F-35s have returned to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, for two weeks of training in a deployed setting. The F-35s, assigned to the 61st Fighter Squadron at Luke AFB, Ariz., arrived at the Idaho base on Sept. 10 and will “practice identifying ground radar sites, which is a capability that Luke doesn’t have,” 366th Fighter Wing spokesman TSgt. Joe Woolston told Air Force Magazine. The aircraft will return to Luke on Sept. 24. Mountain Home was the site for the major deployment test for F-35s, when seven of the jets deployed from Hill AFB, Utah, to the Idaho base for two weeks in June to prove the aircraft can fight in a deployment setting.
All 12 American bombers deployed in Britain rapidly returned to the U.S. on Oct. 4 following security concerns about a potential Iranian threat to their base in the U.K.