A Royal Norwegian Air Force prepares to take off from a Finnish road, during the type's first dispersed operation that was recently logged on Exercise ‘Baana 23'. (Finnish Air Force)

The Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has operated from a roadway for the first time during Exercise ‘Baana 23' in Finland.

A pair of Royal Norwegian Air Force (RoNAF) F-35As performed the milestone on 21 September, landing on and taking off from a dedicated stretch of motorway near the Finnish town of Tervo as part of a wider dispersal of allied aircraft.

“This is a milestone, not only for the [Royal] Norwegian Air Force but also for the Nordic countries and for NATO,” Major General Rolf Folland, chief of the RoNAF, said. “This demonstrates our ability to execute a concept of dispersal. Fighter jets are vulnerable on the ground, so being able to use small airfields – and now motorways – increases our survivability in war.”

The two F-35As landed on the motorway at about 1500 h local time, immediately performing a ‘hot' refuelling (with the engine running) before departing for a simulated mission.

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Lockheed Martin F-35As are scheduled to receive the TR-3 upgrade, which requires additional cooling for some of the aircraft's subsystems. This photo shows an RAAF F-35A with Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) Boeing-Mitsubishi F-15Js during Exercise ‘Bushido Guardian' in September 2023. (Commonwealth of Australia)

Honeywell is developing a cooling upgrade to its power and thermal management system (PTMS) to support avionics enhancements for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

Matt Milas, president of Honeywell Aerospace's defence and space business unit, told Janes that an initial 2 kW PTMS upgrade will be rolled out in 2024 and will support the ‘Technology Refresh 3' (TR-3) standard and early Block 4 enhancements for the F-35. Australia is expected to be an early beneficiary of the upgrade. South Korea is also expected to receive the upgraded PTMS. On 13 September the US State Department announced a possible sale of up to 25 F-35As to South Korea. Janes earlier reported that these aircraft are very likely to be Block 4 aircraft, with acquisition to be completed by 2028.

Frequent use of the five surge Voyager tankers has caused the ONS to include them in the wider inventory of 14 aircraft in its latest report. (Crown Copyright)

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is increasingly calling on the ‘surge' fleet of AirTanker-owned Voyager aircraft to help fulfil a heightened demand for aerial refuelling, Janes was told on 21 September.

A spokesperson for the ministry said that “frequent use” of the five ‘surge' aircraft had resulted in their being included by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the overall fleet number of 14 Voyagers in its UK armed forces equipment and formations 2023 report published on the same day.

Under the terms of the 27-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) agreement that was signed under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) programme in 2008, AirTanker operates 14 Voyager aircraft on behalf of the MoD. Of these, nine are typically held in the core fleet, with five available to third parties when not required for operations.