It has been ten years since the F-35 System Design and Development contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney on October 26,2001. Since then, the F-35 program has undergone several significant changes. One of the most notable was the announcement by the government of the United Kingdom that they would not be purchasing any Short Take-Off & Vertical Landing (STOVL) F-35Bs. That decision leaves the U.S. Marine Corps and the Italian Navy as the only operators of the F-35B. Both the USMC and the Italian Navy have now witnessed STOVL F-35 operations at sea.
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