Brit Blast

A top Marine Corps official today denied a report from the London Sunday Times that Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos was “really angry” over Britain's decision not to buy STOVL JSFs and sent British exchange pilots packing.

“That's absolutely, 100 percent, unequivocally false,” Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation, told Inside the Navy today. “There is not a single grain of truth in [that]. Gen. Amos . . . he doesn't get angry, it's not his nature, and no U.K. exchange officers have been sent home or anything else.”

Last month, the British government announced in a major defense review that it would not buy STOVL F-35 and would instead purchase carrier variants.