AFT: An F-35 Lightning II from the Defense Contract Maintenance Agency conducts its first flight and first tanking with a KC-135R Stratotanker from the 465th Air Refueling Squadron, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., Feb. 24, 2021. Once fully tested, this F-35 will join the fleet at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Mary Begy
AFT: Japan Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers descend from a U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules over Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji, Japan, March 9, 2021, during Airborne 21 exercise. Airborne 21 was the largest U.S.- Japan airborne operation in history; involving approximately 600 JGSDF paratroopers, 12 C-130 aircraft and 130 containment delivery system bundles. (Yasuo Osakabe/Air Force)
Test pilots from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, Marine Corps Maj. Brad "HJOP" Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry "Baz" Pilkington, fly two F-35B variants from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on March 1, 2021, to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) off the U.S. coast. The vertical landings conducted by the two pilots marked the first landing of an F-35 aboard ITS Cavour. Italian Navy personnel and the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force test team are underway in the Atlantic to conduct F-35B sea trials aboard ITS Cavour over a multi-week testing period. The sea trials are a key milestone toward Italy's carrier qualifications with its own F‐35Bs. (Kyra Helwick/U.S. Navy)
AFT: Air Force Maj. Joshua "Cabo" Gunderson, F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team pilot and commander, and Air Force Capt. Kristin "BEO" Wolfe, F-35A Lightning ll Demonstration Team pilot and commander, break away from a formation flight at the 2021 Heritage Flight Training Course, March 4, 2021, held at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. (Staff Sgt. Codie Trimble/Air Force)
AFT: Sailors prepare to launch an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), in the Mediterranean Sea, March 9, 2021. (MC3 Cameron Pinske/Navy)