01 November 2019

Dutch receive first operationally-assigned F-35A

by Gareth Jennings

The first operationally-assigned Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter for the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) arrived in-country on 31 October.

Aircraft F-009 overflies into Leeuwarden Air Base as it becomes the first operationally-assigned F-35A for the Royal Netherlands Air Force. (Royal Netherlands Air Force )

Aircraft F-009 flew into Leeuwarden Air Base (AB), one of the RNLAF’s two planned F-35 operating stations, from the Italian final assembly and check-out (FACO) facility at Cameri. Aircraft F-009 will be assigned to 322 Squadron, as the unit begins its transition from the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon.

While F-009 is the first RNLAF aircraft to be assigned to an operational unit, the first Dutch non-test aircraft was F-003 which was rolled out of the Fort Worth production facility in January and currently resides with the international training fleet at Luke Air Force Base (AFB) in Arizona.

The RNLAF is procuring the F-35A to replace its F-16AM/BMs, with 46 set to be ordered for EUR5 billion (USD5.6 billion). The first eight are currently located in the United States as part of the international training and test and evaluation fleets (six F-35As are located at Luke AFB, with two at Edwards AFB in California). In May 2016, two aircraft made the flight from Luke AFB to Leeuwarden AB, marking the first time that RNLAF F-35s had visited the Netherlands.

F-009 was welcomed into Leeuwarden Air Base with a traditional 'water' salute, though media reports and images showed the aircraft to have been accidentally doused with fire retardant instead. (Royal Netherlands Air Force )