<p class="title">A US F-35 stealth bomber suffered millions of dollars in damage after colliding with a bird during take-off from an air base in Japan, the US Marine Corps has said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"On May 7, 2019, an F-35B with Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing aborted take-off due to a bird strike at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and safely taxied off the runway," the statement said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The pilot was not hurt in the incident, it said. Photographs circulating on social media showed what appeared to a kind of falcon stuck beneath the plane.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A damage assessment report has not yet been completed but the Marine Corps classified the incident as category "A," meaning the damage is expected to exceed USD 2 million.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The F-35 program was launched in the 1990s and has cost almost USD 400 billion, making it the most expensive weapons system ever developed by the Pentagon.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The defense department plans to build some 2,500 of the warplanes in the decades to come.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The F-35B is a short take-off and landing variant of the plane, developed for the Marine Corps. Each plane costs USD 115 million to build. </p>
<p class="title">A US F-35 stealth bomber suffered millions of dollars in damage after colliding with a bird during take-off from an air base in Japan, the US Marine Corps has said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"On May 7, 2019, an F-35B with Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing aborted take-off due to a bird strike at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and safely taxied off the runway," the statement said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The pilot was not hurt in the incident, it said. Photographs circulating on social media showed what appeared to a kind of falcon stuck beneath the plane.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A damage assessment report has not yet been completed but the Marine Corps classified the incident as category "A," meaning the damage is expected to exceed USD 2 million.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The F-35 program was launched in the 1990s and has cost almost USD 400 billion, making it the most expensive weapons system ever developed by the Pentagon.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The defense department plans to build some 2,500 of the warplanes in the decades to come.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The F-35B is a short take-off and landing variant of the plane, developed for the Marine Corps. Each plane costs USD 115 million to build. </p>