
U.S Air Force personnel in Utah staged the first ever 'Elephant Walk' exercise yesterday with the $100 million F-35A Joint Strike Fighter jet.

In a demonstration of military might, the 388th and 419th fighter wings performed the combat power exercise at Hill Air Force Base, launching 35 F-35A fighter jets in 11 minutes.

'Elephant Walk' exercises are also known as short-notice combat readiness drills, and can be conducted using many different types of military aircraft - even helicopters.

F-35A pilots from the 388th and 419th Fighter Wing prepare for takeoff as part of an 'Elephant Walk' combat power exercise at Hill Air Force Base

35 deadly F-35 Lightning II jet fighters are 'are ready to deploy anywhere in the world at a moment's notice' to support the U.S military

They involve the aircraft taxiing in close formation or in sequence before a minimum interval takeoff. The drill is a test of units' ability to launch as many aircraft as necessary to support the national defense mission in a short time-frame.

F-35 FACT SHEET Role: Stealth multirole fighter First flight: December 15, 2006 Unit cost (not including engine): F-35A - $98million F-35B - $104million F-35C - $116million Number built: 115 (as of November 2014) Length: 15.67m Wingspan: 10.7m Height: 4.33m Max speed (F-35A): 1,930kph Advertisement

A surge in combat operations could take place at a moment's notice, and require any number of available fighter planes.

For this debut drill, the units launched a symbolic 35 of the F-35A jet.

'What this demonstrates is our ability to generate a significant amount of air power,' 388th Wing Vice Commander Col. Michael Ebner said, as reported by Deseret News in Utah.

'Today we're exercising our wing's ability to rapidly deploy combat power,' he said.

'Part of what we do as the military is we conduct exercises to identify any shortfalls and issues that we may have in trying to answer our nation's call.

'It shows not only our Air Force leadership and Department of Defense leadership, (but) also shows our allies and enemies our ability to generate combat power.'

During the exercise aircraft took off in 20- to 40-second intervals.

The 388th and 419th fighter wings are the U.S Air Force's only combat-ready F-35A units, and must therefore be ready to launch large amounts of aircraft at once should the national defense require support.

'We are ready to fight tonight, and exercising with multiple squadrons of F-35s can demonstrate our ability to defeat potential adversaries wherever they may arise,' Maj. Caleb Guthmann, 34th Fighter Squadron assistant director of operations and exercise project officer said in a statement.

Conducting large-scale drills send a powerful message to U.S allies, adversaries and to the public that the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings are ready to deploy to protect the nation.

The military exercise aims to confirm their ability to quickly employ a large force of jets against air and ground targets, and demonstrate the readiness and lethal force of the F-35 Lightning II

Launched in the early 1990s, the F-35 program is considered the most expensive weapons system in US history, with an estimated cost of some $400billion and a goal to produce 2,500 aircraft in the coming years

The F-35 family is made up of three variations of the single-seat jet: the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) model, the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) model, and the F-35C carrier (CV) model.

With similar performance characteristics, the three models are distinguished most of all by their unique requirements for take off and landing.

The F-35 planes have however suffered a number of high-profile crashes.

In 2017, Navy pilots using the F-35C - a model of the jet designed for operations on a carrier ― complained it would move up and down on its nose gear when being launched from a catapult.

In August, the nose gear collapsed on an F-35A Lightning II jet worth around $94.3million after a mid-air emergency forced it to land at a Florida base.

Then, last month, the Pentagon grounded the F-35B fighter jet in order to inspect the fleet in the wake of a crash in South Carolina.

One of the $100million fighter jets was completely destroyed when it crashed during a training exercise in South Carolina on September 28.

Launched in the early 1990s, the F-35 program is considered the most expensive weapons system in US history, with an estimated cost of some $400billion and a goal to produce 2,500 aircraft in the coming years.

In a demonstration of military might, the 388th and 419th fighter wings performed the combat power exercise at Hill Air Force Base, launching 35 F-35A fighter jets in 11 minutes

'Elephant Walk' exercises are also known as short-notice combat readiness drills, and can be conducted using many different types of military aircraft - even helicopters

Four F-35A's of Hill Air Force Bases 388th and 419th fighter wings sit on the runway waiting for take-off on November 19, 2018 in Hill Air Force Base, Utah. This combat training exercise is to help the 388th and 419th, the only combat ready units for the F-35A's, to be ready to launch multiple aircraft on short notice in the defense of the country

Hill Air Force Base F-35A Lightning IIs fly in sequence formation over the Utah Test and Training Range (file image from March 30, 2017)

The F-35 was billed as a fighter jet that could do almost everything the US military desired, serving the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy – and even Britain's Royal Air Force and Royal Navy – all in one aircraft design.

It was supposed to replace and improve upon and aging aircraft types with widely different missions, and marketed as a cost-effective, powerful multi-role fighter airplane significantly better than anything potential adversaries could build in the next two decades.

But it turned out to be none of those things. The program fell nearly a decade behind schedule, and failed to meet many of its original design requirements.

The unit cost per airplane, above $100 million, is roughly twice what was promised early on.

Even after President Trump lambasted the cost of the program in February 2017, the price per plane dropped just $7million – less than 7 percent.