The Defense Ministry on Thursday deployed three state-of-the-art F-35B stealth fighters to the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF)'s Nyutabaru base in the town of Shintomi, Miyazaki Prefecture.

This marked the first F-35B deployment at an SDF base.

The ministry will deploy five more F-35Bs by the end of fiscal 2025. It plans to expand the F-35B fleet to 42 in the future.