Arrival of final 2 F-35s completes complement at Alaska base

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The final two F-35A Joint Strike Fighter jets have arrived at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, completing the full complement of 54 aircraft.

Col. David “Ajax” Berkland of the 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson called it “a really significant day for us in terms of the buildup of Eielson Air Force Base.”

The base was selected in 2016 to host F-35s, spawning a base expansion that cost more than a half billion dollars and includes 36 new buildings and 54 housing units for the F-35s, Fairbanks television station KTVF reported Saturday, a day after the two final jets arrived.

The Air Force says the fifth generation F-35 represents a “quantum leap” in air combat capability.

Combined with two squadrons of F-22s at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska will have more operational fifth generation assets than anywhere else in the world, Eleventh Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. David A. Krumm, told Air Force Magazine . Krumm is the senior military official in Alaska.

“Gen. Billy Mitchell talked about it in the 1930′s, that whoever holds Alaska, holds the world. So the strategic importance of competing and securing our nation’s interests, which were there then, remains as much now as ever,” Berkland told KTVF.

The expansion also includes personnel, with about 3,500 new active duty airmen and their dependents stationed at the base about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Fairbanks.

The strategic importance of these aircraft in the Arctic illustrates the Air Force’s capability for readiness, and when it comes to training, you need an area as big as Alaska, Berkland said.

“We are actually sitting inside the greatest air space in the world to train for fifth generation tactics against advanced threats, both on the air and on the ground,” he said.

With the capability to fly more than 12 hours at a time, the F-35s can reach almost anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in one mission.

阿拉斯加州费尔班克斯——最后两架 F-35A 联合攻击战斗机已抵达费尔班克斯附近的艾尔森空军基地，至此，该基地已完成 54 架飞机的全部交付。

驻扎在艾尔森空军基地的第 354 战斗机联队的戴维·“阿贾克斯”·伯克兰上校称这一天“对我们来说意义重大，因为它标志着艾尔森空军基地的建设取得了进展”。

据费尔班克斯电视台 KTVF 周六报道，该基地于 2016 年被选为 F-35 战斗机的驻地，由此引发了一项耗资超过 5 亿美元的基地扩建工程，其中包括 36 座新建筑和 54 套 F-35 战斗机的住房单元。报道发布于最后两架 F-35 战斗机抵达的第二天。

美国空军称第五代F-35战斗机代表着空中作战能力的“质的飞跃”。

美国第十一航空队司令戴维·A·克鲁姆中将告诉《空军杂志》，加上埃尔门多夫-理查森联合基地的两个F-22中队，阿拉斯加将拥有比世界上任何其他地方都多的第五代作战力量。克鲁姆是阿拉斯加最高级别的军事官员。

“比利·米切尔将军在20世纪30年代就说过，谁控制了阿拉斯加，谁就控制了世界。因此，争夺和维护我们国家利益的战略重要性，无论当时还是现在，都一如既往地重要，”伯克兰告诉KTVF电视台。

此次扩建还包括人员配备，约有 3500 名新的现役空军人员及其家属驻扎在该基地，该基地位于费尔班克斯以南约 25 英里（40 公里）处。

伯克兰说，这些飞机在北极的战略重要性体现了空军的战备能力，而说到训练，你需要像阿拉斯加一样大的区域。

他说：“我们实际上正身处世界上最大的空域内，进行针对空中和地面先进威胁的第五代战术训练。”

F-35 战机一次飞行时间可超过 12 小时，一次任务即可抵达北半球几乎任何地方。