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Italian navy Ensign Erika Raballo stands in front of a T-45C Goshawk jet trainer aircraft after completing her last graded flight with the Tigers of Training Squadron (VT) 9 qualifying her as a naval aviator at Naval Air Station Meridian, March 10. Raballo is the Italian navy s first female strike fighter pilot. VT-9 conducts undergraduate intermediate and advanced strike pilot training for the Navy, Marine Corps, and select international military partners. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Krystina Coffey/Released)
Italian Navy Ensign Erika Raballo was designated a naval aviator, becoming service’s first female strike fighter pilot.
Italian Navy press release
Departed on February 28 from the base of the US Navy’s Second Fleet in Norfolk, the Cavour ship has started the “hot” phase of the “Ready for Operations” campaign. The first landing of a US Marine Corps F-35B aircraft on the deck of the Navy aircraft carrier represents a fundamental step in the long and complex certification process for the use of the new aircraft.
The completion of the “Sea Trials” phase of sea trials, which will last in the Atlantic Ocean for about four weeks, will allow the flagship of the Naval Team to test the flight deck and verify the impacts with the fifth-generation aircraft in key take-off and landing moments in different trim conditions and in relation to various factors such as winds and the state of the sea, to arrive at the final certification of “Ready for Operations”.
Three interesting videos of the VX-23 F-35Bs landing aboard ITS Cavour aircraft carrier have just been released.
Two specially-instrumented U.S. F-35Bs belonging to VX-23 (Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23) from Naval Air Station Patuxent River (NAS Pax River), Maryland, have landed aboard the Marina Militare (Italian Navy) flagship, ITS Cavour (CVH 550), to carry out the sea trials that will verify the compatibility between the STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) variant of the 5th generation fighter aircraft and Italy’s aircraft carrier, on Mar. 1, 2021.
The aircraft, piloted by F-35B test pilot U.S. Marine Maj. Brad Leeman, the ITF test team project officer, and two other pilots attached to the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) VX-23 will fly the ITF jets during the four-week trials, that along with certifying the carrier “Ready for Operations” with the new jet, represent an important step towards declaring the Initial Operation Capability (IOC) o