F-15Es Deploy to Kadena as F-22s, F-16s Head Residence

F-15E Strike Eagles deployed to Kadena Air Base, Japan in April, becoming a member of F-35s to bolster the Air Pressure’s fighter fleet on the strategic island within the western Pacific.

In the meantime, the F-16CMs and F-22s that had been beforehand ahead deployed to Kadena have returned house, based on their respective house bases. The Air Pressure is rotating fighters by means of Kadena because it sends the ageing F-15C/D fleet again to america after greater than 40 years of everlasting Eagle operations on the island. Save for the A-10, the Air Pressure has had each energetic sort of fighter plane cycle by means of Kadena within the final 5 months: F-15C/Ds, F-15Es, F-16s, F-22s, and F-35s.

“Modernizing capabilities within the Indo-Pacific theater stays a prime precedence,” Kadena Air Base’s 18th Wing mentioned in a information launch. “This reception of superior fighter plane at Kadena ensures the 18th Wing stays postured to ship deadly and credible airpower to make sure the protection of U.S. allies and a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

On April 8, F-15Es from the 336th Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Pressure Base, N.C. touched down in Okinawa, based on the Air Pressure.

That very same day, F-22s Raptors and Airmen from the 525th Fighter Squadron assigned to Kadena headed house to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. On April 10, F-16CMs from the 480th Fighter Wing returned to Spangdahlem Air Pressure Base, Germany.

Kadena’s two-squadron F-15C/D fleet, 48 sturdy earlier than the drawdown started, is progressively being despatched to the Boneyard or Air Nationwide Guard models. The Air Pressure has promised to place newer and extra superior fighters on Kadena to make up for the dearth of a permeant presence.

In November, the Alaskan F-22s had been the primary new rotational unit deployed to the important thing southern Japanese island, which lies some 150 miles from Taiwan—the closest U.S. airbase to the self-governing island China claims as its personal. F-16CMs later joined the Raptors in January 2023.

In March, F-35s from the 355th Fighter Squadron at Eielson Air Pressure Base, Alaska deployed to Kadena. After a roughly two-week overlap, the F-16s and F-22s have now departed. F-22s had been initially supposed to switch Eagles because the Air Pressure’s major air-to-air fighter, however manufacturing was canceled in 2010. Kadena’s F-15s are the final Eagles in service within the Energetic-Responsibility drive. F-15Es are multi-role fighters, in contrast to the unique F-15.

“The F-15E is a confirmed fight platform that brings some distinctive capabilities into our already formidable mixture of plane right here at Kadena,” Col. Henry Schantz, 18th Operations Group commander, mentioned in a information launch.

The F-22s had an eventful deployment to the Western Pacific, changing into the primary fifth-generation fighters to deploy to Tinian and the Philippines. JBER mentioned the plane flew 1,100 sorties throughout their four-plus month deployment. The F-16s stayed round three months and their deployment generated fewer headlines. The deployment of F-15Es and F-35s —together with the remaining F-15C/Ds—ensures Kadena could have a mixture of fourth- and fifth-generation plane for now.