TULSA, Okla. — State and local officials are working to make the Oklahoma Air National Guard base in Tulsa home to the U.S. military's most expensive weapons system, the F-35 Lightning II.
The Tulsa World reports members of an F-35 task force want the Pentagon to base the fighter aircraft at the Tulsa-based 138th Fighter Wing, located at the north end of Tulsa International Airport.
The only Air National Guard base scheduled for F-35s is in Burlington, Vermont. The jets are expected to be deployed there in 2020.
Two other Air National Guard bases are to receive the planes in 2022 or 2023, and Tulsa officials want the 138th to be one of them.
The Pentagon plans to buy about 2,500 of the planes at a cost of about $130 million each.
