The Navy estimates it will cost at least $70 million to modify each large-deck amphibious ship to accommodate the Marine Corps' F-35B variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, including infrastructure modifications and efforts to mitigate engine heat from the short-take-off, vertical-landing JSF variant, according to a senior Marine. Required ship alterations are scheduled to be identified in order to support the first operational F-35B Marine Expeditionary Unit deployment in 2014, two years after the service's goal to have its first...
