USAF F-35s in Japan

The US Air Force have deployed the F-35A in its first operational overseas move in deployment October 2017. 12 Lightning IIs from Hill Air Force Base, Utah’s 34th Fighter Squadron arrived at Kadena Air Base in Japan on 30 October and will remain there for a six-month rotation in the US Pacific Command’s (PACAF’s) first operational tasking for the F-35A. The F-35A is being deployed under PACOM’s Theatre Security Package (TSP) programme, which began in 2004. US Marine Corps F-35Bs have been based

at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan since early 2017. Meanwhile, USAF F-35As from Hill AFB’s 34th and 466th Fighter Squadrons deployed to Europe in April. Although officially a training mission, the fighters took part in NATO reassurance sorties.