F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters from the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force Base train over the Utah Test and Training Range, May 17, 2017. (Andrew Lee/U.S. Air Force)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — Another contingent of stealth fighters has landed at the home of the 18th Wing as part of a temporary plan to fill in for retiring F-15 Eagles.
F-35A Lightning IIs from the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, will deploy from the base on a rotational basis, 18th Wing spokeswoman Maj. Alli Stormer wrote in an email Monday.
She declined to say when or how many aircraft arrived at Kadena. However, the Okinawa Times reported Saturday that 12 F-35As arrived Friday afternoon, without citing a source.
Designed for conventional takeoffs and landings, the F-35A is the most common variant of the joint strike fighter. The B variant is capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings, and the C variant is designed for arrested landings on aircraft carriers.
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.
“The governments of the U.S. and Japan have not yet agreed on a timeline for when the F-15EX is expected to arrive,” Stormer wrote. “However, to support regional interoperability with allies and partners, we will continue to maintain a steady-state fighter presence of fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft.”
Interoperability is a term the military often uses to describe the ability of one country’s armed forces to use another’s training methods and equipment.
The Air Force has rotated squadrons of more advanced warplanes through Kadena since unveiling a plan in December 2022 to replace its legacy F-15s on Okinawa. The service sometimes calls Kadena the “keystone of the Pacific” because of Okinawa’s position northeast of Taiwan on the eastern edge of the East China Sea.
The F-35As join 12 F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 77th Fighter Generation Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and six F-22 Raptors from the 525th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, that arrived at Kadena last month.
Raptors from the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron out of Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., have departed Kadena, wing spokesman Tech Sgt. Micaiah Anthony said by phone Monday. He did not know when they departed.
A squadron of F-16 Fighting Falcons from the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing departed Kadena in October after completing its rotation. They were designated the 179th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron during their time in the Pacific.
Squadrons of F-35As from Alaska and Utah, F-16CM Fighting Falcons from Germany, F-15Cs from California and Louisiana, F-15E Strike Eagles from North Carolina and Idaho, and Raptors from Hawaii have also served at the base.
Four F-15C Eagles departed Kadena in August. No date is set for the final flight of the remaining Eagles out of Kadena, according to the wing.
