WASHINGTON — The Air Force on Tuesday declared its first squadron of F-35As ready for battle, fifteen years after Lockheed Martin won the contract to make the plane.
The milestone means that the service can now send its first operational F-35 formation — the 34th Fighter Squadron located at Hill Air Force Base, Utah — into combat operations anywhere in the world. The service, which plans to buy 1,763 F-35As, is the single-largest customer of the joint strike fighter program, which also includes the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and a host of governments worldwide.
The Air Force, which follows the Marine Corps in approving F-35s for operations, had a five-month window between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31 to proclaim initial operational capability. After notifying Congress, Air Combat Command head Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle signed off on the declaration on August 2.
It will be interesting to see how long until the 34th FS actually deploys somewhere.
Also, while the squadron has reached Initial Operational Capability, there's a long way to go before Full Operational Capability.
While the jets are cleared to use some of the weapons intended, there remain a goodly number of other weapons that haven't gone through the lengthy certification process.
And it takes a while to dial in just what levels of spare parts a squadron realistically needs during operations or deployment. That is something that can only be gleaned from experience.
And finally, while the 34th FS has operationally cleared software, there are already planned improvements and block releases of better software programmed for the near future.
XBradTC 
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