Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps for Aviation Lieutenant General Jon Davis discusses the future of Marine Corps aviation at AEI in Washington, D.C., on Friday, July 29, 2016.
Noting that the decision to deploy the fifth-generation jet into combat would come from higher command, Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps for Aviation Lieutenant General Jon Davis said the F-35B is "ready to go right now."
"We got a jewel in our hands and we've just started to exploit that capability and we're very excited about it," Davis said during a discussion at the American Enterprise Institute on the current readiness and future trajectory of Marine Corps aviation.
Davis, who has flown copilot in every type model series tilt-rotor, rotary-winged, and tanker aircraft in the Marine Corps inventory, said the F-35 is an airplane he's excited about.
"The bottom line is everybody who flies a pointy-nose airplane in the Marine Corps wants to fly this jet," Davis said.
Last summer, then Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford declared initial operational capability (IOC) for 10 F-35B jets, the first of the sister-service branches.
"There were a lot of people out here in the press that said, 'Hey, the Marines are just going to declare IOC because it would be politically untenable not to do that,'" Davis said.
"IOC in the Marine Corps means we will deploy that airplane in combat. That's not a decision I was gonna take lightly nor General Dunford."
An F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501), flies near its base a MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina.
Ahead of IOC, Davis said the Marine Corps "stacked the deck with the F-35 early on" by assigning Top Gun school graduates and weapons tactics instructors to test the plane.
"The guys that flew that airplane and maintained that airplane were very, very, hard graders."
Davis added that the jet proved to be "phenomenally successful" during testing. "It does best when it's out front, doing the killing."
The Marine Corps' first F-35B squadron is scheduled to go to sea in the spring of 2018.
Meanwhile, the Air Force could declare their first F-35 squadron combat-ready as early as next week.