A first for new Navy jet

• An F-35C lands aboard the USS Nimitz


• The Navy hopes to have the jet operational by 2018


• Variants of the F-35 are also in the works for the Air Force and Marines

(CNN) -- A combination of old and new hooked up off the coast of San Diego Monday to give the U.S. Navy a glimpse into its future.

The moment was the first arrested landing aboard an aircraft carrier for the military's new Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35C Lightning II. An arrested landing means the jet was brought to a stop using a tailhook grabbing a wire stretched across the carrier's deck. The wire is attached to a gear system that brings the plane to a stop.

"This will be one landing out of thousands more that will happen over the next few decades," Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, executive officer of the Pentagon's F-35 program, said in a statement.

Monday's landing came aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, the oldest active carrier in the Navy's fleet.

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An F-35C Lightning II carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter conducts its first arrested landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz on Monday off the coast of California.

An F-35C conducts a test flight over the Chesapeake Bay on February 11, 2011.

An F-15E Strike Eagle flies during a demonstration in 2007 near Indian Springs, Nevada. The F-15E was designed for long-range, high-speed interdiction without relying on escort or electronic warfare aircraft. It was derived from the F-15 Eagle, which was developed to enhance U.S. air superiority during the Vietnam War.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet from the Sunliners of Strike Fighter Squadron 81 taxis onto a catapult prior to launching from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

An F/A-18 Hornet is pictured aboard the USS George H.W. Bush on May 19, 2009. The F/A-18 Hornet, a late-'70s contemporary of the Air Force's F-16 Fighting Falcon, became the workhorse of U.S. carrier-based air power, and still supplements the Navy's and Marines' more current fleet of F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets. It is designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft.

F-16 Fighting Falcons are parked at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center in Tucson, Arizona, on December 11, 2004. General Dynamics (which was later sold to Lockheed) delivered the U.S. Air Force its first F-16As in 1979. More than 4,500 of the fighters have been built and are used by more than 20 nations in addition to the United States.

Pilots perform daily flight checks on their F-5E/F Tiger aircraft in Key West, Florida, on January 7, 2005. The Vietnam-era aircraft -- one of several offshoots of the original Northrup F-5s that went into service in the early 1960s -- is used to simulate adversary aircraft in training.

A F-22 Raptor flies over Marietta, Georgia, home of the Lockheed Martin plant where it was built. The F-22 is the only fighter capable of simultaneously conducting air-to-air and air-to-ground combat missions.

A AV-8B Harrier lands on board the USS Nassau on April 14, 1999, following a strike mission into Kosovo. The AV-8B Harrier is a single-engine ground-attack aircraft capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing. Though production of the aircraft ceased in 2003, the U.S. Marine Corps is looking at systems enhancements and plans to continue using Harriers well into the next decade.

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

U.S. military's fighter fleet

"I'm very excited to see America's newest aircraft on the flight deck of her oldest aircraft carrier," said Navy Cmdr. Tony Wilson, the test pilot who landed the F-35C aboard the Nimitz.

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Tests of the F-35C aboard the carrier will continue for a few weeks, the Navy said. It is expected to be operational in the Navy's carrier air fleet in 2018, joining F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, E-2D Hawkeye control aircraft, MH-60R/S helicopters and Carrier Onboard Delivery logistics aircraft, according to a Navy statement.

The F-35C is just one version of the aircraft that the Pentagon has developed for use by the Marines and Air Force as well.

The F-35B, the Marine Corps version, is equipped with short take-off and vertical landing capability and began testing aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp in 2011.

The F-35 was developed at a cost of nearly $400 billion so far and beset for years by cost overruns and delays. The plane's primary contractor, Lockheed Martin, puts the cost of each F-35C -- the most expensive of the three versions -- at $116 million, not including the engine. The company says on its website that the price has dropped 55% since the initial planes were contracted.

Engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney said last month it has been awarded a contract worth just over $1 billion for a batch of 48 engines for the F-35.

The Pentagon ultimately wants more than 2,400 of the fighter jets, while hundreds more are expected over time to go to allies such as South Korea, Japan and Australia.

More than 100 planes have been built so far, most for testing, but the program is still in its development and training phases.

The jets were temporarily grounded earlier this year following a fire on the runway at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. No one was hurt.

The military says the stealth fighter will be "the most affordable, lethal, supportable and survivable aircraft ever to be used" by so many services worldwide.

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