According to the Pentagon Press Secretary at a routine press briefing, F-35Cs operated by the Marine Corps took off from the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) aircraft carrier and participated in airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen . According to The War Zone , this could be the first combat use of the F-35C variant ( Marine Corps F-35Bs and F-35As of the Israeli Air Force have previously participated in combat operations ). First use of F-35C in combat The War Zone wrote about the Marine Corps' F-35C strikes, " This appears to be one of the first combat outings, if not the first, for carrier-based C variants of the F-35 belonging to either the Marines or the U.
S. Navy ." "Central Command [CENTCOM] forces executed a series of precise airstrikes [on] November 9 through 10 on multiple Houthi weapons storage facilities situated within Houthi-controlled territories in Yemen.
These facilities housed a variety of advanced conventional weapons used by the Iran-backed Houthis to target US and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden...
The operation involved U.S. Air Force and U.
S. Navy assets, to include F-35C fighter aircraft.” - Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj.
Gen. Patrick Ryder The War Zone suggests that Maj. Gen.
Ryder's comment that the F-35Cs were from the Navy appears to be an error and that they are actually from the Marine Corps. A video released by CENTCOM shows an F-3.
