Kochi: Twenty three days after landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport, the Royal Navy’s F-35B stealth fighter jet was moved to the hagar after an 14 member British expert team on Sunday, media reports said.
The plane that made an emergency landing at the airport June 14 after taking off for regular sorties from a British aircraft carrier from the Indian Ocean, was parked on the tarmac in Thiruvananthapuram International airport after its inspection by the 14-member expert team from Britain.
The expert team will take the F-35B home in a C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft if it fails to rectify the snag.
The F-35B fighter jet is valued at over $110 million, and is the most expensive fighter jet in terms of development cost.
Engineers from HMS Prince of Wales initially had assessed the situation and determined that additional technical expertise and equipment from the UK were required.
The first ever F-35 wing removal and shipment via air transport took place in May 2019. An F-35 Lightning II was airlifted by a C-17 Globemaster at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
The stealth fighter jet with classified technology has to be monitored closely by the British military while it is being dismantled.
Every move has to be logged and verified; every screw has to be security-coded to minimise the risk of data breach. Theft of stealth technologies could reveal combat secrets, and poses a threat with diplomatic and military consequences. Protecting stealth tech is critical for national defence integrity.
