05/29/2015: On May 26, 2015, several journalists flew to the USS WASP aboard an Osprey from the Pentagon to the ship, which was operating off of the North Carolina coast.
In addition to viewing the ops of the F-35B aboard the ship, there was opportunity to talk with the crew about the operational testing aboard the ship of the F-35B.
6 planes are onboard; 4 from Yuma (Green Knights) and 2 from Beaufort.
The planes from Yuma flew to Beaufort and all 6 then flew aboard the ship from Beaufort.
Maintainers were from these two squadrons plus VMX-22 and reports aboard the ships from the maintenance side were that the plane was very maintainable at sea.
The slideshow shows three of the pilots doing the sorties aboard the ship, one from Beaufort and two from Yuma.
There were several sorties that morning.
And at the start of the day there had been 88 sorties since OT started last week.
The plane has nearly 11,000 flight hours to date, much of that accumulated in the last 2 1/2 years.
After shipboard integration operational testing, next up is weapons certification for the operational pilots of air to air and air to ground weapons.
These weapons have already been tested in the Developmental Testing phase. IOC will be this summer for the Green Knights at Yuma.
Credit Photos: Second Line of Defense