A Royal Air Force officer became the first active duty service pilot from the UK take to the skies in a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. RAF Squadron Leader Steve Long piloted BF-2, the second short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B, over Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.
 
“What this aircraft really gives the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy is a quantum leap in airborne capability because of the sensor suite it carries,” Long explained. “An F-35 pilot will have an unprecedented level of situational awareness about what’s going on in the airspace around him or her, and also on the battlefield or ocean below. Not only that, but the F-35 will plug into coalition battlefield networks and be able to pass that picture on to all other players in the network.”

The UK has invested $2 billion in the F-35’s development – the largest contribution among the programme’s eight partner nations. The Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) programme announced in December that the UK received financial approval to purchase its third F-35B operational test aircraft, reinforcing its continued commitment to the JSF programme’s upcoming Operational Test and Evaluation phase. Both the RAF and the Royal Navy plan to operate the F-35B.
 
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