 As RAF Lakinheath prepares to receive F-35s this month, we thought you'd like to know a little more about them. The Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II is the culmination of three decades of engineering put into one aircraft. This is why it now sits at the top of the food chain as the most advanced fifth-generation fighter ever built. Boasting a top speed of Mach 1.6 and a range of 1,350 miles on internal fuel stores. It's not only fast, but far-reaching. It can carry nine tons of munitions as high as 50,000 feet and is nearly undetectable by radar, making it one of the most survivable aircraft in a contested airspace. And it allows the pilot 360 degrees of situational awareness with sensors covering its surface, granting them the ability to quite literally see through the plane. It was also designed to put maintainers first, with a built-in system that can not only diagnose its own issues, but order the parts required to fix them. This lets it redefine readiness because it wasn't made to help us share the skies. It was made so we could own them.