The Green Knights will get a F-35B sister squadron

On 28 September 2020, the US Marine Corps announced to Japanese officials that Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (All Weather) 242 "Bats" ('DT-xx'), based at MCAS Iwakuni (Japan) and operating twelve F/A-18D Hornets, will be returned to Continental US (CONUS) from October 2020.

The forward deployed VMFA(AW) squadron will transition to the F-35B Lightning II in the USA. After transition, sixteen F-35B Lightning IIs of VMFA-242 will permanently move to Iwakuni and will become the second forward deployed F-35 squadron of the US military forces.

Since January 2017, VMFA-121 "Green Knights" ('VK-xx') has been based at Iwakuni with their F-35Bs.

During the transition period of VMFA-242, a USMC F/A-18C/D squadron will temporarily deploy from CONUS to Iwakuni to ensure continuation of operations. The Hornet squadron will exist out of twelve aircraft and is most probably part of the regular USMC Unit Deployment Program (UDP) at MCAS Iwakuni.