48 Hours On, World's Most Expensive Fighter Jet Remains Grounded In Kerala
New Delhi:
Royal Navy's F-35B stealth fighter jet remains on the ground at Thiruvananthapuram airport, over 48 hours after making an emergency landing on Sunday morning. The jet was part of the UK's HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group, which recently completed a joint exercise with the Indian Navy and is currently in the Indo-Pacific. The British jet was forced to land after running low on fuel in an incident described by military and aviation experts as unusual but not unprecedented.
Sources and media reports suggest suspected mechanical failure has kept the aircraft grounded, and efforts are being made to get it serviced for return to the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier.
For a foreign fighter jet to be grounded for 48 hours is uncommon, especially when the F-35 is the most expensive aircraft program and the largest 5th-generation stealth fighter in terms of operational numbers. The F-35B variant is designed for short take-off and vertical landing, allowing it to operate from aircraft carriers without catapult systems. Israel is currently using F-35s to bombard Iran.
The Indian Air Force on Sunday had called the diversion a "normal occurrence" and said it was providing assistance to the aircraft.
It remains unclear why the F-35B failed to recover onto the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier, although reports suggest that poor weather conditions may have prevented a safe landing.
Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II is a family of 5th-generation, single-engine stealth multirole combat aircraft that comes in three primary variants. What distinguishes it from older generations of fighters is its radar-evading capabilities and sensor fusion technology.
US President Donald Trump had earlier this year offered to sell the F-35 to India during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "We're paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters," Trump had said, in a shift from the US restrictions on F-35 acquisitions by foreign countries.
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