Doing anything for 5,000 hours without a mistake is great, much less flying an F-35. And an entire squadron having zero accidents for 5,000 hours? Incredible.
The F-35 program gets a lot of flak. But every once in a while, it does something so impressive you just have to cheer. In October 2025, one of the U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35B units, the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 542, returned to its home base in North Carolina after a grueling five-month stint in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area. That operational area is massive, covering the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia.
While they were out there, the squadron racked up more than 1,099 combat sorties. These sorties included vital missions like Close Air Support, Armed Overwatch, and Defensive Counter-Air for U.S. and allied forces. But the best part is that they did all of this while accumulating over 4,736 mishap-free flight hours. Yes, that’s nearly 5,000 hours in a complex warzone with zero failures, and it means that the squadron maintained one of the highest aircraft readiness rates in the entire fleet. The unit’s exec, Lt. Col. Carlo F. Bonci, said the deployment demonstrated that a forward-deployed F-35B squadron can deliver unmatched combat power.
