Lt. Gen. Jon M. Davis, deputy commandant for aviation from the U.S. Marine Corps, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that 10 F-35Bs will be deployed to Japan in January 2017.
By U.S. Air Force photo by Samuel King [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Six more aircraft will arrive in July 2016. It was earlier reported that VMFA-121 will be the unit being activated.
Why deploy a squadron which has been rendered non combat capable by the issuance of faulty F-35 prototype aircraft?
from the recent test report:
“Block 2B deficiencies in fusion, electronic warfare, and weapons employment result in ambiguous threat displays, limited ability to respond to threats, and a requirement for off-board sources to provide accurate coordinates for precision attack. The operational suitability of all variants continues to be less than desired by the Services and relies heavily on contractor support and workarounds that would be difficult to employ in a combat environment.”