Plan to Pull F-15 Fighters from Okinawa Sparks Alarm in Congress

Some defense analysts said culling the F-15s from Kadena is the right call. “Removing the F-15s does not significantly reduce American combat power in the Indo-Pacific,” Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said in a Twitter post late last month. “These are old 4th-generation aircraft that would not contribute much in a war against China given the PLA’s sophisticated and layered air defenses.” “Presence,” she said, “does not equal combat credible posture.”

The Pentagon has not made a decision on long-term force levels at the Kadena Air Base, but officials have said “all proposals” are under consideration.

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