U.S. Deploys F-35A Stealth Fighters to Japan Replacing F-16s to Counter China Threat
{loadposition bannertop}
{loadposition sidebarpub}
The U.S. Air Force has deployed F-35A Lightning II fighters to Misawa Air Base in Japan, replacing legacy F-16s with stealth-capable combat aircraft.
The first aircraft from the 13th Fighter Squadron arrived on March 28, 2026, marking the start of Misawa’s transition to fifth-generation airpower. The deployment follows months of infrastructure upgrades, support equipment delivery, and a broader modernization effort valued at over $10 billion for the 35th Fighter Wing. U.S. officials frame the shift as critical to improving survivability, strike reach, and integrated operations with Japanese forces.
Read also: Netherlands Joins U.S. and Japan in Trilateral F-35 Exercise at Misawa to Enhance Allied Interoperability.
U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II fighters arrive at Misawa Air Base, marking a major upgrade in America’s forward airpower posture in Japan. The deployment strengthens stealth strike, air defense suppression, and allied deterrence in the Indo-Pacific (Picture source: U.S. DoW).
This arrival did not come as an isolated event; it followed the January 2026 delivery of specialized F-35 support equipment to Misawa and the September 2025 divestment of the 13th Fighter Squadron’s F-16s under a modernization plan the Air Force says represents more than $10 billion in capability investments for the 35th Fighter Wing and the U.S.-Japan alliance.
From a technical standpoint, the F-35A gives Misawa a markedly different combat profile than the F-16 it is replacing. Powered by the Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engine, the aircraft can reach Mach 1.6, operate above 50,000 feet, carry roughly 18,000 pounds of payload, and fly a USAF-profile combat radius of more than 590 nautical miles on internal fuel, with endurance extended further by aerial refueling. Those figures matter in Northeast Asia because they combine reach, persistence, and penetration in a theater where distance and reaction time are operational currencies in their own right.
Its armament is equally important to the capability shift now underway at Misawa. The F-35A carries an internal 25 mm GAU-22/A cannon and, in its standard stealthy internal configuration, can fly with two AIM-120C/D AMRAAM air-to-air missiles plus either two 2,000-pound GBU-31 JDAMs or two 1,000-pound GBU-32 JDAMs; when low observability is less critical, it can also exploit external stations to expand overall weapons carriage. In practical terms, that means commanders can tailor the jet for first-day penetration, defensive counter-air, precision strike, or follow-on high-volume attack without changing platforms.
What makes the aircraft especially relevant for the 13th Fighter Squadron is not just stealth, but the way the F-35A fuses sensing, targeting, and electronic warfare into one combat system. Official and technical program sources describe a sensor suite centered on the AN/APG-81 AESA radar, the AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System, the AN/AAQ-40 Electro-Optical Targeting System, the AN/ASQ-239 electronic warfare/countermeasures system, and the AN/ASQ-242 communications, navigation, and identification architecture, all feeding a single tactical picture to the pilot and to connected forces. That architecture allows the jet to detect, classify, track, and share threat data at a speed that changes not only its own survivability, but the lethality of every friendly shooter tied into the same network.
That is why the F-35A is such a natural fit for Misawa’s long-standing Wild Weasel culture. The 13th Fighter Squadron has historically provided suppression of enemy air defenses for Pacific Air Forces, and the Air Force’s own leadership at the March 2026 arrival emphasized that the F-35 was built from the outset as a “weasel” platform rather than a legacy fighter modified with bolt-on sensors and weapons. Operationally, that means a faster kill chain against integrated air defense systems: passive detection of emitters, precise geolocation, fused threat management, survivable penetration, and then either direct attack by the F-35 itself or cueing of other aircraft, ships, and ground-based fires.
For tactical employment, the implications are substantial. A Misawa-based F-35A force can execute offensive counter-air, defensive counter-air, precision strike, suppression or destruction of enemy air defenses, and reconnaissance-like sensing functions in the same sortie, while also acting as a “quarterback” for allied formations. Pacific Air Forces exercises at Misawa in 2025 already used F-35s to rehearse agile combat employment, degraded-communications operations, logistics resilience, and rapid force dispersal, showing that the platform is not simply being based in Japan for prestige, but for sustained use in contested, high-tempo operations.
The reason the United States is sending these fighters to Japan is, therefore, both geographic and strategic. Misawa is the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s only air base jointly operated with the United States, and it is already home to JASDF F-35As, creating immediate opportunities for common tactics, shared sustainment logic, and faster bilateral force integration. U.S. and Japanese personnel at Misawa demonstrated that logic in 2025 through cross-platform refueling and support procedures, validating that a common F-35 ecosystem can shorten response timelines in both peacetime training and real contingencies.
The wider threat picture reinforces the decision. Japan’s Ministry of Defense says China is making military activity in the East China Sea, Pacific Ocean, and Sea of Japan more routine and potentially more intense, while also highlighting North Korea’s advancing ballistic and hypersonic missile capabilities and the growing difficulty of defending Japan solely with existing missile-defense layers. In that environment, forward-basing stealth fighters in northern Japan gives Washington and Tokyo a survivable first-wave air combat capability able to contest airspace, locate and suppress launch architecture, and hold heavily defended targets at risk before larger reinforcement flows arrive.
There is also a deeper force-design logic behind the deployment. The Air Force has framed the Misawa transition as part of a wing-wide modernization effort involving infrastructure, diagnostics, training pipelines, and sustainment preparation so the 13th Fighter Generation Squadron can support fifth-generation sortie production from day one. The key point is that the F-35A arrival at Misawa is not just a fleet replacement story. It is a shift in military effect: from a capable but increasingly exposed fourth-generation posture to a fifth-generation force able to open corridors for joint aircraft, protect ground and maritime maneuver, and impose credible costs on an adversary from the opening hours of a crisis. In that sense, Washington is sending these fighters to Japan not only to reassure an ally, but to build a forward-based combat system that strengthens deterrence by making any attempt to challenge the alliance in Northeast Asia far more difficult, far riskier, and far less likely to succeed.
{loadposition bannertop}
{loadposition sidebarpub}
The U.S. Air Force has deployed F-35A Lightning II fighters to Misawa Air Base in Japan, replacing legacy F-16s with stealth-capable combat aircraft.
The first aircraft from the 13th Fighter Squadron arrived on March 28, 2026, marking the start of Misawa’s transition to fifth-generation airpower. The deployment follows months of infrastructure upgrades, support equipment delivery, and a broader modernization effort valued at over $10 billion for the 35th Fighter Wing. U.S. officials frame the shift as critical to improving survivability, strike reach, and integrated operations with Japanese forces.
U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II fighters arrive at Misawa Air Base, marking a major upgrade in America’s forward airpower posture in Japan. The deployment strengthens stealth strike, air defense suppression, and allied deterrence in the Indo-Pacific (Picture source: U.S. DoW).
This arrival did not come as an isolated event; it followed the January 2026 delivery of specialized F-35 support equipment to Misawa and the September 2025 divestment of the 13th Fighter Squadron’s F-16s under a modernization plan the Air Force says represents more than $10 billion in capability investments for the 35th Fighter Wing and the U.S.-Japan alliance.
From a technical standpoint, the F-35A gives Misawa a markedly different combat profile than the F-16 it is replacing. Powered by the Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engine, the aircraft can reach Mach 1.6, operate above 50,000 feet, carry roughly 18,000 pounds of payload, and fly a USAF-profile combat radius of more than 590 nautical miles on internal fuel, with endurance extended further by aerial refueling. Those figures matter in Northeast Asia because they combine reach, persistence, and penetration in a theater where distance and reaction time are operational currencies in their own right.
Its armament is equally important to the capability shift now underway at Misawa. The F-35A carries an internal 25 mm GAU-22/A cannon and, in its standard stealthy internal configuration, can fly with two AIM-120C/D AMRAAM air-to-air missiles plus either two 2,000-pound GBU-31 JDAMs or two 1,000-pound GBU-32 JDAMs; when low observability is less critical, it can also exploit external stations to expand overall weapons carriage. In practical terms, that means commanders can tailor the jet for first-day penetration, defensive counter-air, precision strike, or follow-on high-volume attack without changing platforms.
What makes the aircraft especially relevant for the 13th Fighter Squadron is not just stealth, but the way the F-35A fuses sensing, targeting, and electronic warfare into one combat system. Official and technical program sources describe a sensor suite centered on the AN/APG-81 AESA radar, the AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System, the AN/AAQ-40 Electro-Optical Targeting System, the AN/ASQ-239 electronic warfare/countermeasures system, and the AN/ASQ-242 communications, navigation, and identification architecture, all feeding a single tactical picture to the pilot and to connected forces. That architecture allows the jet to detect, classify, track, and share threat data at a speed that changes not only its own survivability, but the lethality of every friendly shooter tied into the same network.
That is why the F-35A is such a natural fit for Misawa’s long-standing Wild Weasel culture. The 13th Fighter Squadron has historically provided suppression of enemy air defenses for Pacific Air Forces, and the Air Force’s own leadership at the March 2026 arrival emphasized that the F-35 was built from the outset as a “weasel” platform rather than a legacy fighter modified with bolt-on sensors and weapons. Operationally, that means a faster kill chain against integrated air defense systems: passive detection of emitters, precise geolocation, fused threat management, survivable penetration, and then either direct attack by the F-35 itself or cueing of other aircraft, ships, and ground-based fires.
For tactical employment, the implications are substantial. A Misawa-based F-35A force can execute offensive counter-air, defensive counter-air, precision strike, suppression or destruction of enemy air defenses, and reconnaissance-like sensing functions in the same sortie, while also acting as a “quarterback” for allied formations. Pacific Air Forces exercises at Misawa in 2025 already used F-35s to rehearse agile combat employment, degraded-communications operations, logistics resilience, and rapid force dispersal, showing that the platform is not simply being based in Japan for prestige, but for sustained use in contested, high-tempo operations.
The reason the United States is sending these fighters to Japan is, therefore, both geographic and strategic. Misawa is the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s only air base jointly operated with the United States, and it is already home to JASDF F-35As, creating immediate opportunities for common tactics, shared sustainment logic, and faster bilateral force integration. U.S. and Japanese personnel at Misawa demonstrated that logic in 2025 through cross-platform refueling and support procedures, validating that a common F-35 ecosystem can shorten response timelines in both peacetime training and real contingencies.
The wider threat picture reinforces the decision. Japan’s Ministry of Defense says China is making military activity in the East China Sea, Pacific Ocean, and Sea of Japan more routine and potentially more intense, while also highlighting North Korea’s advancing ballistic and hypersonic missile capabilities and the growing difficulty of defending Japan solely with existing missile-defense layers. In that environment, forward-basing stealth fighters in northern Japan gives Washington and Tokyo a survivable first-wave air combat capability able to contest airspace, locate and suppress launch architecture, and hold heavily defended targets at risk before larger reinforcement flows arrive.
There is also a deeper force-design logic behind the deployment. The Air Force has framed the Misawa transition as part of a wing-wide modernization effort involving infrastructure, diagnostics, training pipelines, and sustainment preparation so the 13th Fighter Generation Squadron can support fifth-generation sortie production from day one. The key point is that the F-35A arrival at Misawa is not just a fleet replacement story. It is a shift in military effect: from a capable but increasingly exposed fourth-generation posture to a fifth-generation force able to open corridors for joint aircraft, protect ground and maritime maneuver, and impose credible costs on an adversary from the opening hours of a crisis. In that sense, Washington is sending these fighters to Japan not only to reassure an ally, but to build a forward-based combat system that strengthens deterrence by making any attempt to challenge the alliance in Northeast Asia far more difficult, far riskier, and far less likely to succeed.
