A British F-35B stealth fighter stranded in India for nearly three weeks has triggered fresh questions about the troubled jet’s reliability — and risks torpedoing Lockheed Martin’s attempts to lure India towards the fifth-generation platform, potentially strengthening Russia’s Su-57 pitch as New Delhi weighs how best to counter China and Pakistan’s advancing stealth fleets.
The Royal Navy’s highly sophisticated F-35B was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Thiruvananthapuram Airport in Kerala on June 14 after running into severe weather while deployed from the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, a ship that itself has faced persistent technical woes since it entered service in 2019.
Since touching down, the prized stealth jet — packed with sensitive electronics, radar-absorbent coatings, and mission systems — has remained firmly on Indian soil for more than 20 days, despite the urgent dispatch of British engineers and specialist teams flown in from the UK to restore the aircraft’s airworthiness.
The Royal Air Force conceded on July 3 that fixing the aircraft on-site was “not viable,” with London now examining a humiliating last-resort option of dismantling parts of the fighter so it can be flown home inside a massive C-17 Globemaster airlifter.
For India’s defence planners, the incident has become an unmissable cautionary tale about the burdens of operating America’s most expensive and maintenance-intensive stealth aircraft, just months after Washington redoubled efforts to market the F-35 to the Indian Air Force as a future counter to China’s Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon and Pakistan’s soon-to-be-inducted J-35A stealth jets.
When the F-35B made its unplanned landing, the pilot initially refused to disembark, a move widely understood as standard protocol when the world’s most sensitive fighter lands in a non-aligned country where fears of inspection, technology leaks, or unauthorised reverse engineering run deep.
Behind the scenes, British diplomats reportedly moved swiftly to extract assurances from New Delhi that Indian technicians would not inspect the stealth jet — a reflection of how guarded the West remains over the transfer of fifth-generation technology in regions where Russia remains a close defence partner.
By late June, the aircraft was quietly shifted to an Air India maintenance hangar, shielded from curious eyes, while British teams continued their frantic repair efforts.
Yet the damage to the F-35’s reputation in India’s unforgiving defence ecosystem may already be done.
For nearly two decades, the F-35 program has battled widespread criticism for its heavy maintenance demands, eye-watering operational costs, software glitches, and the lowest mission-capable rates across the entire U.S. Air Force fleet — except for the even more troubled F-22 Raptor.
The short-takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B variant is notoriously finicky, with unique mechanical complexity that often results in additional headaches when compared to the conventional F-35A and carrier-based F-35C.
The jet’s relatively limited range compared to its siblings also means its options for divert airfields are fewer — a limitation that played out starkly as the aircraft was forced to land at Thiruvananthapuram Airport rather than return safely to the HMS Prince of Wales.
For Lockheed Martin and the U.S. State Department, the optics of a grounded stealth jet in India are especially painful given the timing.
Just this February, senior U.S. officials renewed their push to entice India into the F-35 club, arguing that the world’s most prolific stealth fighter would close the technological gap with China’s expanding fleet of J-20s — which are already operational across multiple Eastern Theatre Command bases — and counter Pakistan’s expected acquisition of China’s J-35A, a naval stealth derivative widely dubbed Beijing’s “mini-F-35.”
But New Delhi has long bristled at the strings attached to American defence procurements, especially for advanced systems like the F-35.
In February, former Indian Air Marshal Anil Chopra warned that India “remains cautious about the U.S. tendency to exert pressure and abandon allies when its own interests diverge with theirs,” adding, “choosing a reliable partner country that won’t impose undue pressure is crucial.”
His remarks, though diplomatic, left little doubt that the intrusive operational restrictions and end-user clauses built into any F-35 deal are a major obstacle for India, which prizes sovereign operational freedom.
As the stranded F-35B saga drags on under the scorching Kerala sun, Moscow has wasted no time stepping up its efforts to position the Su-57 Felon as the more pragmatic fifth-generation alternative for the Indian Air Force.
Although the Su-57 trails the F-35 in certain stealth metrics and Western avionics sophistication, Russian designers point to key advantages: a vastly superior aerodynamic performance, extreme agility with thrust-vectoring engines, double the combat range compared to the F-35B, a higher missile payload, and powerful radars tailored for multi-domain operations.
Crucially, Russia sweetened the deal in May with an unprecedented proposal to grant India full access to the Su-57’s source code — a level of transparency and customisation the U.S. has never entertained for the F-35.
Under Moscow’s plan, the Su-57 sale would come bundled with a broad license-production arrangement, enabling Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to manufacture large sections of the stealth fighter locally while absorbing advanced technologies that would directly benefit India’s indigenous AMCA fifth-generation program.
Analysts believe that the recent underwhelming performance of India’s Rafale fleet during tense border confrontations with Pakistan this May has quietly reignited momentum for a more capable stealth option that can credibly deter both Islamabad and Beijing.
India’s strategic community is acutely aware that Pakistan’s air force will soon fly the J-35A, Beijing’s export stealth fighter that boasts many features borrowed from the Chinese J-20 — an aircraft that itself was designed with the F-35 in mind as a benchmark.
Amid the intensifying strategic rivalry across the Himalayas, the stranded F-35B has become a vivid symbol of why India must choose carefully when it comes to fifth-generation partners.
Even as Washington tries to woo Delhi with promises of technological parity, the shadow of restrictive U.S. end-use monitoring and the threat of future sanctions linger.
Despite years of U.S. pressure, India has consistently resisted calls to break off its long-standing defence ties with Russia — a signal that Moscow’s Felon may yet find a receptive buyer in the world’s largest democracy.
For Lockheed Martin and the Royal Navy, the diplomatic embarrassment of a grounded stealth jet has turned into an accidental gift for Moscow’s pitch.
Every day that the F-35B remains stranded on Indian soil is another day when New Delhi’s top brass are reminded that maintaining operational sovereignty and logistical flexibility may be more important than chasing the West’s flagship stealth status symbol.
In the end, the question that will shape South Asia’s aerial balance for decades is simple: will India double down on an American system that demands compliance, or back Russia’s promise of a stealth fighter it can truly call its own?
Either way, the race to counter China’s J-20 and Pakistan’s J-35A is only heating up — and the grounded F-35B has inadvertently tipped the scales.
What happened to the British F-35B in India?
A British Royal Navy F-35B stealth fighter has remained stranded in Thiruvananthapuram, India for over 20 days after an emergency landing, dealing a blow to Lockheed Martin’s pitch to India and potentially boosting Russia’s Su-57 as Delhi’s preferred fifth-generation jet to counter China’s J-20 and Pakistan’s J-35A.