The carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter will be the first Navy version of the F-35 to achieve initial operational capability, a service official said today. The Navy originally planned for the F-35B -- the Marine Corps' vertical-takeoff-and-landing verison -- to reach IOC in December 2012, with the Navy carrier-based version to hit the mark in 2016. But Howard Fireman, deputy director of the programming division in the Navy integration of capabilities and resources directorate (N8), said today that...
