Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501), the US Marine Corps F-35B training unit at Eglin AFB, Florida, marked its first anniversary with the Lightning II on 22 May 2013. In the year since the unit, known as the Warlords, was stood up, VMFAT 501 aviators flew 833 local training sorties and logged more than 1,100 flight hours executing approximately forty-to-fifty sorties per week. Other accomplishments include verifying joint technical data for weapons loading thus paving the way for instructions for all three services and the partner nations; and authoring more than 1,000 maintenance procedures. There are also currently fourteen maintainers and two pilots from the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy assigned to the squadron.
