An American amphibious warship equipped as a light carrier forward deployed in Japan is coming back to America next year. It did a lot while there:
Over the last year, the Wasp has set some historic milestones for the Navy’s amphibious fleet. The F-35B made its deployment debut aboard the Wasp in March, during the ship’s first mission after arriving in Japan.
The aircraft, from Marine Attack Fighter Squadron 121 at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, helped test the Up-gunned Expeditionary Strike Group concept that pairs two guided-missile destroyers and the F-35B with a traditional amphibious readiness group.
Japan is thinking of altering their larger helicopter destroyer to operate F-35Bs (which I noted in a recent data dump), as the United States has done with a couple of our big-deck amphibious warships.
Seriously, a pacifist constitution isn't meant to be a suicide pact.
The new America will replace Wasp in Japan according to an article that I lost when Firefox helpfully restarted, killing my open tabs. I noted the unique America quite some time ago. Actually quite some time ago.
