At present, the US Air Force only permanently deploys F-35A Lightning II fighters in the United Kingdom, but this will change soon, as the Pentagon has announced plans to deploy 48 F-35A Lightning II fighters at the Misawa base in Japan. At present, the US Air Force has deployed two squadrons of F-16C/D fighters at the Misawa base, and judging from the public information, the F-16C/D fighters of the US military stationed in Japan are already older than some of the US pilots. The F-16C/D fighter jets of the US military stationed in Japan are quite outdated and obviously cannot cope with the possible battlefield environment in the future, so the Pentagon has made up its mind to start the permanent deployment of F-35A Lightning II fighters in Japan.
The overseas deployment of the US Air Force F-35A Lightning II fighter jet, and the US military riveting Japan, is against the background of the United States actively encircling and containing China, so it has already been quite aimed at the rhythm of the PLA J-20 stealth fighter. In fact, before the U.S. Air Force deployed F-35A fighters to Japan, the U.S. Marine Corps' F-35Bs began to be permanently deployed at the Iwakuni base in Japan in 2017. In recent years, the US Air Force has also deployed F-35A Lightning II fighters and F-22A Raptor fighters to Japan and the Ryukyus, thereby enhancing the US Air Force's comprehensive combat capability in the Asia-Pacific region. The F-22A is the first fifth-generation fighter of the U.S. Air Force, and the F-35A and F-35B are also fifth-generation fighters with stealth capabilities, and the U.S. Navy is also equipped with F-35C fighters.
Judging from the equipment planning of the U.S. military's fifth-generation fighters, the U.S. Pentagon has to fully deploy three fifth-generation aircraft in Japan, because in addition to the F-35C and F-35A fighters, the U.S. Navy's F-35C will be permanently deployed at the Iwakuni base in Japan in 2024, and the originally deployed F/A-18E/F and EA-18G have returned to the U.S. mainland with the CVN76 Reagan aircraft carrier. At a time when the US military is equipped with a large number of fifth-generation fighters, the technical level of the US fighters stationed in Japan has been greatly improved, and there are deployment targets for all fifth-generation fighters. Judging from the information released by the Pentagon, the US Air Force only deploys F-15EX fighters at the Kadena base in the Ryukyus, which are used to replace the original F-15C/D fighters.
The U.S. Air Force deploys fifth-generation fighters in Japan, and the analysis of the global beacon line believes that the U.S. military has a rhythm for the PLA J-20 stealth fighter, and now the PLA has been equipped with a large number of J-20 fighters, in the context of the continuous improvement of the PLA fighter equipment, in fact, the Pentagon has fallen into passivity, and the advantages that can be established through the F-16C/D, F/A-18C/D, AV-8B and F-15C/D fighters, Now the U.S. military has to use more expensive platforms to cope with the increase in the level of PLA equipment. The US military has not used F-35A fighters to replace the F-15C/D fighters in the Ryukyus, and it can already be seen that the US Pentagon is overstretched, and the United States has deep pockets, and it is also unable to replace all the fourth-generation fighters of the first island chain with fifth-generation aircraft.
J-20 fighter is "four or two thousand pounds", through a large number of equipment, in addition to the United States Pentagon into passivity, but also let Japan and South Korea fall into a cramped situation, in order to deal with the J-20 fighter, Japan and South Korea from the United States introduced the F-35A Lightning II fighter, Japan also has the purchase of F-35B, at the same time Japan and South Korea have a new generation of fighter development plans, South Korea has taken the lead in developing the KF-21 fighter. The PLA has established an advantage through the J-20, and for this reason, the United States, Japan, and South Korea are all passively responding to the influence brought by the PLA J-20.