Military shows off latest success of troubled fighter

By CNN Sr. National Security Producer Charley Keyes

The Pentagon is doing an online victory dance about the latest win for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Marine Corps version of the plane, already under a cloud because of past development troubles, made its first landing on a ship at sea.

The short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) version of the fighter landed on the USS Wasp. The Air Force will receive a standard take-off version and the Navy F-35’s will land on carriers. The Marine version is for either sea landings or short battlefield strips.

The military posted a video of the landing on the youtube website.

"The first at sea vertical landing is a huge milestone," said Marine Corps Col. Roger Cordell in a press release.  Cordell is the military site director for F-35 test and evaluation at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. "We're still early in this test period, and we expect to learn a lot more, but this is a great step toward delivering the capability to the fleet."

This comes eight months after then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave the Marine Corps version of the jet an order to either deliver or die.  The F-35 has been under development for ten years.

Gates in January said the Marine version was experiencing significant testing problems. And he warned that structure and propulsion redesign could add both weight and cost to a project that had little capacity to absorb either. “As a result, I am placing the STOVL variant on the equivalent of a two-year probation,” Gates said at the Pentagon January 6.  “If we cannot fix this variant during this time frame and get it back on track in terms of performance, cost and schedule, then I believe it should be canceled. “

That probation still has another 16 months to run and this week’s success won’t have any official impact on that timetable. But the military officers affiliated with the program were upbeat.

 “It is no small feat to put together sea trials," said Vice Adm. David Venlet, F-35 Program Executive Officer. "This test was planned to happen on 3 October back in early spring of this year and the team delivered on schedule. Signs of dependable performance are emerging across broad aspects of the development program.”