F-35C: first arrested landing on a Ford-class carrier, the John F. Kennedy does what the Gerald R. Ford could not

A US Navy F-35C Lightning II made the first arrested landing on a Ford-class aircraft carrier, aboard the pre-commissioning John F. Kennedy (CVN 79). The milestone was reached on October 13, the US Navy’s 251st birthday, in the western Atlantic, according to US Navy photos and captions.

The aircraft belonged to test and evaluation squadron VX-23 “Salty Dogs” of Patuxent River. The ship is undergoing Aircraft Compatibility Testing, which evaluates the ship’s launch and recovery equipment with Navy aircraft. Two VX-23 test pilots flew two F-35Cs to the ship, with a team from the F-35 Integrated Test Force on board. One aircraft carried special data-recording instrumentation and the second carried inert JDAM bombs externally.

The achievement is significant because the first ship of the class, Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), completed its own compatibility tests in January 2020 without the F-35C. The Ford was designed before the fighter’s integration requirements matured. The Kennedy, by contrast, received the modifications for the F-35C during construction, with upgraded jet blast deflectors, secure spaces for classified mission data, network interfaces and maintenance facilities for the low-observable surfaces.

The Kennedy has EMALS electromagnetic catapults and the Advanced Arresting Gear, and carries the AN/SPY-6(V)3 radar. The Navy provisionally took the ship from HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding on September 29, after acceptance trials in August, with formal delivery expected in spring 2027. It will be the first Ford-class carrier homeported on the West Coast, at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton in Washington. The US Navy is also preparing the sixth-generation F/A-XX fighter for its carriers.