After Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 at MCAS Yuma, Ariz., is fully equipped, the Marine Corps will replace Marine Attack Squadron 211’s AV-8Bs in 2016, and will replace VMFA-122’s F/A-18s in 2018. The F-35B also will replace the EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare jet, but the Marine Corps did not specify when it would start taking over that airplane’s role. In the Air Force, initial operational capability with the F-35A is scheduled for one year from now, in August 2016. USAF must have 12-24 aircraft, plus trained pilots and maintainers, as well as sufficient go-to-war stocks, in order for the head of Air Combat Command to declare IOC. Hill AFB, Utah, activated the first Air Force squadron on July 21, and the F-35A depot, also at Hill, is already performing that mission. The Navy is slotted to declare IOC with the carrier-capable F-35C between August 2018 and February 2019. It will declare with 10 aircraft, plus necessary personnel and parts. The Marine Corps was first to declare IOC with the F-35B for two reasons. First, it faced the most urgent need, as its AV-8B Harriers had been extended well past their planned service lives, and second?, because the short takeoff/vertical landing aspect of the jet proved troublesome early on, and it received the most attention of the three variants. (See also Build Lightning, Then Change.)
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.