The US Navy and Marines put an unprecedented number of F-35s out to sea aboard the USS America in the largest test of the 'Lightning Carrier' concept

• The Navy and the Marines recently conducted the largest test of the "Lightning Carrier" concept.
• Thirteen F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters trained aboard the amphibious assault ship USS America in the Pacific, the Navy revealed in a statement.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The Navy and the Marine Corps recently conducted the largest test of the 'Lightning Carrier' concept with an unprecedented number of F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters aboard the amphibious assault ship USS America in the Pacific this month, the Navy revealed.

Thirteen F-35Bs assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 122 of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force embarked aboard the America, a new-class of large amphib designed to carry a large air wing consisting of short take-off/vertical lift fighter jets and various rotary aircraft.

"This was the deployment of the largest number of F-35s ever put to sea," Lt. Col. John Dirk, commanding officer for VMFA 122, said of the training that took place earlier this month.

"For two weeks, we put sortie rates to the test, deck cycles to the test, and multi-ship control to the test, all while stressing the communication links and tactics that will make us successful in any combat environment, anywhere in the world, as a joint Navy-Marine Corps team."

The America, like its sister ship the Tripoli, is a flattop well suited to such operations, which is why the Navy and the Marines have been looking closely at these ships as a test-bed for the "Lightning Carrier" concept.

The "Lightning Carrier" is a rebranded version of the "Harrier Carrier" concept involving AV-8B Harrier jump-jets that served the military for decades.

"While the amphibious assault ship will never replace the aircraft carrier," the Marine Corps said in a 2017 report, "it can be complementary if employed in imaginative ways."

The Navy and the Marines conducted a test of this concept for the first time in 2016, loading 12 F-35B fighters onto the USS America, which could theoretically carry as many as 22 F-35s between it's hangar bay and flight deck.

"Twenty F-35 Bravos on a large-deck amphib," Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer said Wednesday. "Does it have the same punch [as an aircraft carrier]? No, it doesn't, but it does have a very interesting sting to it."

These carriers could be used to augment the carrier force, especially at times when the Navy's aircraft carrier fleet is facing readiness concerns.