In Operation Highmast, American, British, and Japanese warships capable of launching F-35 fighter jets will participate.
The United States and its NATO allies are preparing for a wide-scale military exercise in the South China Sea. As part of the war game dubbed Operation Highmast, American, British, and Japanese warships capable of launching F-35 fighter jets will participate. Beijing flexed its expanding naval might earlier this summer when two carriers with the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) were dispatched simultaneously on the eastern side of a US defensive line. Since the F-35 is widely considered to be the top-tier fifth-generation fighter platform in service across the globe today, its continued deployment in these critical waters by the United States and its allies should serve as a deterrent to China. “The next stage of the Carrier Strike Group deployment – codenamed Operation Highmast – focuses on air operations with the U.K. force due to link up with a Japanese task group, to practice combined F-35 operations,” the Royal Navy confirmed this week. The American aircraft carrier USS George Washington, amphibious assault ship USS America, the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, and the Japanese aircraft carrier JS Kaga will work cooperatively to conduct cross-deck landings and take-offs as part of this exercise.
An Overview of the F-35 Lightning II
As the product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, the F-35 platform was conceptualized to fulfill the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s advanced short take-off/vertical landing (ASTOVL) program objectives. Specifically, the project aimed to create an ASTOVL platform for both the US Air Force and Marine Corps. Ultimately, the F-35 would fly for the Navy as well. The JSF would also rapidly grow to include a cohort of nine codevelopment nations. The United States is the primary developer and funder, while key partners include the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Norway, and Denmark. While Turkey was also part of the fifth-generation program originally, the nation was ultimately nixed following Ankara’s decision to procure the Russian S-400 air defense system in violation of US policy.
In terms of stealth, the Lightning II is virtually unrivaled by all foreign near-peers. The platform’s shape, internal sensors, and reduced radar cross-section all contribute to its low observability. The F-35 is powered by the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, enabling the jet to reach speeds in excess of Mach 1.6 (times the speed of sound). The Lightning II’s advanced sensor fusion and 360-degree Distributed Aperture System represent other key features attributed to the platform.
Three distinct F-35 variants are flown by the US Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The iteration that crashed this week near Lemoore, California, was an F-35C belonging to the Navy. As the service’s first low-observable carrier-based aviation platform, the F-35C is expected to become its key primary offensive fighter down the line. Notably, the Navy variant has the greatest internal fuel capacity, which makes sense considering the large swaths of ocean the fighter has to traverse before landing on an aircraft carrier.
About the Author:
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has bylines in many publications, including The National Interest, The Jerusalem Post, and The Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin.
Image: DVIDS.
