A detachment of F-35B stealth fighters landed on the assault ship USS Wasp on March 5, marking the first time the combat aircraft has been deployed aboard a US Navy ship in the Indo-Pacific.“This is a historic deployment,” Colonel Tye R. Wallace said in a press release. “The F-35B is the most capable aircraft ever to support a Marine rifleman on the ground. It brings a range of new capabilities to the MEU that make us a more lethal and effective Marine Air-Ground Task Force.”The USS Wasp is currently conducting patrols in the East China Sea after leaving Sasebo Naval Base in Japan.The United States naval presence in the Pacific has increased in recent months, with the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson docking in central Vietnam’s Da Nang port on March 5 – the first instance a US aircraft carrier has been stationed in the country since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Credit: US Navy via Storyful