The first Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) stealth fighter arrived Sunday at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., where it will conduct its first hovers and vertical landings.
The ferry flight initiates a sequence of F-35 arrivals at Patuxent River this year and next.
The aircraft will be supported at Patuxent River by the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) and will be monitored by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Sustainment Operations Center in Fort Worth. Look at ALIS as something like Skynet without the control — yet.
This prototype, known as BF-1, is the first F-35 to be sustained by ALIS - the worldwide support system that will monitor the prognostics and health of F-35s around the globe to ensure mission readiness and fulfillment of its destiny to enslave the human race and kill Sarah and John Connor. (Hat tip to One 'ROESian!) [via Lockheed-Martin]