Green Mountain Boys' F-35As Touch Down at Lakenheath on the Long Road Home from CENTCOM

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On 4 September 2026, the first wave of Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning IIs from the Vermont Air National Guard (VANG) completed a westbound Atlantic transit, touching down at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, en route to their permanent home at Burlington Air National Guard Base, Vermont. The aircraft belong to the 158th Fighter Wing's 134th Fighter Squadron — the self-styled Green Mountain Boys — and represent eight of a total twelve-jet contingent that had been forward-deployed to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations.

The eight jets flew as two four-ship formations under the callsigns TABOR 81–84 and TABOR 91–94. Confirmed airframes were serials 17-5280, 18-5336, 18-5338, 18-5339, 18-5340, 18-5341, 18-5343, and 18-5360. The transatlantic leg was supported by four Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aerial-refuelling aircraft — callsigns CLEAN 35, CLEAN 36, CLEAN 45, and CLEAN 46 — which launched from Romania to shepherd the fighters westward.

One detail consistent across both the outbound and inbound transits is the handling of unit markings. Aircraft 18-5336, identifiable only via the last four digits stencilled inside the nose-wheel door, arrived with almost all external identifying marks obscured — a practice observed when the same jets departed for CENTCOM in February 2026. The remaining seven aircraft arrived with full tail numbers visible.

RAF Lakenheath has served as the primary UK staging node for this deployment from the outset. In February 2026, six jets transited Lakenheath eastbound as part of Coronet East 035, supported by three KC-135s under callsigns GOLD 81–83 originating from Bangor Air National Guard Base. A second batch of six took a southerly routing via Morón Air Base, Spain, before continuing to the CENTCOM area of responsibility. Prior to the Middle East deployment, the squadron had itself been forward-positioned in Puerto Rico.

Concurrently with the VANG's return, a fresh rotation is under way in the opposite direction: twelve F-16C Fighting Falcons from the Ohio Air National Guard's 180th Fighter Wing, based at Toledo Air National Guard Base in Swanton, Ohio, are deploying toward CENTCOM to relieve departing units.

Technical Breakdown

Platform: Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II (conventional takeoff and landing / CTOL variant)

Class: Single-seat, single-engine fifth-generation multirole stealth fighter

Max Takeoff Weight: ~70,000 lb (31,750 kg)

Propulsion: One Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 turbofan; approximately 40,000 lb thrust with afterburner

Speed: Mach 1.6 with full internal weapons load

Range: ~1,380 miles (ferry range; combat radius 450–600 nm depending on mission profile)

Ceiling: 50,000 ft

Payload / Armament: Up to 22,000 lb across two internal weapons bays and six external wing/fuselage pylons; internal stealth loadout nominally two AIM-120 AMRAAMs and two GBU-31 JDAMs; one 25 mm GAU-22/A internal cannon. For SEAD-relevant precision-strike missions, the Block 3F software standard adds compatibility with the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb and AGM-154 Stand-Off Weapon. The ongoing Block 4 upgrade programme is intended to expand the SEAD/DEAD capability set further, including integration of the Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW).

Sensors / Electronic Warfare: The AN/ASQ-239 electronic warfare system enables passive detection and geo-location of adversary air-defence emitters; sensor fusion across the AN/APG-81 AESA radar, electro-optical/IR systems, and distributed aperture system (DAS) feeds a common tactical picture shareable with other F-35s and fourth-generation wingmen.

Autonomy Level: Pilot-in-the-loop (crewed); advanced sensor-fusion software provides high levels of automated threat prioritisation and situational awareness.

Unit SEAD Specialisation: Since transitioning from the F-16C Block 30 to the F-35A in September 2019 — making the 158th Fighter Wing the first Air National Guard wing to hold unit-owned F-35As — the 134th Fighter Squadron has been tasked with the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission set. SEAD involves the physical destruction or temporary neutralisation of ground-based air defence networks to enable follow-on strike packages to operate in contested airspace.

Tanker support (return leg): Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker (four aircraft; callsigns CLEAN 35/36 and CLEAN 45/46; launched from Romania)

Industry Impact

Operational validation of ANG fifth-gen SEAD: The VANG deployment marks a significant data point for the US Air Force's broader strategy of embedding SEAD/DEAD capability inside Air National Guard F-35A units rather than solely active-duty formations. After a sustained CENTCOM combat rotation — preceded by a deployment to Japan in early 2025 and a prior overseas deployment to Europe in 2022 — the 134th Fighter Squadron has accumulated multi-theatre, multi-mission operational data that will feed Lockheed Martin's Block 4 development priorities and Air Combat Command training doctrine.

KC-135 tanker demand signal: The four-tanker package used on the return leg, launched from Romania, underscores persistent demand for aerial refuelling infrastructure during large-scale fighter redeployments. As the US Air Force accelerates the transition to the KC-46A Pegasus, deployment missions of this scale provide real-world range and scheduling data relevant to future tanker fleet-sizing decisions.

Rotation model as a manufacturing and sustainment lever: The concurrent inbound movement of Ohio ANG F-16Cs into CENTCOM while VANG F-35As withdraw illustrates the rolling-rotation model now standard across USAF force projection. For the F-35 programme, sustained high operational tempo means elevated demand for spare parts, depot-level maintenance, and software update cycles — all of which run through the Joint Program Office and prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

Identification-mark suppression as an operational norm: The consistent practice of obscuring unit insignia and tail codes on at least one aircraft per transit (observed on both the outbound and inbound legs) signals an enduring operational security posture that has implications for transponder data standards, ADS-B policy, and the maturation of open-source air-traffic intelligence tracking — an area attracting increasing attention from both commercial analytics firms and defence procurement planners.

Guard-to-active integration: Every overseas combat rotation by a Guard F-35A unit strengthens the case for continued capital investment in ANG F-35A fleet expansion, as Guard wings demonstrably operate the platform at combat-ready standards indistinguishable from active-duty counterparts.