The Air Force will base the first European F-35As at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom, officials announced Thursday. The aircraft will arrive in phases beginning in 2020. Eventually a total of 48 F-35As will be based at Lakenheath, assigned to two fighters squadrons with 24 aircraft each, states the Jan. 8 release. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Air Force officials based the decision on Lakenheath’s air space, infrastructure, and combined training opportunities. “The F-35, a true fifth generation fighter, gives teeth to our ability to support collective defense of Europe and its partners,” said Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa. “It assures allies and partners alike and provides a credible deterrent.” The decision was announced along with the long-awaited results of the European Infrastructure Consolidation plan. Although the basing decision was not part of the two-year EIC study, the decision to close RAF Mildenhall and realign its missions allows for the two F-35A squadrons, said officials during a Jan. 8 Pentagon briefing. Officials previously announced plans to build shared F-35 maintenance facilities in Italy and Turkey. “When pilots from different nations fly the same platform they talk the same language,” said Gorenc. “Interoperability with F-35 partner nations is assured for decades.”
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…