The Marine Corps plans to shift F-35B flight training out of the joint-service schoolhouse at Eglin AFB, Fla., to a separate training location at MCAS Beaufort, S.C. When Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 departs next March, only Air Force and Navy pilots will remain at Eglin’s F-35 initial joint training schoolhouse, 1st Lt. Hope Cronin, spokeswoman for Eglin’s 33rd Fighter Wing, told Air Force Magazine on June 4. The wing runs the schoolhouse. Eglin currently has 15 F-35Bs, including three British airplanes, she said. The Royal Air Force and Royal Navy F-35s “will transfer with VMFAT-501 when they transition to Beufort” by March 2015, added Cronin. Also by then, all non-British international flight training will shift to Luke AFB, Ariz., as the new formal training unit there spools up, she said. The Marines stood up their first operational F-35B squadron at MCAS Yuma, Ariz., in November 2012.
Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich assumed command of U.S. European Command on July 1, taking over the key assignment as the U.S. and its allies contend with a resurgent Russia and a grinding war in Ukraine.
