U.S. military?s F-35 not landing in Hawaii

Courtesy U.S. Navy/Lockheed Martin

The U.S. Navy variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft is seen in this 2011 photo conducting a test flight near Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. Despite the military?s shifting its focus to the Pacific, the Pentagon has no plans to base the F-35s in Hawaii.

The military may be shifting its focus to the Pacific, but even with that new direction and Hawaii?s strategic location, the Pentagon has no plans to base F-35 Joint Strike Fighters here.

One source familiar with all the aircraft-related work at Marine Corps Base Hawaii told me they heard the base could get the aircraft. But the Marines at the Pentagon said there are no plans to put the aircraft in Hawaii, and a National Guard official familiar with Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam told me he hasn?t heard anything about the Navy and Air Force putting any F-35s there either.

Pearl Harbor-Hickam already has F-22 Raptor stealth fighters that the National Guard shares with the Air Force.

And military experts I talked to said it would also make sense to put F-35s here. It would probably mean big business for contractors since the aircraft would need hangars, simulator training centers and other facilities. Just look at the hundreds of millions of dollars the Marines are going to spend at MCB Hawaii to base MV-22 Osprey and helicopters there.

?It makes sense to put [F-35s] in Hawaii because it puts them closer to China, so to speak,? Francois Boo, an associate and military expert with GlobalSecurity.org, told me in an email.

With that said, it?s kind of a head scratcher that the Marines are putting some of these aircraft ? which have been plagued with problems while they are still being developed ? in Yuma, Ariz., instead of on U.S. soil in the Pacific.

Mark Abramson covers transportation, military contracting and sports marketing for Pacific Business News.

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