In the news section talking about the "Black Knights" achieving FOC - is the aircraft in the photo carrying a gun pod?
Don't Charlie model '35's already have an internal gun???
In-flight lightning strike grounds 2 F-35B Lightning II jets
On July 13, two F-35B lightning II jets based out of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, were severely damaged after being struck by lightning in flight.
Both planes were able to land safely and no Marines were injured in the incident, according to the Marine Corps.
But the lightning-on-lightning violence caused enough damage to both aircraft to classify each incident as a Class A mishap. Class A mishaps are defined as incidents that result in either death or permanent disability, or more than $2.5 million in damages.
“After conducting our standard reporting and assessment procedures, the weather-related incident was labeled as a class ‘A’ mishap due to the combined projected repair costs exceeding two and a half million U.S. dollars,” Capt. Marco A. Valenzuela, a spokesman for Marine Air Group 12. told Marine Corps Times in an email.