4 Dutch F-35 Lightning II fighters and a tanker operated from the Netherlands’ essential worldwide airport, considered one of Europe’s busiest, through the NATO-led train Avatar.
Schiphol Airport, positioned simply 9 kilometres southwest of Amsterdam, is likely one of the busiest airports in Europe. Over the previous couple of days, alongside its normal circulation of civilian airliners, the airport additionally hosted some unusually loud and unusual guests: 4 Dutch F-35 fighter jets.
In accordance with particulars launched by the Dutch Ministry of Protection and reported by native Dutch media, a quartet of RNLAF F-35 fighter jets operated from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Jan. 27 – 28, in what marked the primary army train ever performed on the Netherlands’ largest civilian airport.
The exercise was a part of Operation Avatar, a NATO-led train designed to evaluate Schiphol’s means to perform instead working location ought to army air bases develop into unavailable throughout a disaster or wartime state of affairs.
“In a disaster or in wartime we would not have entry to our personal airfields,” Air Commodore Robert Adang, performing commander of the Royal Netherlands Air Power, defined. “In that state of affairs, we will rotate between airfields in order that we will function in probably the most unpredictable means attainable.”
Koning Willem-Alexander bezocht vandaag oefening Avatar op Schiphol. De @Kon_Luchtmacht trainde met F-35’s en een NAVO-tank- en transportvliegtuig het veilig opereren vanaf een civiele luchthaven.
Lees meer by way of: pic.twitter.com/Tcqg6jIC9F
— Ministerie van Defensie (@Defensie) January 28, 2026
The 4 F-35s arrived at Schiphol shortly after 12.00PM on Tuesday, touchdown whereas regular passenger visitors continued round them. After spending roughly an hour on the bottom, the jets taxied once more for departure.
Later within the afternoon, simply after 3PM, the fighters returned to Schiphol following an aerial refueling mission over the North Sea, reportedly extending so far as Danish airspace. An MRTT tanker of the Multinational Multi Function Tanker and Transport (MRTT) Fleet (MMF) additionally took half within the operation.
All through each days, the F-35s flew a number of sorties, working alongside Schiphol’s common schedule of round 1,100 civilian flights per day.
Lieutenant Colonel Pascal Smaal, commander of 322 Squadron primarily based at Leeuwarden Air Base, described the two-day train as an important check of the sensible challenges concerned in operating army operations from a serious worldwide airport.
“Our intention is to work safely and, above all, to coach with out having any affect on Schiphol’s air visitors,” Smaal stated. “From that perspective, passengers ought to discover nothing.”
Working from such a busy hub required intensive coordination between the Royal Netherlands Air Power and civilian companions, together with Schiphol Airport, Air Visitors Management the Netherlands, and native authorities. Whereas residents in surrounding areas might have observed elevated noise ranges, the Ministry of Protection harassed that the affect was non permanent and restricted to the length of the train.
Deputy Protection Minister Gijs Tuinman framed Operation Avatar as a sensible demonstration of Agile Fight Employment, one other idea more and more emphasised inside NATO air forces.
“Because the menace setting in Europe intensifies, we don’t wish to function F-35s solely from Volkel and Leeuwarden,” Tuinman stated. “We wish to have the ability to disperse, in order that potential adversaries have no idea which airfields we’re utilizing.”
Tuinman acknowledged that Schiphol represented probably the most demanding setting during which to check the idea. “With round 1,100 civilian take-offs and landings day by day, Schiphol is the toughest place to do that. If it really works right here, it could possibly later be expanded to regional airports akin to Maastricht, Groningen, Rotterdam and Twente.”
Whereas dispersion is an idea that’s turning into more and more essential amongst European air arms, utilizing civilian airports, quite than public roads and highways, for dispersed airfield operations stays fairly uncommon. Whether or not different nations will deploy their F-35s to busy civilian airports stays to be seen.
The Dutch Ministry of Protection emphasised that nationwide safety and resilience are usually not solely army duties. Operation Avatar concerned shut cooperation between army and civilian stakeholders, reinforcing the concept that main civilian infrastructure might play a important position in future high-intensity battle situations.
As a facet observe, it is usually value noting how a lot F-35 operations have advanced over the previous decade. When the Lightning II first started coming into service with European air forces round ten years in the past, with the Italian Air Power turning into the primary European operator to obtain the plane at its house base in late 2016, operations had been strictly confined to restricted areas inside army airfields. Devoted, “fortified” zones had been created to isolate the brand new fifth-generation platforms from legacy plane, reflecting considerations concerning the F-35’s delicate techniques, sensors, and working procedures.
Workout routines like Operation Avatar spotlight how that section has largely handed. Immediately, the F-35 not requires secluded citadels or operations performed removed from public view. This shift doubtless displays a deliberate trade-off between secrecy and the should be ready for dispersed airfield operations and general operational continuity. In a contested setting, the flexibility to maintain flying from a variety of places, together with civilian infrastructure, might in the end matter greater than sustaining the identical stage of isolation that characterised this system’s early years.
Coping with the military-civil cooperation, final 12 months we reported that because of an settlement between KLM Royal Dutch Airways and the Dutch Ministry of Protection, airline pilots among the many former fifth technology fighter pilots who left energetic service to affix KLM will function reserve F-35 pilots within the RNLAF.
