Air Force
Finland receives two more F-35As at Rovaniemi: four of the new fighters are now on Finnish soil
Two more F-35As, JF-509 and JF-511, landed at Lapland Air Wing in Rovaniemi on October 23, the second delivery of the type to Finland. JF-511 had been held back in the Azores since September with a minor avionics fault.
With two more F-35As at Rovaniemi, Finland now has four of its new fighters on its soil. The aircraft, numbered JF-509 and JF-511, landed at Lapland Air Wing (Lapin lennosto) on Friday, October 23 at 17:56 local time, as the Finnish Air Force (Ilmavoimat) announced. It was the country’s second F-35A delivery.
One of the two, JF-511, had been in the Azores since September. In September Finland expected three fighters, but two reached Rovaniemi. Air Force Chief of Staff Aki Puustinen then explained to Yle that on the third, JF-511, the diagnostic system showed a possible fault on start-up in the Azores. Because tracking down the cause would have delayed the whole ferry group, the engine was shut down and the aircraft stayed behind. It was, he said, a minor fault in the avionics. Puustinen also noted that it made no sense for it to fly alone, since the transatlantic ferry flight requires air-to-air refuelling, and that it would come with the next group, as Yle reported.
That is exactly what happened. JF-509 set out on October 20 from Fort Worth, Texas, and reached Lapland together with JF-511, which had been repaired in the Azores. In September the ferry group was mixed, with Finnish and Belgian F-35s and US KC-135 tankers.
The two aircraft will not go straight into training. They will first go through airworthiness and acceptance checks. JF-511 already carries a distinctive marking, though: the outer faces of its vertical stabilisers bear the bison (Visentti), the emblem of Fighter Squadron 11 (Hävittäjälentolaivue 11), to honour Finnish Air Force deliveries.
A 64-aircraft programme
The first two Finnish F-35As arrived in September and the official welcome ceremony took place in early October, when they were presented at Rovaniemi. Finland has ordered 64 fighters in all, which will replace the F/A-18 Hornets. Greece’s F-35s are at an earlier stage, after the start of its 20-aircraft programme, while production is being accelerated after the US-Lockheed Martin framework agreement.
Until the F-35As enter service, the Hornets continue to take part in air-space surveillance. Recently, Hornets of Lapland Air Wing and Swedish JAS 39 Gripens of Norrbotten Air Wing trained in identification flights over the northern Gulf of Bothnia. The closer cooperation of the two countries, begun this autumn, allows joint operational identification flights and the use of each other’s bases by quick-reaction fighters.