After over 50 years of steady service with the U.S. Air Power at Yokota Air Base, Tokyo, the 459th Airlift Squadron has now flown the kind’s last missions over the Japanese capital.
The 459th Airlift Squadron, a part of Yokota’s 374th Airlift Wing, carries out a spread of utility taskings within the area together with passenger, gentle cargo and VIP airlift, medical evacuations, and search and rescue. The squadron has been geared up with a fleet of C-12J Huron mounted wing plane and UH-1N Huey helicopters for the mission, however their venerable and iconic Huey helicopters will now bow out of official service in September.
In late August, the squadron accomplished a standard ‘fini-flight’ to say farewell to the bottom and to Tokyo, meant to be the Huey’s final mission earlier than formally being withdrawn. The primary Hueys to reach at Yokota had been single-engine UH-1P variants in 1971. These had been later changed by the newer, twin engine UH-1N ‘Twin Huey’ from 1980. A restricted variety of UH-1Ns stay in wider service throughout the U.S. navy, and lots of extra are lively worldwide. The final frontline ‘battlefield helicopter’ UH-1N was retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2014, changed by the new-build UH-1Y Venom by-product.
No direct alternative for Yokota’s Hueys has been introduced, leaving a big hole within the squadron’s capabilities. With no rotary wing plane, the 459th could be a lot much less capable of accommodate many shorter-range airlift sorties which could contain working from areas with out a runway. The UH-1Ns had been lively on this position even earlier in August, flying the deputy commander of U.S. Forces Japan for a go to to the U.S. naval base at Yokosuka.
The UH-1Ns operated by the U.S. Air Power in assist of its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silo fields are being changed by MH-139 Gray Wolf helicopters, primarily based on the Leonardo AW139. Nevertheless, the ultimate quantity of those helicopters on account of enter service stays considerably versatile, with many strategies that the service is rarely prone to function its said requirement of 84 airframes. This leaves little room for smaller operators, just like the 459th, to tag together with the order and exchange their plane on the similar time. Aside from a variant of the UH-60, which might seemingly enhance working prices, there are only a few options at the moment in U.S. service.
One possibility to take care of the aptitude might be to contract the non-frontline position to a non-public operator, just like the U.S. Navy’s contracted power of Tremendous Puma resupply helicopters. Nevertheless, it could seemingly take a while to open bids for, draw up, and signal such a contract, if one isn’t already within the works.
The final dance🕺
Members of the 459th AS visited the Japan Air Self-Protection Power’s Niigata Air Rescue Squadron to commemorate their long-standing partnership and participate in a standard Niigata dance earlier than the UH-1N Huey is retired from Yokota AB in September. pic.twitter.com/uEkAotDaBL
— Yokota Air Base (@TeamYokota) August 29, 2025
To commemorate the Huey’s service at Yokota, a particular decal was utilized to one of many Airlift Wing’s C-130J Hercules transports. Studying “SEEEYUH!” and itemizing the plane and its service life at Yokota, it additionally thanks the plane for its service in Japanese.
C-130J 374AW Yokota Air Base / UH-1N Huey 459th AS Farewell ornament. pic.twitter.com/lEG9TXhvMC
— Bee (@bee_beesupercub) August 26, 2025
Airmen apply a decal to the facet of a C-130J Tremendous Hercules assigned to the thirty sixth Airlift Squadron in commemoration of the UH-1N Huey’s departure from the 459th Airlift Squadron at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Aug. 14, 2025. (U.S. Air Power photograph by Senior Airman Jacob Wooden) pic.twitter.com/Fl47XlGP8R
— U.S. Forces Japan (@USForcesJapan) August 20, 2025
A Huey, airframe 69-6614, additionally flew a last aerial demonstration on Aug. 18, showcasing the search and rescue capabilities that the plane have supplied for many years with a hoist-lift demo.
2025.05.18 YOKOTA FF25UH-1N HUEY LAST DEMO
C-130Jと同じく横田の顔として長年フライトしてきた第459空輸中隊のUH-1N
今年で退役ということで最後の展示飛行となりました。ロービジ塗装が主流となる現在、貴重となハイビジカラーの機体
2パスとホイストデモを披露してくれました。 pic.twitter.com/QrqrhjgmoV
— けん (@kenken__0715) Could 27, 2025
The acquainted and distinctive sound of the Huey is prone to be missed over the skies of Tokyo. Whereas targeted on servicing the wants of the U.S. navy, the 459th Airlift Squadron have additionally been referred to as on to lend assist to their host nation in occasions of want. Most notably, in 2011, each UH-1Ns and C-12s of the 459th flew sorties below Operation Tomodachi after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan. With the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Energy Station closely broken, Huey and Huron plane flew survey flights and radiation-mapping sorties over close by areas to assist grant a larger general image of the catastrophe.
Huey helicopters had been additionally used to shuttle personnel and gear from the U.S. navy, U.S. Division of Power, and different officers, to numerous areas across the area affected by the pure catastrophe.
