By Chelsea Robin | 2026-04-06

The US Air Force has begun a permanent upgrade of its tactical capabilities in northern Japan with the arrival of F-35A Lightning IIs at Misawa Air Base in Japan, "marking the beginning of the squadron's transition to fifth-generation airpower," the service said in March.

Japanese media, citing defense authorities, reported that four F-35As arrived at Misawa Air Base on March 28, the first US F-35As stationed at the base and the first aircraft sent to replace the F-16s long assigned there. Misawa, in northeastern Japan near the northern tip of Honshu, places the most advanced tactical aircraft of the US-Japanese joint force at a forward location near China, Russia and North Korea.

"Bringing the F-35 to Misawa underscores our long-standing commitment to Japan and the region," said Col. Paul Davidson, commander of the 35th Fighter Wing. "It strengthens our ability to respond quickly and operate seamlessly with our Japanese partners."

The deployment is part of a broader US force realignment in Japan, including plans to station F-15EX fighters on Okinawa and replace Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets with F-35Cs at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.

The F-35s are being assigned to the 13th Fighter Squadron under the 35th Fighter Wing. The squadron's focus will be suppression of enemy air defenses, or SEAD, also known as the "Wild Weasel" mission.

"The F-35 was tailor made to be a weasel platform," said Lt. Col. John Widmer, commander of the 13th Fighter Squadron. "Where legacy platforms performed the Wild Weasel mission with bolted-on sensors or weapons, the F-35 was built from the ground up as a sensor platform with the sensor fusion and quarterback capability we bring to the fight."

The F-35A is the US Air Force's most modern fifth-generation fighter. It features conventional takeoff and landing, "unprecedented situational awareness," stealth capabilities and sensor fusion," according to an Air Force fact sheet.

Its state-of-the-art sensor package "is designed to gather, fuse and distribute more information than any fighter in history." Its integrated systems enhance pilot performance and "provide unsurpassed situational awareness, positive target identification and precision strike in all weather conditions."

The F-35 "excels at operating and surviving in advanced threat environments," said the US Air Force in a statement.

Fleet transition

The Pentagon announced in July 2024 that it planned to upgrade its presence at Misawa from 36 F-16 aircraft to 48 F-35A aircraft. The modernization plan, coordinated closely between the US military and the Japanese government, reflects more than "$10 billion in capability investments to enhance the US-Japan alliance, bolster regional deterrence, and strengthen peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region," the Pentagon said at the time.

"As far as transitioning from the F-16 to the F-35, the stealth capability is obviously one of the biggest things," Widmer said.

"The sensor package we bring to the fight allows us to sense the threat and manage the entire spectrum of what the enemy is fielding at us right now. ... [I]t's the place I want to be if I need to go to war."

Misawa's incoming F-35As are replacing F-16s long flown there by the 35th Fighter Wing. One of the base's two F-16 squadrons left last September, and the other is due to depart later, Nippon.com reported in March.

However, another source reported that the 13th Fighter Squadron's F-16s flew to Osan Air Base in South Korea last June, to replace older aircraft.

Apart from the F-35s delivered on March 28 for USAF use, the US Marine Corps operates two permanent F-35 squadrons at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan.

Iwakuni is a joint Japanese-US base in Yamaguchi prefecture, about 840km south of Tokyo. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force operates both F-35As and F-35Bs.