Over the past weekend, the Marine Corps’ F-35C stealth fighters were deployed from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) to carry out strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, marking their first-ever combat mission. Reports indicate that the mission involved bombing advanced weapon storage sites with the aim of diminishing the faction’s capabilities to reduce attacks on naval traffic in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
This was confirmed by Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, who serves as the Pentagon’s spokesperson, during a press conference: “U.S. Central Command forces conducted a series of precise airstrikes on November 9 and 10 against multiple Houthi weapon storage facilities located within Houthi-controlled territories in Yemen (…) These facilities housed a variety of advanced conventional weapons used by Iran-backed Houthis to attack U.S. and international civilian and military vessels navigating international waters in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (…) The operation involved U.S. Air Force and Navy assets, including F-35C fighter aircraft.”
It should be clarified that this statement by spokesperson Ryder was inaccurate, as it was not U.S. Navy aircraft but Marine Corps aircraft involved in the deployment. This is evident from images shared on CENTCOM’s social media, showing that these aircraft belong to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314, also known as the “Black Knights”—the only Marine Corps F-35C squadron currently stationed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Notably, VMFA 314 was also the first Marine Corps squadron to begin replacing its legacy F/A-18 Hornets with the F-35, a transition that began in 2019. Currently, the USMC has fourteen squadrons operating the modern aircraft, only two of which use the C variant (the other being VMFA 311). Looking ahead, squadrons 251 and 115 are scheduled to adopt the F-35C in 2025 and 2027, respectively.
For now, it remains unclear how many aircraft were involved in the deployment (the CENTCOM video shows only an F-35C alongside an EA-18G and an F/A-18F) or what type of weapons they carried. Given that the stealth fighter’s weapons were housed in its internal bays, likely options include 1,000- and 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guided bombs, 500-pound precision-guided Paveway bombs, or AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW) glide bombs as the primary alternatives for conducting strikes on ground targets.
With this recent combat debut, the F-35C variant has finally joined the rest of the F-35 family, which has already seen action in previous years. The F-35A variant’s first combat deployment took place on April 30, 2019, when two aircraft launched from Al Dhafra Air Base (in the United Arab Emirates) to carry out strikes against an ISIS tunnel network in the Wadi Ashai area of Iraq. The B variant was used by U.S. forces in September 2018 to conduct bombings against insurgent targets in Afghanistan, launching from a Wasp-class vessel (the USS Essex) stationed in the region.
Images used for illustrative purposes
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