The F-35 Lightning fighter can't stand up to real lightning, so Marines ordered specialty rods to keep them from going up in flames

Mobile and standing at a height of 50 feet, the rods should be able to withstand a lightning strike with a magnitude up to 200 kiloamps, survive winds up to 120 mph and hold up against rainfall at a rate of 1.4 inches per hour and ice accretion up to three inches, the request explained.

"Since the F-35 as a composite type aircraft does not provide inherent passive lightning protection, the lightning rods being requested are needed for deploying aircraft to any expeditionary airfield in support of combat operations or training exercises that do not support all lightning protection requirements for the F-35B," the justification noted.

Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni became the first US overseas base to operate the F-35 when Marine Fighter Attack Squadron One Two One (VMFA-121) was deployed there last year with a collection of stealth fighters.

The F-35B Lightning II used by the US Marine Corps is an impressive fifth-generation fighter and the world's first operational supersonic short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft, but even it is no match for the full force of Mother Nature.

Assuming Lockheed Martin has not completed the process of shielding the aircraft's onboard systems from lightning, a strike could cripple the Autonomic Logistics Information System supporting aircraft operations, making the fighter unusable until it could be repaired.

Also, because the process for rendering the fuel system inert after the plane is back on the ground is a challenge, it's possible that lightning could strike a non-inert plane and ignite the oxygen and fuel vapors built up inside the tank, causing an explosion or fire.

The Drive notes that this has been a particularly serious issue for the Marines' jump-jet fighter. A 2015 Department of Defense Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation report revealed that the F-35B did "not maintain residual inerting after flight for the required interval of 12 hours, which is a lightning protection requirement."

The problem, however, existed before that report.

"Tests of the fuel tank inerting system in 2009 identified deficiencies in maintaining the required lower fuel tank oxygen levels to prevent fuel tank explosions," a DoD report explained, noting that the aircraft was lacking the "required levels of protection from threat and from fuel tank explosions induced by lightning."

Later reports have since suggested that the F-35 program has made progress on this matter, but it remains unclear if all of the deficiencies have been fixed.

Over the years, F-35 operators have tread cautiously when faced with bad weather, occasionally canceling operational training and exercises due to inclement weather. Still, the new rods requested for the F-35s in Japan could simply be "alternative lightning protection strategies."