Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American stealth combat aircraft designed for air superiority and strike missions. Lockheed Martin leads the F-35 program, with major collaboration from Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. Originating from the Lockheed Martin X-35, it won the Joint Strike Fighter program in 2001, surpassing the Boeing X-32. Criticisms of the program include its immense size, complexity, growing costs, and delayed deliveries. The decision to produce the aircraft concurrently with its development caused costly design modifications and retrofits. The F-35 made its inaugural flight in 2006 and saw service with the U.S. Marine Corps F-35B in 2015, followed by the U.S. Air Force F-35A in 2016 and the U.S. Navy F-35C in 2019.
The F-35 was the product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, which was the merger of various combat aircraft programs from the 1980s and 1990s. One progenitor program was the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Advanced Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing (ASTOVL) which ran from 1983 to 1994; ASTOVL aimed to develop a Harrier jump jet replacement for the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) and the U.K. Royal Navy. Under one of ASTOVL's classified programs, the Supersonic STOVL Fighter (SSF), Lockheed Skunk Works conducted research for a stealthy supersonic STOVL fighter intended for both U.S. Air Force (USAF) and USMC; a key technology explored was the shaft-driven lift fan (SDLF) system. Lockheed's concept was a single-engine canard delta aircraft weighing about 24,000 lb (11,000 kg) empty. ASTOVL was rechristened as the Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter (CALF) in 1993 and involved Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, and Boeing.
