Japan & S. Korea considering F-35B's for their Amphibious Assault Ships? Where did this come from!

via Military.com

South Korea currently has one amphibious assault ship, the 14,300-ton, 653-foot Dokdo, which is the largest ship in the South Korean navy. A second Dokdo-class amphib is planned for 2020.

"I understand that the military top brass have recently discussed whether they can introduce a small number of F-35B fighters and operate them aboard the new ship that has already been deployed and one to be additionally built," a military source told Yonhap.

Japan is also considering buying F-35Bs to operate from its helicopter carrier, the Japan Times reported.

The problem for South Korea and Japan will be in redesigning the decks of the amphibs to take the heat and stress of the F-35B vertical landings. The Dokdo class ships now are configured to support 10 helicopters.

"Considerations will continue about whether we can run F-35Bs by redesigning the decks of the Dokdo and the new ship that is being constructed," a second military source told Yonhap.

Story here. 

Interesting.  When I was in the F-35 camp I stated that we would see this happen.  Considering the expense of the F-35, coupled with the deck issues along with the size of these ships I just don't see it happening.

They just couldn't carry enough F-35's to be useful.

But ignore all that.

Japan and S. Korea are mortal enemies.  Now we have them releasing almost SIMULTANEOUS stories of them thinking about placing F-35's on their LHDs?

This just smells.

I'm not ready to call it propaganda but there is much more to this story than we know.