Rovaniemi Air Base in Finnish Lapland now has two F-35A Lightning II fighters on its ramp that belong to Finland. The jets, JF-510 and JF-512, landed there at 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2026, and the Finnish Air Force presented them at an arrival ceremony on Oct. 1, 2026.
The ceremony carried a second milestone. A Finnish pilot flew an F-35 in Finland for the first time, over the home of the Lapland Air Wing, which is due to fly the F-35 exclusively from early 2028.
The Finnish Defence Forces’ Oct. 1, 2026 release on the Rovaniemi ceremony records that “aircraft JF-510 and JF-512 landed at Rovaniemi Air Base at 5.45 pm on 18 September 2026,” and that “the ceremony involved the first F-35 flight of a Finnish pilot in Finland.” The pilot was Lieutenant Colonel Jaakko Sointu, per the same release. The event was hosted by the Lapland Air Wing and attended by approximately 400 invited guests and media representatives, the Defence Forces said.
Ten of 64 delivered
The two jets at Rovaniemi are a small slice of a larger fleet already in Finnish hands. Lockheed Martin’s Oct. 1, 2026 release on the arrival says that “with the aircraft arriving in country, Finland has now received 10 of its 64 F-35A aircraft.” The company describes JF-510 and JF-512 as Finland’s first two permanently based F-35As in country.
Most of the delivered jets are still in the United States. “Eight of these aircraft are temporarily stationed at Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Arkansas,” Lockheed said in the same release, where Finnish pilots and maintainers are training ahead of the aircraft’s entry into Finnish service.
The 64-aircraft figure dates to the original selection. Lockheed’s Dec. 10, 2021 announcement from Fort Worth, Texas stated that “the Finnish Air Force will receive 64 F-35A multirole stealth fighters” after the Finnish government picked the type.
The Arkansas pipeline
Ebbing, at Fort Smith, Arkansas, is home to the 188th Wing and is where the first Finnish F-35A arrived for training. The 188th Wing’s Jan. 20, 2026 release reported that “the first Finnish Air Force (FINAF) F-35A Lightning II landed here Jan. 20, 2026.” The same release said that “over the next two years, approximately 20 FINAF pilots will undergo extensive training,” with the program expected to finish by February 2028, and that the Finnish students “will be trained by the 57th Fighter Squadron.”
Training is also moving home. The Defence Forces said that “aircraft maintenance training will start in Rovaniemi later this year, followed by pilot training in January 2027,” and that “further aircraft will be delivered to Finland during the autumn.”
Finnish pilots have also started flying the type in Europe. The Defence Forces release records a flight at Ørland Air Base in Norway on Sept. 17, 2026, when a Finnish pilot flew a Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35. The release calls it “the Finnish Air Force’s first F-35 flight in Europe.” The Oct. 1 sortie over Lapland was the first in Finland itself.
Hornets and F-35s side by side until 2030
Arrival does not mean the F-35 is ready for operations, and the Finnish Air Force’s commander said so at the ceremony. Major General Timo Herranen told the audience, per the Defence Forces release:
“Rest assured; we will not confuse arrival with readiness.”
“Arrival is just the beginning of the work,” Herranen said, according to the same release. Lockheed’s release quotes him on why Finland picked the jet: “The F-35 was chosen because it is designed for an environment like ours.”
The schedule set out by the Defence Forces runs four more years. The F-35 system “will achieve initial operational capability (IOC) in early 2028,” at which point the Lapland Air Wing operates the F-35 exclusively. The Karelia Air Wing is scheduled to receive its first F-35s during 2028. Deliveries continue until the end of 2030, and “full operational capability (FOC) will be achieved by the end of 2030,” the release says. Until then, the F/A-18 Hornet and F-35A fleets will operate in parallel.
Finnish industry is part of the program as well. Lockheed’s Oct. 1 release notes that “earlier this year, Patria became the first company other than Lockheed Martin to produce the F-35 forward fuselage.” The Defence Forces list Lockheed Martin Aeronautics President Orlando Sanchez Jr. among the ceremony’s attendees.
The same company bridges the two fleets. A Patria feature dated July 10, 2026 says that “production of the forward fuselages began in early March in Patria’s upgraded facilities at Halli, Jämsä,” with 400 fuselages planned between 2026 and 2042. Patria has also “handled demanding maintenance, structural repairs, and lifecycle upgrades for the Hornets,” the company says, and is set to maintain Finland’s F-35 fleet through its service life.
The next verified step is maintenance training at Rovaniemi before the end of 2026, followed by the first pilot course at the base in January 2027, according to the Finnish Defence Forces.
Top image: A U.S. Air Force F-35A from the 48th Fighter Wing takes off from the Hosio highway strip in Finland during exercise BAANA 2024. Finland’s own F-35As are not shown. Image Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Tabatha Chapman — Public domain / Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.