What Are F-35 Fighter Jets, Why Donald Trump Offered Them To India

NDTV

9 hours ago

New Delhi:
A British F-35B Lightning II fighter jet, part of the HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group, made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in Kerala late Saturday evening. Though the incident was resolved without damage or injury, it has brought attention to the F-35 program, developed by defence giant Lockheed Martin.
Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump offered to include India among the select group of nations authorised to buy the F-35 aircraft from the US.
What Is F-35, What Are Its Variants
The F-35 Lightning II is a family of 5th-generation, single-seat, single-engine stealth multirole combat aircraft designed to perform air superiority, strike, electronic warfare, and intelligence-gathering missions.
There are three primary variants:
F-35A, Conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL)
F-35B, Short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL)
F-35C, Carrier-based operations
The aircraft involved in the emergency landing in India is an F-35B, engineered for short-runway takeoff and vertical landing, making it well suited for operations from carriers like the Prince of Wales, which lacks catapult-assisted launch systems.
The jet's radar-evading capabilities, sensor fusion technology, and ability to communicate with other platforms in real time distinguish it from older generations of fighters.
Emergency Landing in India: What We Know
The British pilot had been conducting a maritime sortie in the Arabian Sea when they encountered fuel limitations. Weather conditions near the Prince of Wales reportedly made a carrier landing unsafe, prompting the pilot to divert to Thiruvananthapuram, which was the closest operational runway.
"Normal occurence of diversion by F-35. IAF fully aware and facilitated the aircraft for flight safety reasons. All assistance being given, and IAF is in coordination with all agencies," the Indian Air Force said in a statement.
No mechanical failure has been reported so far. Neither Lockheed Martin nor the UK Ministry of Defence has released any official statement so far.
Trump's F-35 Offer To India
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year, Trump announced that the United States would open discussions on the potential sale of F-35 jets to India.
"We're paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters," Trump declared, adding that "starting this year, we'll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars."
India was previously not among the nations cleared for F-35 acquisition.
Some of F-35's key technologies include:
Beyond Visual Range (BVR) weapons, missiles like the MBDA Meteor allow the F-35 to engage targets before they are even visible to the naked eye. The jet uses input from its radar, infrared systems, and external sources to provide a unified picture to the pilot.
Helmet-mounted display system: Arguably the most advanced pilot interface, it allows the pilot to see through the airframe and target enemies simply by looking at them.
Data connectivity: The F-35 acts as an airborne node, sharing battlefield information with land, air, and naval units in real time.
The F-35B also offers vertical landing and takeoff capabilities, particularly advantageous in forward-operating environments or from ships without full-length runways.
According to Lockheed Martin, these updates are being delivered across all three F-35 variants and will ensure the aircraft remains operationally dominant against peer threats.
Global Use
To date, more than a dozen countries operate the F-35, including the US, UK, Israel, Japan, and Australia. Israel has been one of the earliest and most active users of the aircraft in combat scenarios, reportedly deploying it in numerous strikes across Syria and more recently, as per Iranian claims, in operations targeting Iranian assets.
Iran has claimed that its air defences have shot down at least one Israeli F-35 aircraft, although no independently verified evidence has emerged.
At present, no formal agreement has been signed between India and the United States for the purchase of F-35 aircraft.