F-35s to Lakenheath

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LN Strike Eagle
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F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

Looks like F-35As from Hill AFB into Lakenheath today and staying for a few weeks like the Raptors did last spring.

Not sure on timings, but Fighter Control is likely to be the best source of info.
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by GazBOH »

USAF K35R currently north of Edinburgh, heading south.

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by 138EAW »

They called Reaper Ops, using 493rd FS interplane and their radios have LN channels preset. Could be a good sign they are staying for a few day's at least
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by boff180 »

First pair on the ground, next tanker lot are over Scotland now.

Sun went in as they arrived! :mad:

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by Brevet Cable »

If Milscanners newsgroup posts are correct ( no reason to doubt them ) of the 8 scheduled to arrive, only 6 actually made it to Lakenheath....the other 2 went crook & landed at Bangor ( that's Maine, not Wales or Ireland :lol: )
25% failure doesn't speak much for their reliability.
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by ericbee123 »

Brevet Cable wrote:If Milscanners newsgroup posts are correct ( no reason to doubt them ) of the 8 scheduled to arrive, only 6 actually made it to Lakenheath....the other 2 went crook & landed at Bangor ( that's Maine, not Wales or Ireland :lol: )
25% failure doesn't speak much for their reliability.


If they are flying over in pairs then 1 fails, both scrub. So might be 1/8 not 2/8th failure.
Disclaimer-I have spell/grammar checked this post, it may still contain mistakes that might cause offence.

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by boff180 »

They were more than likely air spares. It's standard USAF procedure to launch an extra pair in case of issues and for them to RTB when it's clear the intended aircraft to be sent are fine.

Lakenheath did it themselves last week.

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

boff180 wrote:They were more than likely air spares. It's standard USAF procedure to launch an extra pair in case of issues and for them to RTB when it's clear the intended aircraft to be sent are fine.

Lakenheath did it themselves last week.

But Maine is a long old way from home though? Would they not have turned back and RTB much sooner than the east coast?
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by RAF4EVER »

If they are flying over in pairs then 1 fails, both scrub. So might be 1/8 not 2/8th failure.
When I was at school in the 60`s,2/8 =1/4,new maths? :smile: :smile: :smile:

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by boff180 »

LN Strike Eagle wrote:
boff180 wrote:They were more than likely air spares. It's standard USAF procedure to launch an extra pair in case of issues and for them to RTB when it's clear the intended aircraft to be sent are fine.

Lakenheath did it themselves last week.

But Maine is a long old way from home though? Would they not have turned back and RTB much sooner than the east coast?


It did seem quite a distance to go before turning back, those who claim to have insider info (I don't) have been saying that 6 aircraft was the planned deployment which would make the other two air spares. Perhaps due to the symbolic importance of this deployment for a variety of reasons they took no chances until they were at the point of commitment.

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by boff180 »

It appears it was technical in nature.

Scuttlebutt is that 7 and 8 are crossing today with an eta of mid/late evening.

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by vandal »

boff180 wrote:It appears it was technical in nature.

Scuttlebutt is that 7 and 8 are crossing today with an eta of mid/late evening.

Andy


Are they routing in over Scotland?

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by boff180 »

No idea, also reports of Raptors passing through over the next few days on Twitter.

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by cg_341 »

2x F-35 (the ones that were tech) are due in to LN

4x F-22 in to Mildenhall today, 4x F-22 tomorrow, all westbound.

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by PiedPiper70 »

I thought I glimpsed 2 x F15 today at 15:50 over Diss, heading south, a common sight - BUT both had an unusual whistling sound. I didn't get a good look so could they have been F35, or something else? Any thoughts?

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by Darren50 »

I saw those ,see my post over Brantham. I thought that they might be F35 I looked on ADSB straightaway and that a single F15 had come over, but there were definitely 2 and it showed it as approaching Lakenheath when I could still hear them. Also, I don't do serials, but the ADSB serial started with a 10, don't know if F15 have those serials

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by Brevet Cable »

Apparently there were F-15s and F-35s up earlier today......callsigns GRIM & RAMBO ( don't know which was which, though )
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by cg_341 »

According to Fighter Control, each flight (GRIM and RAMBO) was a flight of three, each consisting of 1x F-15C and 2 F-35A.

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by boff180 »

2 Raptors on the ground at Mildenhall

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by Brevet Cable »

REACH 068 ( dragging the F-35s ) currently inbound, approaching Edinburgh.
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by Brevet Cable »

F-35s & F-15s up again
Currently working somewhere over Mid/North Wales.

Callsign HITMAN 1 to 4 working frequency 268.725 at the moment.....from the differences in radio tones, sounds like a mixed flight of 2x F-35s & 2x F-15s

Did catch brief comms from another flight, possibly using callsign NINJA

And to save anyone looking, none of the flights are showing up on ADS-B Exchange
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by Brevet Cable »

F-35s were up over Wales again earlier this morning......obviously still looking for some sheep to scare. :biggrin:
Easy to ID them with their radio comms as they have a rather distinctive background tone.
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by capercaillie »

Brevet Cable wrote:F-35s were up over Wales again earlier this morning......obviously still looking for some sheep to scare. :biggrin:
Easy to ID them with their radio comms as they have a rather distinctive background tone.


Lots of noise over the South Shropshire/Welsh border here at the moment, all fairly high level, some definite F-15s and something very echoey possibly/probably F-35 remembering how loud the thing was from last year!
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Re: F-35s to Lakenheath

Post by Brevet Cable »

Couple of flights up that way at the moment.
From the radio tones, some of them are F-35s.

Look to be RTB Lakenheath.

Edited to add.....
Not bad VHF reception today -- STRIKE flight are just North of Birmingham & still coming through clearly ( about 120-odd miles from me ) :biggrin:

Edited again to say.....
Three flights, not two -- SLAM & STRIKE are already RTB, CLAW flight still somewhere over Shrewsbury area.
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