<br /> <p>A detachment of F-35B stealth fighters landed on the assault ship USS Wasp on March 5, marking the first time the combat aircraft has been deployed aboard a US Navy ship in the Indo-Pacific.</p><p>“This is a historic deployment,” Colonel Tye R. Wallace said in a press release</a>. “The F-35B is the most capable aircraft ever to support a Marine rifleman on the ground. It brings a range of new capabilities to the MEU that make us a more lethal and effective Marine Air-Ground Task Force.”</p><p>The USS Wasp is currently conducting patrols in the East China Sea after leaving Sasebo Naval Base in Japan</a>.</p><p>The United States naval presence in the Pacific has increased in recent months, with the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson docking in central Vietnam’s Da Nang port</a> on March 5 – the first instance a US aircraft carrier has been stationed in the country since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Credit: US Navy via Storyful</p><br />
