- F-22 Raptors from the 90th Fighter Squadron at JBER, Alaska, and the 27th Fighter Squadron at JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia, arrived at Kadena Air Base, Japan.
- The deployment supports the U.S.-Japan security alliance with the 18th Wing while preparing for the future arrival of the F-15EX Eagle II at Kadena.
F-22 Raptors from Alaska and Virginia have arrived at Kadena Air Base in Japan, the latest rotation of America’s premier air superiority fighter through the island base that sits at the geographic center of U.S. air power in the Western Pacific.
The aircraft come from two squadrons: the 90th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and the 27th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, according to the Air Force’s announcement of the deployment. At Kadena, they will operate alongside heavy, reconnaissance, and both fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft already based at the installation, maintaining what the Air Force describes as continuous and credible fighter capability in the region. F-22 aircrews and maintainers will integrate with the 18th Wing’s operations and maintenance groups as well as joint and allied partners to refine tactics, strengthen interoperability, and sustain readiness for real-world contingencies.
The F-22 Raptor is built around a combination of capabilities that no other operational fighter can fully replicate: stealth shaping that dramatically reduces its radar cross-section, advanced sensors including an active electronically scanned array radar and infrared search and track, and aerodynamic performance that includes thrust vectoring for maneuverability at low speeds. Its ability to detect, track, and engage adversaries at extended ranges while remaining difficult to detect gives it an asymmetric advantage in any air-to-air engagement — it can see and shoot before an opponent knows it is in the area. In contested airspace over the Western Pacific, where the distances involved favor long-range engagements and where adversary air defense systems have been designed specifically to challenge conventional fighters, that combination of stealth and sensor range is the capability that matters most.
Kadena, described in the announcement as the Keystone of the Pacific, occupies the southern portion of Okinawa and has served as the hub of U.S. Air Force presence in the Western Pacific for decades. Its location places it within operational range of the Taiwan Strait, the Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea, and the first island chain that forms the geographic framework of U.S. Pacific strategy. The 18th Wing, permanently based at Kadena, operates the largest combat wing in the Air Force and provides the organizational infrastructure that rotational units like the visiting F-22 squadrons plug into when they arrive. Having squadrons from both the Alaskan and continental U.S. air superiority fleets rotate through Kadena simultaneously maintains the fighter presence at the base while building familiarity with its operational environment and local procedures across a wider portion of the F-22 community.
The deployment supports the U.S.-Japan security alliance, which obligates the United States to defend Japan and provides the legal and political framework for American military forces to be stationed and operate throughout Japanese territory. That alliance commitment is not abstract in the current Indo-Pacific environment. China’s military aviation has expanded significantly in both numbers and capability over the past decade, and the frequency of Chinese military aircraft activity near Japanese airspace has increased alongside it. Japanese Air Self-Defense Force interceptors have been scrambled at record rates in recent years in response to that activity. Maintaining a continuous credible fighter presence at Kadena — and rotating the F-22, the aircraft best equipped to operate in the most contested environments — is a concrete expression of the alliance commitment that goes beyond diplomatic statements.
The noise abatement commitment included in the announcement reflects the political dimension of the Kadena presence. Okinawa hosts a significant concentration of U.S. military installations on a relatively small island with a substantial civilian population, and the relationship between that population and the American military presence has been a persistent source of tension. All visiting aircrews are briefed on local noise abatement procedures, and mission planners are directed to give due consideration to limiting local impacts, according to the announcement. Managing that relationship is part of sustaining the alliance at the community level, not just the governmental one.
The announcement flags that fighter rotations at Kadena are sustaining today’s mission while preparing for the future arrival of the F-15EX Eagle II, the modernized variant of the F-15 that the Air Force is procuring to replace older F-15C/D models. Kadena has historically been home to F-15 Eagles, which operated from the base for decades before the shift to rotational deployments of more capable aircraft. The eventual arrival of F-15EX will provide Kadena with a permanent advanced fighter presence again, complementing rather than replacing the rotational F-22 deployments that currently fill that role.