For the first time, US F-35s landed on a highway during the Finnish highway exercise BAANA 2024. On September 4, 2024, two F-35s Lightning II aircraft from the 48th Fighter Wing, stationed at the Royal Air Force base in Lakenheath,…
At approximately 6:15 p.m. yesterday, an F-35A Lightning II from the 388th Fighter Wing crashed at the north end of the runway at Hill Air Force Base. On and off-base emergency crews responded immediately. The pilot ejected from the aircraft,…
The 388th Maintenance Group recently hosted a first of its kind, F-35 crash recovery course here, using a newly-retired, now reassembled F-35A Lightning II. The F-35 Joint Program Office’s five-day Crash Damaged or Disabled Aircraft Recovery course included 29 maintainers…
A Record of Decision was issued by the U.S. Air Force, making Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, the official location to host three new squadrons of the F-35A Lightning II. Air Force officials selected Tyndall based on numerous attributes, including…
The US Navy took another critical step forward in the future of the F-35C Lightning II joint strike fighter on March 6. The Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) conducted a vertical replenishment at sea, simulating the…
The “Titans” of Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 30 and members of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2 successfully delivered an F-35C engine power module aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the US Navy’s first, at-sea replenishment for this component.…
The 48th Fighter Wing has selected a new nickname for the first U.S. Air Force overseas-based F-35A Lightning II squadron. The wing solicited help from the public to name the unit. Suggestions were originally submitted in the fall of 2020, and were narrowed down…
The 354th Fighter Wing and the 168th Wing Air National Guard completed a readiness exercise Dec. 18, 2020, verifying the wing’s ability to rapidly generate combat airpower at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. More than 30 fighters and two refueling…
Marine Attack Squadron 311 conducts a sundown ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, October 15. In spring 2022, VMA-311 will reactivate as Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 311 operating the F-35C Lightning II at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Similarly,…
The F-35B Lightning jets have stepped up to the next level of training after the pilots completed their carrier qualification in both day and night time conditions. 617 Squadron, ‘The Dambusters’, and the US Marine Corps’ VMFA-211 jets, spent three…
Communities surrounding Hill Air Force Base will notice flying operations late into the evening Sept. 14-17, 2020 as the base’s fighter wings conduct a local combat exercise. The active duty 388th Fighter Wing and Reserve 419th Fighter Wing will fly…
The 62nd and 308th Fighter Squadrons participated in the Gunfighter Flag Large Force Exercise, Aug. 17-21 at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The five-day exercise deployed U.S. and foreign partners’ fighter squadrons and units from across the Department of…
F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter pilots from the U.S. and The Netherlands took to the air here Aug. 13-14 to demonstrate a new level of interoperability aimed at improving future combat data sharing among the U.S. Services, F-35 program…
Pilots from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 125 “Rough Raiders” and VFA-147 “Argonauts” were the first TOPGUN students to complete the course in the F-35C Lightning II. Maj. Derek Heinz from the Rough Raiders and Lt. William Goodwin, III from the Argonauts…
Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office delivered the 500th F-35 and in February, the F-35 enterprise surpassed 250,000 flight hours. The 500th production aircraft is a U.S. Air Force F-35A, to be delivered to the Burlington Air National Guard…
Women and men of the 158th Fighter Wing train at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, returning to Vermont in late March. Members, aircraft and support equipment departed this week for a training event known as Southern Lightning. Over 100 airmen…
The active duty 388th Fighter Wing and Reserve 419th Fighter Wing conducted a combat power exercise with a massive Elephant Walk on Jan. 6, launching 52 F-35A Lightning IIs in rapid succession. Hill AFB hosts, under the two Fighter Wings,…
Approximately one dozen, fully-operational F-35B Lightning IIs embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) Oct. 8 during routine training in the eastern Pacific. The F-35Bs are assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 122, 3rd Marine Aircraft…
For the first time, Airmen from the 33rd Fighter Wing fired AIM-9X missiles from F-35A Lightning II Sept. 17-19 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, during exercise Combat Archer. The 33rd Fighter Wing is crossing another important milestone this week…
The United States Air National Guard ushered in a new era of air power capability as its first to stealth jets F-35s, AF17-5265 and AF17-5266, arrived at the Vermont Air National Guard Base in Burlington. “The arrival of the F-35…