FighterSweep Fans, we wanted to start your Sunday off with some pretty cool aerial footage shot of the Royal Netherlands Air Force’s F-35s. As one of the original partner nations for the Joint Strike Fighter, the Dutch are a critical contributor to the program.
The Dutch Parliament approved an order for a lot of eight Lockheed Martin F-35As in March of last year, confirming the aircraft as the official replacement for the F-16AMs currently in use by the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF). These aircraft are currently scheduled for delivery in 2019.
The Dutch are scheduled to procure a total of 37 F-35As, the first two of which are currently flying at Edwards Air Force Base in California with 323 Squadron. That unit’s mission is Operational Test and Evaluation, being done alongside their American counterparts at the 31st TES.
Four RNLAF pilots, to include “Smiley” and “Pascal,” have completed their F-35 transition. Even though none of us at FighterSweep speak Dutch, we can surmise the focus of the presentation has to do with both the capacity and requirement of fighter pilots to sometimes make split-second decisions–and it doesn’t matter if you’re flying a Viper or TTL, or what language you speak.
Two Dutch F-35A Lightning IIs flying over Edwards Air Force Base, California. (Photo by Frank Crébas)
So if you can filter out not understanding what they’re saying, you ought to enjoy this presentation.