US Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, which began flying its F-35B jets to the air station in January, now has a full complement of 16 aircraft.

The squadron — which five years ago became the first in the US Marine Corps to receive the jets — also became the first forward-deployed F-35 squadron when it moved to Iwakuni from US Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.

This comes as the 13th F-35B for the United Kingdom was recently delivered by Lockheed Martin.

It is believed that 138 F-35 aircraft will have been delivered by the 2030s. Around 2023, the Ministry of Defence have indicated that the UK will have 42 F-35 aircraft with 24 available as ‘front-line fighters’ and the remaining 18 will be used for training (at least 4-5 on the OCU), be in reserve or in maintenance.

Numbers right now are exactly where they’re expected to be and inline with the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

2 F-35B in LRIP run 3, 1 F-35B in LRIP run 4, 1 F-35B in LRIP run 7, 4 F-35B in LRIP run 8, 6 F-35B in LRIP run 9, 3 F-35B in LRIP run 10, 2 F-35B in LRIP run 11, 2 F-35B in LRIP run 12 6 F-35B in LRIP run 13, 8 F-35B in LRIP run 14 and 7 F-35B in LRIP run 15. This brings us to 42 in 2023.

The next year and next run brings us to the total of the first batch of aircraft, 48.