An F-16C Fighting Falcon assigned to the 119th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron prepares to land at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Oct. 23, 2025. (Erin Currie/U.S. Air Force)
Three fighter squadrons arrived for rotational duty at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa last month as the 18th Wing inches closer to a permanent fleet of F-15EX Eagle IIs in the spring.
F-35A Lightning IIs with the 4th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, landed at Kadena on Oct. 7, according to a Friday news release from the wing.
“The Fightin’ Fuujins are ready to train with the 18th Wing and demonstrate the versatility our F-35s bring to Kadena’s collective capabilities,” squadron commander Lt. Col. Adam Thompson said in the release. “Our relevance here is to enhance a fully integrated, reliable force prepared to respond whenever and wherever needed.”
They joined F-35As with the 356th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, according to the release, which did not state when those jets arrived.
The third unit in the rotation, F-16C Fighting Falcons with the 119th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, arrived on Oct. 18, according to a second release from the wing Friday. Home base for the 119th is Atlantic City Air National Guard Base, N.J.
An F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 356th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron lands at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Oct. 2, 2025. (Erin Currie/U.S. Air Force)
The October arrivals replaced three squadrons serving at Kadena since early April. The last unit in that rotation, F-15E Strike Eagles with the 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., returned home in mid-October, the wing wrote in an unsigned email Friday.
The Strike Eagles operated from Kadena alongside the 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from Hill and the 355th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from Eielson. Both flew F-35As. Wing spokeswoman Maj. Alli Stormer by phone Friday did not immediately have information on when these squadrons left.
The Air Force began rotating fighter squadrons to Kadena in late 2022 as it phased out the aging F-15C/D fleet.
The Air Force in July 2024 announced plans to send 36 F-15EX Eagle IIs to Kadena permanently. The new fighters are expected to begin arriving between March and June next year, former wing commander Brig. Gen. Nicholas Evans told reporters in March.
During the 336th squadron’s deployment, an unspecified number of F-15Es — alongside 160 airmen from Kadena, Yokota Air Base in Tokyo and Anderson Air Force Base on Guam — deployed for three months to U.S. Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia. This was the first sustained U.S. fighter presence on the remote island in the Indian Ocean, according to a Tuesday news release from the 18th Wing.
Pacific Air Forces in May said that F-15s had deployed to Diego Garcia for a force protection mission.
Six B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, along with a C-17 Globemaster airlifter and several refueling tankers, were deployed there this spring, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s magazine, Indo-Pacific Defense Forum, reported May 2.
While returning to Okinawa from Diego Garcia on Aug. 4, one of the F-15Es from the 336th safely landed with a missing wheel at Kadena, the 18th Wing said at the time. None of the airmen involved were injured.
AloJapan.com