The Flying Tigers will fly the Lightning II
On 26 June 2023, the Department of the Air Force (DAF) selected Moody AFB (GA), as the preferred location to receive the next Air Combat Command (ACC) active-duty F-35A Lightning II assignment.
The Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning IIs for the 74th and 75th Fighter Squadrons, part of 23rd Fighter Group, are projected to begin arriving in Fiscal Year 2029 and the number of personnel is expected to remain the same at Moody.
The decision to host the "Flying Tigers" F-35A mission at Moody came after assessing the area’s ability to facilitate the mission and infrastructure capacity, while accounting for community support, environmental factors and cost.
The Fiscal Year 2024 programme objective memorandum details department plans to retire 54 FT coded A-10C Thunderbolt IIs. If approved, six A-10Cs will be divested out of Moody AFB in FY24 with the remaining Thunderbolt IIs divesting by FY28.
The DAF will now conduct an environmental impact analysis, which is expected to be completed in fall 2025. One of the first A-10Cs to leave Moody was 80-0149/FT. On 5 April 2023, Thunderbolt II "149" made its final descent, after 14,125 flight hours, into Davis Monthan AFB (AZ).
Credit photo: USAF