US, Asia-Pacific allies rolling out F-35 stealth fighter
HONOLULU — The U.S. and its Asia-Pacific allies are rolling out their new stealth fighter jet, a cutting-edge plane that costs about $100 million each.
The U.S. Air Force this week hosted allies and partners in Hawaii for a symposium on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which can sneak undetected behind enemy radar.
Brig. Gen. Craig Wills, the strategic plans director at Pacific Air Forces, said the U.S. wanted to share its experiences with the F-35 and F-22, another stealth fighter, with allies and partners so they wouldn’t have to learn everything on their own.
The Air Force will use the F-35 to replace the A-10 and the F-16, and say it represents a “quantum leap” in air combat capability over these older planes.