the U.S. Marines’ MV-22 Osprey and the U.S. Air Force special operations’ CV-22.
The Osprey is the only aircraft capable of carrying the F-35C’s F135 turbofan engine from shore to ship, so it was essential for the Pentagon to acquire a new carrier transport to go along with the F-35C. Otherwise, the carrier would have to sail from the outset with spare engines embarked, taking up much-needed space in the ship’s stores section.
The F-35C is the first new strike fighter to join Carrier Air Wing 2 since the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in 1999. Super Hornets account for the bulk of the strike fighter force, though the Navy eventually plans for F-35Cs to make up half of the force.
In the late 2020s, the Navy’s new fighter jet and the MQ-25 Stingray drone refueling tanker will also join the fleet, allowing F-35Cs, F/A-18E/Fs, and CMV-22s to fly even farther than ever.
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