Marine General Highlights Lethal New Weapon Aimed Squarely at China - America Class Carriers with F-35B Stealth Fighters

The U.S. Navy has begun to field F-35B vertical landing capable fifth generation fighters from the carrier USS America, which is expected to seriously enhance the warship’s combat capacity. The ship is unique as the only America Class carrier in service, and was developed as a successor to the Wasp Class. It is slightly heavier than both its older analogue as well as its recently completed Chinese counterpart the Type 075 Class - displacing approximately 45,600 tons. The warship was designed to be able to function both as a light carrier and as an amphibious assault ship, and can accommodate approximately 1,700 Marines and several dozen armoured vehicles. Launched in 2012, it has been speculated that the USS America could see over ten carriers modelled after it - with two more America class carriers expected to enter service by the mid-late 2020s as the USS Tripoli and USS Bougainville.

America Class carriers can reportedly deploy up to 20 fixed wing aircraft, although smaller contingents often as few as six fighter jets are more common. The USS America has been fitted out with 13 F-35B jets for operations in the Pacific, and these aircraft are capable of short takeoff and vertical landing allowing them to deploy without long runways or arresting gear. Marine Corps Commandant General David Berger stated that the USS America deployed to the Eastern Pacific with the F-35Bs, at a time when the region has been increasingly prioritised for the deployment of the latest American hardware since the ‘Pivot to Asia’ initiative was launched in the early 2010s. The General described the carrier’s deployment as “the birth of the most lethal, aviation-capable amphibious assault ship to date” - referring to it as an example of the new “lightning carrier concept” which he suggested would make Marine operations more “unpredictable.”

General Berger further elaborated: “You would like to see one of those big decks one time go out with two squadrons of F-35s and next time fully loaded with MV-22s and another [Marine expeditionary unit] with a 50-50 combo. Now that’s how you become unpredictable. How do you defend against that?” Berger said. This referred to the versatility of the America Class ships, and their lighter and older counterpart the Wasp class, both of which could deploy attack helicopters, transports and carriers in multiple combinations. The general noted that China was the primary target of such deployments, stating: “China has moved out to sea, and they have long-range weapons and a lot of these...Those two things have changed the game. Take those away, in other words, we could keep operating with dominance everywhere we wanted to, as we have. We cannot do that. We can’t get stuck in old things. We are being challenged everywhere.” Berger was far from the first to highlight the ‘lightning carrier’ as a potential means to penetrate Chinese defences, and advocated building a lot more of the ships. An emphasis on these light carriers comes as heavier classes of carrier find themselves increasingly vulnerable to attacks from 'carrier killer' weapons - which have been deployed by China, Russia and North Korea in considerable numbers.