Saturday September 19, 2026

First 2 F-35 fighters arrive in Finland

Published : 19 Sep 2026, 05:22

DF Report

The wheels of the first Finnish F-35 touched down at 5:45 p.m. at the Lapland Air Wing base in Rovaniemi on 18 September 2026. Photo: Finnish Air Force.

The first two of Finland’s F-35A Lightning II fighter jets arrived at Lapland Air Wing in Rovaniemi on Friday morning, said the Finnish Defence Forces in a press release.

The fighter aircraft left the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on 15 September. The aircraft made an intermediate landing at Lajes Air Base in the Azores, Portugal, and they entered Finnish airspace at 5.21 pm.

The aircraft were refuelled in mid-air. They landed in Rovaniemi at 5.45 pm, escorted by F/A-18 Hornet fighters.

The aircraft were ferried by pilots from the U.S. Air Force. During the ferry flight, the Finnish national emblems, the roundels, were covered on the aircraft, because international ferry flights flown by American military pilots are marked by the emblems of the United States and the emblems of the other nation are covered by temporary markings.

The registration numbers of the aircraft and the Finnish Air Force emblems on the vertical stabilizers were visible.

All aircraft in the fleet will receive registration numbers from JF-501 to JF-564. The fighter jets that have now arrived in Finland are JF-510 and JF-512.

The F-35 system is critical for Finland’s defence capability and the Air Force’s combat capability into the 2060s. The capable, modern multirole fighter fleet is an essential part of Finland’s military defence. Since April 2023, the Air Force has been operating as a full member of NATO also in tasks of the Alliance.

“The F-35 is one of the largest capability projects of Finland’s military defence, and it has a high level of ambition. We will have a very advanced multi-role fighter that fits Finland’s security environment excellently. However, the arrival of the first fighter jets in Rovaniemi is not the end point, but the beginning: we are building the capability to fully utilize the aircraft’s performance potential – as part of Finland’s defence system and a seamless part of the Alliance’s air defence and striking power,” said Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, General Janne Jaakkola.