After 18 years flying Eagles, Barnes pilots get the F-35A

The Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing formally welcomed the F-35A Lightning II to Barnes Air National Guard Base on September 13, 2026, marking the aircraft’s arrival after a transition process that began more than three years ago. The ceremony drew Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, military officials and representatives from Kenya and Paraguay, whose militaries partner with the Massachusetts Guard through the state partnership program.

The Air Force picked Barnes in April 2023 as the preferred site for a new F-35A squadron, a decision that became final in December 2024 after an environmental review. The F-35A replaces the wing’s F-15C/D Eagles, which the 104th flew for 18 years after the aircraft arrived at Barnes in 2007. The wing retired its last three F-15Cs on October 23, 2025, sending them to the Air Force’s aircraft storage facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

“For generations, men and women at the 104th Fighter Wing have answered the call, protected the skies, served our state, and defended our country,” Healey said. “The arrival of the F-35A represents a new chapter for this great military installation here.”

The Air Force plans to base 18 F-35As at Barnes. The wing has not said how many aircraft have arrived so far or when it expects to reach full operational capability with the new jets. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. David Halasi-Kun, who led the wing through the early stages of the conversion before Col. Michael Glass took command in December 2025, said the shift to a fifth-generation aircraft would take considerable work from the unit.

“The F-35A brings with it incredible capabilities that will be able to support combatant commanders around the world, as well as continued defense of the United States from our 24-hour alert site,” Halasi-Kun said.

The F-35A is a single-engine, radar-evading fighter built by Lockheed Martin. Its sensor suite is designed to combine data from multiple onboard systems into a single picture for the pilot, a capability the Air Force calls sensor fusion, and it can carry precision-guided weapons for strikes against ground and air targets. The jet’s stealth shaping and coatings are intended to reduce its radar signature compared with older fighters like the F-15.

The 104th’s mission includes providing armed fighters on 24-hour alert to respond to airborne threats over the northeastern United States, a role known as Aerospace Control Alert that the wing has carried out with the F-15 for nearly two decades. Air Force Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard, said the F-35A purchase secures that mission for the base well into the future.

“We are securing our role as a cornerstone of national security for the next fifty years and beyond,” Keefe said.

Some 104th pilots who flew the wing’s final F-15 sorties last October have since trained to fly the F-35A and returned to Barnes among the unit’s first F-35A pilots. U.S. Air Force Capt. Kyle Eckert, one of those pilots, said the shift from flying the last Eagles out of Barnes to flying the base’s first F-35As felt like a “full circle moment.”