The fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters that Finland plans to buy from the United States will allow NATO to integrate Finnish combat aircraft into its strategy to counter Russia. The significance of the new aircraft for Helsinki and Brussels was explained by the American edition of Breaking Defense.
The publication claims that the data collected by the Finnish F-35 Lightning II on the border with Russia will be used by NATO in the same way as other information received by fifth-generation fighters of other alliance states. Meanwhile, the information extracted by the Finnish F-35 Lightning II can be especially valuable due to their proximity to Russia.
The publication asserts that Russia "faces a much more integrated and deadly force that can operate across the entire spectrum of conflicts." "The F-35 is not a traditional fighter; it is a flying combat system, the capabilities of which are greater the longer the F-35 is in the air," the publication says.
In December 2021, the American publication 19FortyFive wrote that Russia is in a panic because of the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters that arrived in Europe from the United States against the background of the situation with Ukraine.
In December, the US Air Force permanently deployed its fifth-generation F-35A Lightning II fighters in Europe for the first time.
