On 14 June 2025, a Lockheed-Martin F-35B stealth fighter of the Royal Navy, operating from aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram Airport, citing bad weather and low fuel while underway about 100 nautical miles off India’s coast. Detected by the IAF’s IACCS network, it was granted landing permission. Shortly after, a “hydraulic failure” rendered the $110 million jet unflightworthy — stranding it on a civilian tarmac.
Twenty-two days on, the F-35B has finally been sent to the hangar for inspection and repair attempts by the British engineers, after it sat exposed, for 18 days, to monsoon rains, guarded by India’s armed forces. Throughtout this time, British authorities refused hangar access, citing concerns over its stealth coatings, sensors, and proprietary tech. Analysts pointed to deeper trust issues: fear of tech leaks, and India’s outsider status in the F-35 program. The US hasn’t shared full source codes even with the UK — only Israel holds limited access. The incident occurred amid Washington’s push for India to buy F-35s, making this standoff a revealing glimpse into NATO’s tech paranoia.
Trivandrum Airport is an earmarked airfield for emergency landings under India-UK military cooperation understanding. Although not legally obliged to do so, New Delhi permitted the grounded F-35B to remain on its soil — a gesture that many read as either strategic realism or calculated ambiguity. India also tolerated the British instructive hesitance to move the jet into a hangar that, at face-value, was based on abundant caution about security concerns, although reeking of mistrust and colonial hangover — a reflex to treat Bhārat as a subordinate Commonwealth entity, not a peer.
Yet India showed restraint, even as tensions with the U.S. had risen post-Operation Sindoor, where Trump’s ‘ceasefire´-claims clashed with Modi’s direct rebuff. Initial repair attempts by Royal Navy technicians failed. Eventually, a 40-member UK team and specialized equipment were flown in, reversing earlier secrecy concerns. If repairs failed again, British contingency plans included airlifting the fighter out — a dramatic exit for a jet that had overstayed its (un)welcome landing both technically and diplomatically.
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