E-Paper
How UK's F-35 fighter jet, grounded in Kerala for 20 days, will be dismantled
The F-35B jet will reportedly be dismantled and taken aboard a special transport plane, like the C-17 Globemaster.
The British F-35B jet has been grounded in Kerala since June 14, the day it made an emergency landing at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport.
As efforts to repair the aircraft have not worked so far, the jet will reportedly be dismantled and taken aboard a special transport plane, like the C-17 Globemaster. However, transporting the fifth-generation stealth jet to the United Kingdom would not be a cakewalk.
Why the challenge?
The C-17 Globemaster is a large military transport aircraft used by the US, the United Kingdom, India and other countries. The aircraft has a cargo bay size big enough to carry multiple troops and can even carry AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
However, it would still be tricky to dismantle the F-35B jet and fit it into the C-17 Globemaster. According to an India Today Digital report, the F-35B jet will have to lose its wings in order to fit into the cargo plane.
"The C-17’s cargo hold is 26 metres long, but its width is just 4 metres, which means an F-35 cannot be loaded unless the wings are detached," the publication quoted a defence expert as saying.
This is not the first time the cargo plane would be transporting a F-35 jet. In 2019, a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet was successfully airlifted from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to Hill Air Force Base in Utah, according to the Eglin base website.
Data breach risks
The F-35B jet is worth over $110 million and is known to be one of the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world. Hence, there are data breach risks attached with dismantling such a jet.
According to an NDTV report, every screw on the jet will have to be secured with unique codes during the dismantling in order to reduce the risk of a theft of stealth technology.
The dismantling can only be carried out by engineers certified by aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin, the publication further said.
The British military will closely oversee the dismantling to safeguard the stealth systems. A data breach in this case could expose sensitive combat capabilities.
What next for the F-35 jet?
The F-35B, which belongs to Britain’s Royal Navy, made an emergency landing in Thiruvananthapuram on June 14, and is reportedly being guarded by a six-member team from the HMS Prince of Wales.
Even with plans of dismantling, the jet would still need some repairs before it could be transported. For this purpose, a 40-member team of aviation engineers will arrive in Kerala on July 5.
