Two US Air Force (USAF) F-35A Joint Strike Fighters assigned to the 48th Fighter Wing, based at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the UK, executed historic, austere landings on a pre-designated highway in Finland on 4 September 2024 during Exercise ‘Baana 2024’: the Finnish Air Force’s annual road base exercise.
The exercise gave the opportunity for the USAF to hone its agile combat enhancement (ACE) skills, whereby aircraft are operated from austere locations in order to avoid being targeted at their fixed bases.
“The successful first-ever landing of our fifth-generation F-35 on a highway in Europe is a testament to the growing relationship and close interoperability we have with our Finnish allies,” General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa, was quoted as saying in a USAF press release. “The opportunity to learn from our Finnish counterparts improves our ability to rapidly deploy and employ airpower from unconventional locations and reflects the collective readiness and the agility of our forces,” he added.
New NATO members Finland and Sweden are used to regularly rehearsing ACE operations, meaning they have valuable experience to pass on to other air forces in NATO.
Since Finland’s accession to the alliance in 2023, it has provided USAF aircrew with significant opportunities to learn from their Finnish counterparts. Among the most recent activities, the Finnish Air Force was among nine national air forces to participate in the 1v1 air superiority exercise held in June at Ramstein Air base in germany. During that event fighters and aircrew from the nine nations participated in a series of aerial combat simulations.
