Could a Multi-National Force of F-35s Stop A Russian Attack on Ukraine?

Video Above: F-35s To Europe

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

The US Air Force has now established its first F-35 presence on the European continent to expand multinational networking, increase collective deterrence and streamline war preparations across a growing number of F-35 aligned nations.

Having a presence of US F-35s will enable concepts of operation, tactics and strategies otherwise only possible in the US. European F-35 partners such as The Netherlands, Italy, UK, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland and now Finland will be positioned to leverage and build upon US progress with multi-domain networking.

“This will make it easier for us to do some of those things we have done in the states – now it will build the muscle memory we need in theater to respond quickly,” Gen Jeffrey L. Harrigian, Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, U.S. Air Forces Africa and Allied Air Command and Director, Joint Air Power Competence Centre, told The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in an interesting interview.

Part of the emerging deterrence strategy and broadly configured European continent collective security included a specific, multinational meeting among F-35 Air Chiefs from member nations.

“We addressed some of the challenges with the weapons systems, because we have gone from the nuances of a new weapons system to operationalizing it. We shared tips on how to optimize the F-35 for the whole joint force,” Harrigian explained.