The Cuban-American congressman Carlos Giménez participated this Friday in an event in South Florida alongside executives from Lockheed Martin and local authorities to promote the deployment of F-35 Lightning II fighters at Homestead Air Reserve Base, a little over 90 nautical miles from Cuba, and issued a direct warning to the regime in Havana, according to NTN24.
The Republican legislator justified the deployment with a strong statement: "We know that Cuba is a threat to the security of the United States, which is why we need to have this type of presence here with the F-35 and other capabilities, always keeping an eye on the threat that Cuba poses."
Giménez emphasized the technical superiority of the new fighter compared to the F-16s currently operating in Homestead:
"This aircraft has capabilities that the F-16 doesn't, and I believe it's an aircraft that the Cuban regime will not appreciate being in their area. The F-16 can reach that zone, but the capabilities of the F-35, not only in terms of the aircraft itself but also its intelligence capabilities, mean the Cubans won't even know it's in their airspace because they can't see it."
The congressman added that the difference in detection is vast: “The F-16 is not like this; it can be seen on radar. This one, on the other hand, is barely visible on radar, so this plane's capability is much greater, far superior to that of the F-16.”
At the event, Giménez also described the F-35 as the backbone of American military aviation.
"In English, it is called the backbone of our air forces; it is the F-35. That is why it is so important that we are now going to replace the F-16s they have in Homestead with F-35s to keep the base operational," he asserted.
The congressman has been advocating for this deployment for over a year: in June 2025, he led a letter to President Trump specifically requesting the placement of F-35s in Homestead, making the announcement the culmination of sustained efforts before the White House.
The deployment: 24 fifth-generation fighters
The Department of the Air Force announced on May 8 that Homestead was selected as a candidate to receive 24 F-35A Lightning II fighters, replacing the 24 F-16s of the 482nd Fighter Wing, a process subject to environmental review.
Full operational capacity is projected for 2035.
At Friday's event, there was a professional F-35 flight simulator, transported in a large truck, alongside the CEO of Lockheed Martin.
The state senator of district 40, Ana María Rodríguez, celebrated the economic impact.
"For me, it's important to attract new jobs and employment opportunities for my community, which translates to thousands of jobs for people involved in creating these teams, as well as in the storage sector. For us, that means a significant amount of investment money," he said according to NTN24.
Increasing military pressure on Cuba
The announcement comes at a time of heightened tension between Washington and Havana.
The Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warned this month, during a visit to Panama, that Cuba "would do well to pay attention to President Trump's will" and that Washington keeps "all options on the table, including military options".
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico has become the epicenter of large-scale operations: more than 8,100 soldiers from the United States conducted exercises between May and August, with activity at the Roosevelt Roads base —reactivated at the end of 2025— and in Ponce.
This scenario is compounded by concerns over the regime's arsenal of drones.
According to intelligence reports cited by Infobae, Cuba is believed to have accumulated more than 300 military drones of Russian and Iranian origin since 2023, a point that Giménez has used to emphasize the necessity of the F-35 in Homestead.
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