USAF F-35A at Lakenheath

The USAF 495th Fighter Squadron, based RAF Lakenheath, received its first delivery of four F-35A Lightning II aircraft last December. Their arrival marks Lakenheath as the first USAF base in Europe to receive the new fifth generation aircraft. The squadron has been nicknamed the “Valkyries”.

Four of the planned 24 aircraft for the squadron have been delivered, although the rumour is that two of those are currently not flying due to serious technical issues. In any case, I made the journey down to Suffolk and was lucky enough to spot the two that do work!

Note that these are different to the F-35B type operated by the USMC and RAF, having no VSTOL capability. Although superficially similar, they do look quite different in several key areas - see my other pages for photos of that type.