- Russia threatened to retaliate against US forces in Syria if the US tries to punish chemical weapons use in the country.
- Russia has a massive naval presence in the Mediterranean near Syria and a considerable number of fighter jets in what looks like an attempt to scare off the US.
- But the US just pulled up a small aircraft carrier full of US Marine Corps F-35Bs, something which Russia has never seen before.
- The US Navy said the F-35Bs were ready and waiting to respond to a crisis and go straight into combat against whoever steps up.
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The US is ready to send in F-35s into combat if tensions with Russia and Syria boil over
In the face of a massive Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean hugging Syria's coast, the US doesn't have a single carrier strike group anywhere near the region. But it does have a squadron of US Marine Corps F-35Bs.
Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Christopher Harrison told USNI News. That capability takes the F-35 beyond anything that F/A-18s, the US Navy's standard carrier-based fighter, could do in an environment like Syria.
Syria has advanced Russian missile defenses, creating some of the world's most challenging air spaces. Only a stealth jet with advanced sensors, like the F-35B, could safely take on the mission of fighting in the skies above Syria.
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