Washington. March 5. INTERFAX-Three more advanced fifth-generation F-35A Lightning II multirole fighters have arrived at Ailson Air Force Base in Alaska, the US Air Force said.
Currently, their total number there has reached 23 units. The air base is located about a thousand kilometers from the Russian border in the Far East. According to the representatives of the base, the tasks of the F-35A Lightning II multi-purpose fighters include suppressing enemy air defenses and performing offensive operations.
Last December, air force base spokeswoman Kayleigh Dubois said that the number of personnel continues to increase. "By the end of 2021, we will have 54 fighter jets on the base," she said at the time. They will be part of two squadrons - the 336th and 335th-with 27 combat aircraft each.
The F-35A Lightning II fighters were the first aircraft of this type to join the US Air Force in the Pacific, which will be used, including in the interests of the Joint Aerospace Defense Command of North America (NORAD). Their deployment to Ailson Air Force Base in Alaska began in April last year, when the first two such fighters arrived there.
As a result, Alaska will become the largest American region in terms of the number of fifth-generation fighters deployed there.
At Elmendorf-Richardson Air Force Base in Alaska, there are already 40 fifth-generation F-22 Raptor fighters.
In particular, they are regularly used to "intercept" Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and Tu-142 long-range anti-submarine aircraft flying in the Far East near the American borders.
