Lightning strikes twice at RAF Marham as new F-35B stealth fighters arrive

RAF Marham has taken delivery of two new Lightning F-35B stealth fighter jets.

After touching down at the Norfolk base, the jets taxied to 207 Squadron Operational Conversion Unit, where Squadron engineers received them.

The two aircraft have undergone serviceability checks and will soon join the rest of the F-35B Lightnings in an operational capability.

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The jets landed at RAF Marham on 16 March but their arrival has only now been announced.

Last week the UK Carrier Strike Group's (CSG) F-35B Lightning jets returned to the UK after time on Nato's biggest exercise since the Cold War.

The combat aircraft flew to RAF Marham from the deck of HMS Prince of Wales, who led the CGS for the multinational drills.

RAF Marham is the home of the F-35B Lightning, a fifth-generation, multi-role, stealth fighter.

F-35B Specifications

The F-35B Lighting is a multi-role machine, capable of conducting air-to-surface, electronic warfare, intelligence gathering and air-to-air missions simultaneously.

Here are some of the specifications of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft:

• Powerplant: one Pratt & Whitney F135 turbofan rated at 40,000lb st (177.88kN) with afterburning and 40,500lb st (180.10kN) for vertical take-off
• Length: 51ft 2¼in (15.60m)
• Height: 14ft 3½in (4.36m)
• Wingspan: 35ft (10.70m)
• Wing area: 460sqft (42.70m2)
• Maximum take-off weight: around 60,000lb (27,216kg)
• Maximum speed: Mach 1.6
• Combat radius: on internal fuel more than 450nm (833km)
• Maximum altitude: 50,000ft
• Armament: typically two AAMs and two bombs carried internally, with optional 25mm gun pod and underwing pylons enabling stores carriage up to 15,000lb (6,800kg)