F-35A Lightning II

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Revision as of 22:55, 14 August 2008 by imported>Howard C. Berkowitz
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The variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter intended to meet United States Air Force requirements, the F-35A Lightning II is a conventional takeoff and landing multirole fighter. It will replace the F-16 Fighting Falcon and A-10 Warthog.

In USAF service, it will be the "low", attack-optimized counterpart to the "high", air superiority optimized F-22 Raptor, but both will be stealthy fifth generation fighters. There is controversy, however, if the export version of the "A" model will have degraded stealth characteristics.