Kadena Adds More Stealth Fighters Amid ‘Increasingly Challenging Strategic Environment’
May 1, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley
F-22A Raptors from the 27th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., recently arrived at Kadena Air Base in Japan, bolstering the fifth-generation airpower at the closest U.S. military installation to Taiwan.
“Amid an increasingly challenging strategic environment, it is vital that we continue to retain modern capabilities to ensure peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region,” a base spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine on May 1.
For a year and a half now, the Air Force has rotated fighters through Kadena to replace and supplement the base’s aging fleet of 48 F-15C/D fighters, which are slated to return to the U.S.
The latest F-22s join other Raptors from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, that arrived in March. Kadena is also currently hosting F-16s from the South Dakota Air National Guard’s 114th Fighter Wing and from the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/kadena-more-stealth-fighters-strategic-environment/
