F-35 Stealth Fighters On Japanese Carriers Will Be Flown By U.S. Marines - Not Tokyo’s Airmen

Recent reports regarding Japan’s plan to deploy F-35B vertical landing capable stealth fighters from its 27,000 ton Izumo Class carriers indicate that the jets will at least initially not be flown by Japanese sailors or airmen. Instead the U.S. Marine Corps, which also operates the jets from its heavier 40,000 ton Wasp Class and America Class ships, will be flying stories from the Japanese ships. While Japan plans to acquire over 100 F-35 fighters, of which several are of the more costly F-35B vertical landing variant, until these are delivered in adequate numbers the U.S. Marines will also provide stealth fighters to operate from the Izumo Class carriers. The relatively small size of the Japanese ships’ decks and their lack of arresting gear means that they are only suited to deploying carrier based jets with specialised vertical landing capabilities - of which the F-35B is the only one in production anywhere in the world today. A similar arrangement has been reached with the British Royal Navy under which U.S. Marines will deploy their own F-35B jets from Queen Elizabeth Class carriers alongside jets flown by British pilots.

While initially termed a helicopter destroyer, the Izumo Class were later revealed to have been designed from the outset with the intention of deploying F-35B jets. These will provide Japan with its first carriers for fixed wing aircraft since 1945, and are likely to be joined by heavier and better equipped carriers possibly deploying more capable F-35C jets in future. A number of reports indicate that both China and Russia plan to deploy vertical landing capable jets of their own from 40,000 and 35,000 ton carriers respectively - which may have contributed to Tokyo’s decision to make a controversial investment in a carrier capability.