F-35B Plans

The Navy today published basing decisions for the F-35B, the Marine Corps' short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) version of the Joint Strike Fighter. Plans for the East Coast and West Coast, which made news locally in recent days, are formally outlined in two separate Federal Register notices.

Meanwhile, Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos told reporters Tuesday that the F-35B will not be ready by December 2012 as previously planned, noting he had hoped the program would be further along but he is not wringing his hands over the delay, according to published reports.