SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WFFF) — The Vermont Air National Guard’s twentieth and final F-35 fighter jet touched down at its base in South Burlington Wednesday afternoon.

This comes just over a year after the arrival of the State’s first F-35 jet in September 2019.

The Vermont Air National Guard is the first unit in the nation to receive the state-of-the-art fighter jets, which some have criticized due to their noise level compared to the F-16. Col. David Shevchik said it’s still early on in the process of integrating the jets.

“The arrival of our final F-35 marks a significant time of both progress and change,” Shevchik said. “We’re only partway through our conversion timeline. We have about another year and change left of training to be a combat-ready F-35 fighter wing. Once our conversion training is completed, we’ll be ready to serve no matter where and when we are called.”

All 20 F-35 jets will be stored at Burlington International Airport. Colonel Shevchik said noise reduction efforts will continue as the jets are integrated.