The Finnish Air Power’s first F-35 performed its first flight on Dec. 8, forward of the official rollout ceremony subsequent week.
The Finnish Air Power has introduced the maiden flight of its first F-35A Lightning II from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Value, Texas, the place Lockheed Martin’s manufacturing amenities are primarily based, on Dec. 8, 2025. The plane, with the serial JF-501, flew forward of the official rollout ceremony on Dec. 16, which may even see the participation of Finland’s President Alexander Stubb.
JF-501
The ultimate meeting took a yr and completed on time, as airframe was scheduled for completion in Autumn 2025. This was reported when, throughout a go to to Lockheed Martin’s plant on Oct. 28, 2024, retired Finnish Air Power colonel and present Finnish F-35 program director Henrik Elo signed his identify on the bulkhead of what would change into JF-501.
The manufacturing facility take a look at flight was performed from the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Value, TX, on 8 DEC 2025, at 2.55 PM native time. #JF501 can be introduced to the general public at a rollout ceremony on the @LockheedMartin Fort Value facility on 16 DEC 2025. #ilmavoimat 2/2 pic.twitter.com/Ur6uOni1Mf
— Ilmavoimat (@FinnishAirForce) December 9, 2025
The plane was moved out of the ultimate meeting line on the finish of October 2025. The plane was later painted within the full Finnish Air Power colours and began floor testing.
In keeping with the Finnish authorities, the primary F-35 fighters will enter into service in 2026 to start out the coaching of Finnish personnel in america. Later that yr, the primary F-35 may even arrive in Finland, assigned to the Lapland Air Wing.
Finland’s F-35s
Finland has ordered 64 examples of the traditional take-off and touchdown F-35A variant to exchange its present fighter drive of F/A-18C/D Hornets, beating competitors from Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Tremendous Hornet and Saab’s Gripen E/F.
The Finnish Air Power ordered its Hornets in 1992, with roughly 55 F/A-18Cs and seven F/A-18Ds remaining in service immediately. Notably, because of this the F-35 order is, accounting for attrition, a like-for-like alternative when it comes to numbers, contrasting many countries who’ve ordered fewer F-35s than the jets they’re changing.
All of Finland’s F-35s can be delivered outfitted with the Know-how Refresh 3 (TR-3) package deal. TR-3 is a serious electronics improve for the F-35, providing greater processing energy and an open structure philosophy which is able to permit faster and easier integration of future applied sciences, sensors and weapon programs onto the kind.
Talking on the Fort Value plant, Henrik Elo famous the symbolic however vital milestone within the supply of his nation’s new plane: “I’m very happy that we’re progressing in constructing the varied functionality areas of our F-35 as deliberate. The ahead fuselage signing occasion is a minor however symbolically vital milestone within the manufacturing strategy of the plane fleet.”
The deliveries of the F35s are anticipated to start out in 2026, with the primary eight plane delivered to Ebbing Air Nationwide Guard Base, Arkansas. Ebbing ANGB hosts the F-35 coaching for the personnel from Finland and a number of other companions.
In keeping with the present schedule, Finland will see its first supply of F-35s contact down at Rovaniemi Airport by the tip of 2026. There they are going to be a part of HävLLv 11 (11 Squadron) of the Lapland Air Wing, which guards the airspace of Finland’s northern territory. Karelia Air Wing, primarily based at Kuopio Airport in south-east Finland, will obtain its F-35s from 2028.
These bases, that are Finland’s solely two full-time operational fighter bases, are each round 100 miles from the Russian border, and ideally positioned to launch fighters for intercept duties over the Barents and Baltic seas. With Finland’s current accession into NATO, the nation has taken an energetic position within the alliance’s joint air protection initiatives and this integration will probably proceed sooner or later.
Finland will be a part of a small collection of F-35 operators utilizing the drag chute modification pioneered by and at the moment distinctive to the Royal Norwegian Air Power. Solely Norway, Finland and Canada are presently confirmed to have chosen the choice, owing to their chilly climates.
The drag chute, which is housed in a small fairing between the plane’s twin tail fins, is designed to help braking on probably icy runways. Whereas any exterior fairing will have an effect on the F-35’s stealth traits to a point, Lockheed Martin says the drag chute system has been designed to attenuate its affect to the general radar cross-section (RCS) of the plane.
