Why F-35B's Kerala Monsoon Holiday is Embarrassing

News18

10-07-2025

Buying F-35s will make India heavily dependent on the US goodwill for spares, etc. And the jet does seem to have its share of inexplicable glitches
Imagine if a state-of-the-art, wildly expensive, imported fighter jet of the Indian Air Force had to force-land in another country that is outside its 'comfort zone', could not take off again despite multiple repair efforts and therefore had to be carted back home in pieces…. There would have been derisive noises from around the world, led by the Western media and amplified by the local press, and memes about bullock carts would have flown thick and fast.
And yet, a fighter aircraft fitting that description—the F-35B Lightning—of the UK's Royal Air Force landed in Thiruvananthapuram on June 14 and languished there for nearly a month, not responding to the ministrations of British engineers brought in from near and far. Now it has been towed into a hangar at that very airport for more intensive examination and may well be flown back to UK. Could the much-touted jet have a more ignominious Indian holiday?
It was clever of the Kerala Tourism department to take advantage of Britain's embarrassment by putting out an ad showing the fighter jet enjoying its holiday in 'God's Own Country". All the critiques were in good humour; there were no derisive remarks, at least from Indians on social media, about the state of UK's armed forces' engineering and repair capabilities. The reaction to an IAF fighter jet being grounded anywhere would not have been as genteel.
More so as mystery shrouds why the F-35B had to land on terra firma in Kerala in the first place, rather than returning to the aircraft carrier HMS Prince Of Wales, the Fleet Flagship of the Royal Navy—its most prestigious vessel. The plane and ship were part of the UK's naval Strike Group carrying out joint exercises with the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea on June 9-10, 2025. The initial reason given was quite innocuous: it was running 'low on fuel".
But that was obviously not the real reason as the Indian government's permission and a bowser of fuel could have sent the fighter jet on its way in a matter of hours. So the explanation then put out was 'adverse weather conditions"; being monsoon season it sounded perfectly plausible too. Except that the $115 million aircraft continued to sit on the tarmac of Thiruvananthapuram Airport far longer than any monsoon downpour would mandate even at its peak.
Finally, the UK authorities trotted out yet another anodyne term for the aircraft's extended Kerala sojourn: a 'technical issue". But 25 days on, like ol' Humpty Dumpty, 'all the king's horses and all the king's men" could not put it back together again, metaphorically speaking. Multiple teams of military engineering personnel arrived to attempt to make the aircraft airworthy again and failed to do so. There should have been an uproar. Curiously, there wasn't.
Only the Conservative MP for Huntingdon and former soldier, Ben Obese-Jecty asked the government in the House of Commons 'What steps are the Government is taking to recover the plane, how much longer will that take, and how will the Government ensure the security of protected technologies on the jet while it is in the hangar and out of view?" No truly candid answer would have been anything other than very embarrassing for the former colonial power.
Because, just this May, the Royal Air Force announced on X, 'After a long journey from @LockheedMartin in Fort Worth Texas, two new F-35B Lightning jets have arrived @RAF_Marham. Supported by an @RAFBrizeNorton Voyager, they represent the UK's ongoing effort to maintain advanced air power and an important step in the F-35 program." If American spellings by a British handle was not bad enough, an F-35B was soon grounded in Kerala.
Even more intriguingly, even as one of its F-35Bs stood languishing in the Kerala rain and heat, the UK government announced on June 25 the purchase of 12 new F-35A fighter jets that have the option to carry nuclear bombs. These longer range fighters would be based at RAF Marham as, unlike the short take-off and vertical landing F-35Bs, they need conventional runways. Britain also stated it would buy 15 more F-35B and 12 F-35A fighters in the second phase.
So, it was not surprising that in reply to MP Obese-Jecty's question, the Minister for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard said, 'We continue to work with our Indian friends who provided first-class support when the F-35B was unable to return to the Prince of Wales when on a flight mission," asserting that 'the security of the jet is in good hands because RAF crew are with it at all times." He did not address why just a 'technical issue" continues to confound the RAF.
Though the fifth generation Lockheed Martin fighter is the most advanced combat aircraft in UK's armed forces and crucial for its carrier strike capability, and yet there are no robust calls for clarity on the persistence of this 'technical issue" and its ramifications the security of the jet's technology even if India (not being a NATO partner) was unlikely to spy on it! The UK government's reticence and the international media subdued interest is very curious indeed.
The British High Commission's terse statement on Sunday said that the UK team sent to 'assess and repair" the F-35B carried 'specialist equipment" for its movement and repair. All of the F-35's rivals in the international defence aviation sector would want to be flies on the wall of that hangar in Thiruvananthapuram Airport this week as the fighter jet is examined closely by, presumably, not just RAF engineers flown in from the UK but also Lockheed Martin.
Charges for the F-35B's embarrassing sojourn on the Thiruvananthapuram Airport tarmac for 26 days have been estimated to be Rs 5,77,742 at the rate of Rs 26,261 per day. That is rather reasonable given that comparable charges for an IAF fighter aircraft chilling, say, at Heathrow Airport for the same amount of time would have meant forking out approximately the pound sterling equivalent of Rs 2,66,527 per day. But maybe India will not press for payment!
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Meanwhile India will be watching—albeit from afar—as US President Donald Trump had grandiosely offered F-35s during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit in February. That was, of course, before the Pahalgam massacre, India's Operation Sindoor retaliation and Trump's astonishing re-hypenation of India and Pakistan. Buying F-35s will make India heavily dependent on the US goodwill for spares, etc. And the jet does seem to have its share of inexplicable glitches…
The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
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Location :
New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
July 10, 2025, 15:41 IST
News opinion Opinion | Why F-35B's Kerala Monsoon Holiday is Embarrassing
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