An F-16C Fighting Falcon assigned to the 77th Fighter Squadron takes off from North Auxiliary Airfield, S.C., May, 14, 2024. (Dallin Wrye/U.S. Air Force)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — More F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-22 Raptors arrived at the home of the 18th Wing over the weekend as part of the Air Force’s plan to phase out retired F-15 Eagles with rotating squadrons.
Twelve Fighting Falcons from the 77th Fighter Generation Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., arrived at Kadena on Friday, 18th Wing spokeswoman Maj. Alli Stormer wrote by email Monday.
They were joined by six Raptors from the 525th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, arriving Saturday and Sunday, she wrote.
“While deployed to Kadena Air Base, the 4th and 5th generation fighters will work in conjunction with additional heavy, and reconnaissance assets at Kadena to ensure continued steady-state fighter capabilities in the region,” Stormer said.
Since officially bidding farewell to its legacy F-15s in December 2022, the wing has rotated fighter squadrons of more advanced warplanes through Kadena to guarantee coverage at a base it calls the “keystone of the Pacific.” Okinawa is northeast of Taiwan on the eastern edge of the East China Sea.
Six Raptors arrived in April from the 27th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Langley–Eustis, Va. They continue to serve at the base alongside the new arrivals, Stormer wrote.
Squadrons of F-35As from Alaska and Utah, F-16CM Fighting Falcons from Germany, F-15Cs from California and Louisiana and F-15E Strike Eagles from North Carolina and Idaho have also served at the base.
Raptors from the 199th and 19th Fighter Squadrons at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam returned to Hawaii on Sept. 30 after serving for six months at Kadena.
In June, the Air Force announced it will permanently deploy 36 F-15EX Eagles to Okinawa to replace the older F-15s, as part of a broader plan to station more advanced fighter aircraft across Japan over the next several years.
Four F-15C Eagles departed Kadena on Aug. 24. Some were reassigned to other units; others went to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Arizona, the “boneyard,” the wing announced on Aug. 26.
No date is set for the final flight of the remaining Eagles out of Kadena, the wing said.
F-22 Raptors deployed to Kadena have been involved in mishaps this year.
A Raptor made a precautionary landing at the base Thursday, following another precautionary landing last month of a Raptor deployed from Langley-Eustis. No injuries or damage to the runway were reported in either incident, the wing.
In May, a Raptor rolled off the paved apron after it was towed into a parking space. Weeks earlier, one was damaged when its nose gear collapsed while being towed on Kadena’s flight line.
