A mixed F-35 Lightning II Eurofighter Typhoon formation could be more frequent in the future.

This image was taken on Apr. 4, 2014, near Edwards Air Force Base, California. It shows, an F-35 of the type’s Integrated Test Force flying in formation with two Eurofighter Typhoon jets of the Royal Air Force during an interoperability test.

A mixed formation of this kind, with the U.S. and Europe’s most advanced warplanes, is still quite rare, but it should be more frequent, at least in the UK and Italy, considered that both the Royal Air Force and the Italian Air Force are not only already flying the Typhoon, but have also plans to fly the F-35.

Actually, the future of the F-35 is a bit uncertain, at least in Italy: even if nothing has been decided yet, it’s hard to believe the current plan to buy 90 F-35 (from the initial 131 jets) to replace the aging fleet of Tornado IDS, AMX (Italian Air Force) and AV-8B+ (Italian Navy) will survive further cuts.

Image credit: Lockheed Martin

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