Shortly after lunchtime on Monday, 5 October 2026, an F-35A wearing the Iron Cross of the German Air Force touched down at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and taxied under a ceremonial water arch. The flight from Lockheed Martin’s factory in Fort Worth, Texas, had taken less than an hour.
It is the first German F-35 to arrive at the training centre where the Luftwaffe will learn to fly its new stealth fighter, and the start of a programme that will run for at least five years.
Quick Facts
- Arrival: 5 October 2026, Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Fort Smith, Arkansas
- Flown from: Lockheed Martin, Fort Worth, Texas
- German order: At least 35 F-35A fighters
- Training: About 70 German pilots over five years, six German instructor pilots at Ebbing
- Next jets: First eight German F-35s expected at Ebbing by April 2027
- Programme: Ebbing is the US Air Force’s F-35 Foreign Military Sales pilot training centre
Why the Luftwaffe Trains in Arkansas
Ebbing was chosen in 2023 as the home of the US Air Force’s F-35 Foreign Military Sales pilot training centre, where allied air forces buying the jet send their pilots to learn it alongside American instructors. Poland and Finland already have pilots there, and the centre supports eight partner nations in all: Singapore, Poland, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Czechia, Greece and Romania.
Germany’s first jet was delivered by an American pilot, Maj. Eric Fesmire of the 85th Fighter Group, according to Talk Business & Politics. Germany plans to station six instructor pilots at Ebbing, and around 70 German pilots are expected to pass through the course over the next five years. KATV reports that German students are due to start in December 2026, with the first eight German jets expected at the base by April 2027.
A Big Step for the German F-35 Programme
Germany ordered the F-35A in 2022, mainly to replace its ageing Panavia Tornados in NATO’s nuclear-sharing mission. The country has budgeted around $8.4 billion for the jets, according to Talk Business & Politics. Training its first pilots in the United States is the critical path to getting the aircraft into service at home, where the Luftwaffe is preparing its base at Büchel to receive them.
For Ebbing, the German arrival is another flag on a busy flight line. Training pilots from several countries together has a purpose beyond efficiency. As German liaison officer Lt. Col. Stefan Köllner put it to local media, Ebbing offers a lot of airspace to train in, and pilots from different nations who learn side by side end up speaking the same tactical language when they later fly together in NATO.
Local station 5NEWS was there when the jet arrived:
Sources: Talk Business & Politics, KATV, 5NEWS, DVIDS
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