German F-35 jet lands at Ebbing Air National Guard Base for pilot training program
By Kameron Macrorie
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FORT SMITH, Arkansas (KHBS, KHOG) — People in Fort Smith could hear the roar of jet engines overhead on Monday as the first F-35 fighter jet from Germany landed at the Ebbing Air National Guard Base.
Germany is the latest country to join the pilot training program.
The Foreign Military Sales Training Program brings together pilots from across the world to learn how to fly F-35 jets and operate the weapon systems.
“The U.S. Air Force, including the Air National Guard, they set the standards globally in air forces,” said Col. Michael Maltzahn with the German Embassy. “We are being taught by experienced U.S. pilots who operate this weapon system, which for us is a brand new capability, but for them, they are well known and experienced.”
The goal of the program is to train pilots from different air forces to collaborate better.
“We are 32 nations in NATO, and we have to be interoperable in between, amongst each other,” Maltzahn said. “We speak the same language. We use the same tactics. We anticipate the same. We use the same planning processes behind it for flying our missions.”
Germany joins pilots from Poland and Finland already on the base. For the next five years, six German pilots will make Fort Smith their home and serve as instructors to other pilots.
“Living here is great,” said Lt. Col. Stefan Koellner. “I just talked to the mayor, and there’s a great community here that’s welcomed us.”
Koellner and his family moved to Fort Smith back in April. He now works as the German coordinator for the F-35 program.
“It’s a great community here and we can go outside; there’s a lot of stuff to do here,” Koellner said. “So it was a wise choice that Germany decided, that Arkansas decided here to come over here.”
Over the next five years, the aim it to train a total of 70 German pilots.
“We’re going to collect all this experience, also bring them to Germany and help them get better training, get better flight training, better training for technicians,” Koellner said. “That’s the benefit of all of that.”
Right now, he said the F-35 jets are being prepared before the first German pilots arrive in December.
Wynn with the 85th Fighter Group said the next group of pilots will come from Singapore and are expected to arrive in 2027.
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