The new toys work!:
Washington (AFP) - American F-35 stealth fighters have been used in a combat operation for the first time, a defense official said, marking a major milestone for the most expensive plane in history.
Thursday's mission took place against Taliban targets in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, when more than one F-35 flew from the USS Essex amphibious assault ship.
"It was a successful strike," the official told AFP.
The planes deployed were the F-35B variant, used by the Marine Corps and capable of taking off from a short runway and landing vertically.
The Israeli military said in May that it had used its newly acquired F-35s in combat operations, becoming the first country to do so.
Launched in the early 1990s, the F-35 is considered the most expensive weapons system in US history, with an estimated cost of some $400 billion and a goal to produce 2,500 aircraft in the coming years.
https://
www.yahoo.com/news/us-f-35-fighters-fly-first-ever-combat-164551915.html