From Defense News

    

  

     This MAY serve as a template of sorts for The Alabama Air National Guard when the F-35 planes arrive in December of 2023. Here's how Defense News described the timeline in Finland:

What is the timeline for phasing out the F-18s and bringing the F-35s online?

The first aircraft are scheduled to arrive in Finland in 2026, with initial training starting in the United States. Basically we start to pull F-18s out of training and operations in 2025. Exactly how many a year, we’ll see. We obviously need to make sure the F-35 ramp-up plan starts on schedule and then finalize the plan of how we do the switch. Initial operational capability with the F-35 will be in 2028, which is defined as one squadron taking responsibility for air defense.

 

Of course Finland is not The United States, much more so NOT Alabama, but I'm sure officials are following the experience of everyplace the F35's are replacing F-18's. And a lot of advance work is already underway in Montgomery before the planes arrive.