F-35

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine stealth multirole fighter. It is still in testing and has yet to enter full production. The program may possibly be canceled because of the U.S. Economy. The F-35B variant is featured in Battlefield 2, Battlefield Play4Free.

Battlefield 2
The F-35B in Battlefield 2 is the only VSTOL (short of Vertical or Short Take-Off and Landing) fighter jet in the game and one of the 4 Fixed-Wing aircraft (F-35B, F-18, F-15E, A-10) used by the United States Marine Corps. It has no PLA or MEC counterpart and is only found on the USS Essex (LHD-2)

Compared to the F-18
The F-35B has the same armament as the F-18 and both aircraft are single-seated, but the F-35B trades maneuverability and speed for VTOL/STOL capabilities. Thus making the F-35B easier to land, but making it slower and more vulnerable.

Appearances
The F-35 appears on every map with a American amphibious assault ship, and does not appear on any 16 player sized maps due to the lack of any amphibious assault ships on any 16 player sized maps.
 * Dalian Plant
 * Dragon Valley
 * Gulf of Oman
 * Wake Island 2007
 * Zatar Wetlands

Battlefield Play4Free
In Battlefield Play4Free, the F-35 is the USMC's fighter jet. It appears at Oman and is usable with the Jet pilot training. The Jet can fire heatseaking missiles at enemy vehicles, including other jets, and drop bombs to destroy infatry and other ground targets. The F35 also has access to countermeasures to thwart missile lock on, but the cooldown timer for this ability is longer than other vehicles in the game.

The F-35 features VTOL capabilities over its Russian counterpart, the MiG-29.

Battlefield 3
The F-35 was seen in the November 4th Back to Karkand expansion pack trailer, and was confirmed to be one of the 3 new vehicles. Unlike the other jets, the F-35 has hovering capabilites which can be activated by using the throttle-down control, which is allows it to function somewhat like a helicopter, but the aircraft is difficult to control during vertical flight.

This problem can be easily countered by ensuring that the jet is flying relatively level when activating VTOL mode, and holding down the throttle-down button. This keeps hover mode activated, and from then onwards attitude/lateral control is performed as if the pilot was flying an attack chopper, albeit without the ascend/descend functionality.

This aircraft performs rather poorly in dogfighting due to its low maneuverability and difficulty of braking during a turn without reverting to hover mode, unlike its opponent, the Su-35BM Flanker-E. Also, the HUD view in the cockpit is closer than in the other jets, hindering the situational awareness of the pilot. This is somewhat mitigated by the rather difficult to use Helmet Mounted Display for locking on with missiles, rather than other jets HUD only lock on (meaning a skilled pilot can lock on while looking in any direction from the cockpit).

They are featured on Conquest on Gulf of Oman, and Conquest, CQ Assault on Wake Island.