The F-35 Lightning II is the U.S. military’s most advanced fighter aircraft. Designed to defeat state-of-the-art air defense systems and destroy high-value targets, it would play a key role in a war with China.

But right now, the F-35 is being used against a new target — drug cartels — and it has some experts wondering: why?

On Thursday, F-35s from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 225 arrived in Puerto Rico, the Pentagon announced on X.

The deployment is part of a major U.S. military effort in the Caribbean to stop drug smuggling that includes about 1,900 sailors with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group — which consists of assault ship USS Iwo Jima, the amphibious transport docks USS San Antonio and USS Fort Lauderdale — and another 2,200 Marines with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, w

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