The U.S. Air Force 48th Fighter Wing has reactivated the first U.S. Air Forces in Europe F-35A squadron.

Accorng to the U.S. Air Force here, the 495th Fighter Squadron (nicknamed as the ‘Valkyries’) was activated at exactly 8:49 and 50 seconds Friday morning, 30 years to the day since its designation as a fighter squadron.

“The first F-35A is scheduled to arrive at RAF Lakenheath later this year. The base was selected to host the first U.S. F-35A squadrons in Europe based on very close ties with the Royal Air Force, existing infrastructure, and combined training opportunities. Additionally, the U.K. is a critical component in training and combat readiness for U. S. Air Forces in Europe due to its excellent airspace and F-35 program partnership.”

Lt. Col. Ian D. McLaughlin has assumed command as the first commander since the squadron’s inactivation in 1991.

“Today is an exciting day. There has been a great deal of work done to get us this far, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done prior to getting jets this winter. The 495th has a proud history and we’re excited to take the guidon forward to start building the foundation for first USAF F-35As stationed in Europe.”

The new F-35 squadron will consist of 27 aircraft and roughly 60 personnel.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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119 COMMENTS

      • Damn you beat me too it Andy apparently US personnel are informed/taught that in Blighty we drive on the Right side So now they can’t claim Diplomatic immunity sad but true

  3. F35 is going to become an even more familiar site in UK sky’s. Some more F35B’s are due to be delivered to Marham before Christmas too. 🇬🇧🇺🇲👍

  4. We are lucky we have Yank bases in uk… Yank Tankers with booms, f15s, f35as, Bombers and the rest..It makes the UK a safer Place…

    • Why does it ? It could just as easily make it more of a target for the anti US feeling in the world. I would the UK have more capability of its own rather then having to rely on further integration with the yanks to achieve its fundamental premise of protecting the country.Still I suppose it means the government doesn’t have to fund an independent strategy, and saves loads of money as an added bonus. No such thing as a free lunch.

      • There is truth in that. And I wish we would spend more on our own capabilities. Being the USA’s “Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier” does have its advantages, mainly intelligence wise.

        And of course the economic boosts.

        The disgraceful Sacoolas incident excepted of course.

        • I’m going to think that the point about being a target for anti-US feeling is overstated; everyone knows the closeness between the U.K. and USA whether they have 50 jets here or not. (Or even 100). However, I’m afraid that the idea that the USAF is literally defending the U.K. and is here to help us is letting our own standards slip. If the US wasn’t sending fighters here, I agree that perhaps we would be forced to fund the RAF a little better.

          • Agree. Having USAF in UK as a relatively safe base to support defending the central and eastern areas of NATO I get. Very sad indeed if we truly need USAF to provide a robust defence of UK mainland itself.

            Militarily and in the intelligence communities there may well be high levels of mutual respect and trust but politically there is nothing special in the relationship relative to what the USA does with a number of other key regiomal allies around the globe. It’s special to the extent the US gets what the US wants.

          • I think as long as we’re close to to the US we’ll always be a target. Especially if we want to push the “special relationship angle.”

          • There not here defending the uk at all.we can do that ourselves,like we have the last 50 since before ww2,also we have largest navy in Europe and a big deterrent that is nuclear, so talk sense, ul can hold its own plenty.

          • The USAF is here as part of a NATO contribution to Europe The UK is a NATO member after all. Nothing to do with the EU either.

          • We can hold our own plenty but not against some countries. If push came to shove the RuAF would wipe the floor with the RAF… just wouldn’t be able to invade because of the state of their navy. Be realistic; the US deployment is to boost numbers. Most NATO countries have a US Air Force base, but very few countries have an AF base in the US.

          • We’re looking at different types of closeness. Obama was not too keen on Great Britain by all accounts either. Concuring on one area need not mean agreement on all.

          • I agree with Daniele. Biden doesn’t have to be a fan of Johnson or even the U.K.. Its things like the respect within the USN for the RN, within the RM for the USMC. The U.K. and the USA have many more commercial, diplomatic, military and economic ties than any other two completely independent countries, let alone any other two major powers.

          • You’re a very glass half empty fellow aren’t you Mike? Not one remotely positive or even neutral comment in your entire comment history…

      • “Still I suppose it means the government doesn’t have to fund an independent strategy”

        In some respects. The most important USVF ( US Visiting Forces ) sites in the UK are intelligence orientated, not airbases.

        Why would the UK need to fund our own Menwith Hill, Feltwell and Croughton when as part of the UKUSA agreement that infrastructure and capability is available to all the 5 eyes partners?

        We do also have our own versions of those places, but the American presence adds to ours, NATO’s, and the US collective security, and capability, regardless of what some lefty CND, Labour MP’s, and CAAB women might think.

      • The Facts are the Yanks have capability’s we can only dream of, having them based in the UK is a Huge deal…We are lucky.

      • Incredible comments! And when exactly is the UK going to get this capability notwithstanding the boost to the local economies the Americans bring with them?

      • Not wanting to be anti American, but in 2003, when Blair stood with Bush, my family business longstanding American clients refused to visit Britain to buy their stock. They went to France & bought there instead. Their reasoning was UK by standing with USA would be a jihadist target. As France opposed America, it would be safe. Knocked a huge hole out of my turnover, that has never recovered.

          • Well it was what many Americans in 2003 thought. Exasperating to see the Dollars go to France, rather than the UK. Many British businesses that relied on American visitors suffered (Airlines/Hotels/Retail/Dining,etc.)

    • Well said. Those of us who served through the Cold War, fully understand why we are stronger with the US based here. It’s a no brainer really.

        • In the post BREXIT world, where our former EU “friends” are now showing their true colours. The united Anglosphere is increasingly important. They are our natural allies because basically they are us. AU, CA, GB, US and even if they are currently a little lost NZ too. Add India, the worlds largest democracy to that list and it’s an impressive group. Our history is one of our greatest strengths and we must maximise it for the commonwealth / common good.

          • You could argue many in the EU never actually fell into the ‘friends’ category at all. We provided far too much cash for the union and most of it was spent arguing in Brussel’s against policies we didnt want but ultimately ended up having in some form.

            Comment about the true colours is very apt as they shown ever since the Brexit vote went the way no one expected.

          • Well done for pointing out the Hungarians are as Eurosceptic as we are David…..

            I think the old dusty iron curtain of EU is finding the growing Anglosphere Alliance quite disturbing, it sees it’s influence becoming increasingly globally sidelined as world geopolitics start a paradigm shift.

            This of course shouldn’t be a surprise, as they are such an inward looking protectionist organisation, that a ‘real’ Union of like-minded countries is a rather disquieting prospect for them..

          • Lol why would I want to do that, so I can be blinded by the fantasy of the EU idea as opposed to seeing reality!?

  6. Only 1 Sqn? My God lakenheath is an airbase without aircraft…Why cant they get 48 tomorrow? F35A, damn its just not good enough, can you fit an Abrams to the wings? No? What if the F35 meets another tank at 30000 feet? Damn this just isn’t good enough….What about the ability to travel through Time?….NO? WTF…..Not good enough, we are doomed, doomed I say…..

    • Relax. Of course they have the ability to travel through time. The ones arriving later this year are expected to be able to continue to exist until the following morning, possibly even longer. (Or I should say, they being American, thru the following morning.)

      • I still don’t understand why we don’t have any SAM systems. Even Italy has SAMP/T. How hard would it be to buy some of those or THAAD.

        • DI/MoD threat assessment don’t consider it a threat great enough to warrant the spend. If it was, they’d have something.

          I’d be happy to have them, but would posters prefer that spend to more T31 or F35.

          • Certainly. I assume, seeming as MoD has contingencies for most things, that 16RA could detach a battery.
            With as it stands only 4 fire batteries, one of which is in the S Atlantic, these assets are at a premium, and then 3 Div needs them too.

            As usual, we want mooore.

          • Are you serious or having us on? Awaiting immigrants at Calais will block the tunnel as effectively as solid tock from invasion by military.

          • Ground to Air, my typo. Daniele caught my drift.

            Entry and exit points are fixed at the chunnel and well known, given that it’s a rail link that has been proven to be a artery for moving tanks, and an obvious choke point, onto the continent it is an obvious target for cruise missiles and airstrikes.

          • There’s not much point having F-35s (or any aircraft for that matter) and have them get taken out on the ground in a war. THIS poster thinks multilayered airbase defence is ESSENTIAL. As well as dispersal, multispectral camouflage and deception.

        • Money or need. Weighing up what’s likely to happen and what we need im sure top brass decided we don’t need SAM for a good reason, I hope. We do have Europe to our east to shoot down anything first and west, well we are screwed.

      • Well Land Ceptor is a thing?

        Generally the Ceptor project has gone very well and simple sealed modularised soft launch appears the way forward.

        So given the realities of the ease of software integrations, these days, it might well be possible to inexpensively fit a few to key bases. Possibly with 57mm to drop launched munitions at range.

        It will be interesting if the range of Ceptor increases significantly in the refresh.

        As the world is getting more dangerous with Iran and NK getting long range nuclear ambitions we are, at some point soon, going to need something like Land Aster. I’d see that as likely a collaboration with Israel as they have a lot of expertise with Iron Dome etc.

          • That was certainly floating about out there.

            Let’s see what actually gets bought/deployed.

            I think the other thing we are going to start to see more of is: less openness about what weapons systems are where. And maybe even what systems UK has.

    • Airborne,

      the next software release along with fitting of the flux capacitor should give an initial operating capacity for time travel… 😜

    • 48th fighter wing is already at lakenheath with F-15s and other news releases, including from the USAF, say 60 personnel. I guess all the required maintenance crews are already there, so the extra 60 is mostly pilots.

  8. Last I heard the numbers will eventually be 54 F35s, comprising two squadrons, and they will co-exist alongside the two squadrons of F15-Es already there, with the F15C squadron being disbanded.

    • will that be more (if not close to) US combat aircraft at Lakenheath than the RAF have in total 🙁 wish RAF had gone for F-35A to replace Tornado strike role

      • It’s two squadrons of each, so between 100-120 fighters. I wouldn’t want us to get F-35A in the future. Better that we have Tempest, our 80 F-35B, and then Mosquito and maybe some other drones. We could get many more drones for the price of 1 F-35, and it would be much more useful in the strike role due to its expendability.

        • These new drones are as big as full sized fighters the only difference is no cockpit! i don’t think that they will be much cheaper for not having an ejection seat and few touch screen really. i hope i’m wrong but if ground controlled the lag between sensors reporting and response being actioned will mean in vs fight drone losses to pilot. I don’t think world is ready to accept F-35 sized fully loaded drone that has kill capable AI (they watch to many films)

          • A person takes up a pretty big space, no cockpit means quite a lot smaller. But cost isn’t really related to size anyway, steel and air is cheap. It’s what’s on the drone that’s expensive. About the morale… aren’t missiles kill capable AI? The drone won’t randomly strike targets, if it’s a loyal wingman it’s essentially a missile carrier to help the jet; a caddy if you will. Recon drones probably won’t be very well armed. Strike drones will probably come in two versions, cheaper (for stuff like bombing ISIL) and stealthier (for bombing modern foes). Completely independent air to air drones… we’ll have to wait a while.

          • loyal wingman will work with computing power now available, drones like protector are good for ISIL type surveillance/strike, surely for long range strike against peer foe then stealthier /longer ranged cruise missiles would be cheaper way to go? buy some more voyagers put launchers in each belly hold that can be reloaded from main deck can fly 3k with couple of loyal wingman escorts launch 20/30 missiles fly back all in few hours.

          • Was just using the common phrase, but point is the materials used to build a fighter, even if it’s stealth, come nowhere near the cost of radars, hardpoints, missiles etc.

          • We will see Eclipse, cost is always the question..

            Will we go for an affordable loyal wingman option or go for a more capable UCAV, able to prosecute its own target set, using advanced AI?

            The latter will be very far from cheap…

            I would like to see Tempest (initially) backed up by a capable, but crucially affordable loyal wingman, with a limited ability to strike its own targets.

            I would hold back on advanced, fully independent deep strike UCAV, until the 2040’s timeline, when the technology will have caught up with science fiction.

        • I think it will eventually be 2 x Squ.’s of 24 F-15E, and 2 x Squ.’s of 27 F-35A. So total 102 strike aircraft.

  9. 27 aircraft for a squadron is impressive. Poor old RAF manage 12 aircraft at best. That’s a big difference in capacity.

  11. 27 aircraft and 60 personnel…. think these figures are wrong. Is the 60 just pilots, which is believable. What about all of the techs, knowing how the Spams man their squadrons, I would have thought there would be a couple of hundred techs. Unless the USAF don’t count techs as part of the squadron.

  13. Would be cool if it was the Yank navy who had a base in UK, with marine f35bs, would make more sense..and we could work together better.

      • As far as I can see labour is making themselves less and less popular. And if anything, our de-globalising world will only make parties on the right more popular. I also might remind you that the entire QE programme was started and ordered by labour… and it was Cameron’s conservative government that almost cancelled it.

      • It was also the champagne socialists that allowed the Queen Elizabeth class to grow to 65k tonnes…. One QE is more steel than the 3 invincible’s combined…

        • I think brown intentionally signed a carrier building contract which was too expensive to break. We got them now, let’s use them.

          • He did 2 things we should thank him for. Bank of England independence and the QE’s. Oh and he got rid of Blair too but then flipped up by replacing him with himself.

          • Yep forgot that. The guys looking less of a disaster the more I think of it. To be fair though the bars not high with the guy who came before and the guy who came after. lol.

  14. “The U.S. Air Force 48th Fighter Wing has reactivated the first U.S. Air Forces in Europe F-35A squadron.”

    No, it has not. It has reactivated the 48th but this is the first time for the F35A squadron. HTH.

  15. An obvious choice of location in many ways. I remember Lakenheath when the then cutting-edge F111’s were based there.

  18. Hello TH, Harold, PierreLM, John and map from wherever, sorry Mike this time…….deluded is the word, your world, sad, lonely but deluded.

  21. The F-35 needs better A2A missiles than AIM-120 and AIM-9X. Meteor is a no-brainer and to replace AIM-9X I’d go for ASRAAM or IRIS-T. (F-35s would also benefit from BriteCloud.) But since these aren’t US missiles they probably won’t be fitted to US F-35s.

    The airbase could also do with multi-layered defences so the F-35s can’t get taken out on the ground in a war. Dispersal, multispectral camouflage and deception would also make sense.

    • ASRAAM is already in use on the UK’s F35B – that managed to sneak through in an earlier software update. I believe that the money has only recently been allocated to qualify Meteor and Spear 3. Agree though, if they don’t already have BriteCloud, then it should be high on the “to do” list.

      • Oh OK, wasn’t aware our F-35Bs already have ASRAAM. That said, it would make sense to make a smaller version that the F-35Bs can carry internally so they can carry a sensible number (4 say) as opposed to just two on the wingtips (which also negatively affects the RCS and creates drag). Same goes for IRIS-T, which would be my preference because, unlike other short-range AAMs, it can shoot down AAMs and SAMs.

        AIUI our F-35Bs will get Meteor and SPEAR-3 in Block 4. I’ve read dates for Block 4 ranging from 2024 to 2027, it could possibly be even later. It shouldn’t take so long to fit new missiles to the F-35. We need a plug-and-play interface for missiles. Also I doubt US F-35s will ever carry Meteor since they’re developing a replacement for AIM-120. IRIS-T maybe though, because F-16s can carry it.

        Lastly, yes, BriteCloud is a no-brainer. ALL aircraft should have it. And a state-of-the-art DIRCM system wouldn’t go amiss either if there’s space for one.

        Oh and the F-35s could do with an IRST system like the Typhoon’s PIRATE which is optimised for air-to-air combat. The IRST capability embedded in the F-35’s EOTS system is optimised for ground attack, hence why the sensor is underneath the aircraft.

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