In the Almighty Lockheed Martin must be looking forward to one of the most cruel summers that they remember regarding image. First it was a stranded hunt A month in Indiathen Spain decided reverse to the request of 50 F-35 that I had to the American company. To the “Porazo” have been added countries that have put in Doubt your purchase. Now, to finish off a tragic week, Russia and China have put their finger on the sore.
A second breakdown. British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of WalesRoyal Navy’s flagship and leader of the Carrier Strike Group 2025he suffered for the second time in his current deployment Highmast Operation An incident with one of its fighters F-35B Lightning IIforcing this time to the aircraft to make a emergency landing In a foreign civil airport.
On this occasion, the device had to deviate to the Kagoshima airport, in southwest Japan, during a joint exercise with the Japanese Self -Defense Air Force, because of of a breakdown which forced to close the track for about 20 minutes and caused delays in commercial flights. Although the ruling did not require urgency technical assistance as in the Previous incident in India (When another F-35B remained inoperative for more than a month), the new episode tarnishes a mission conceived to reinforce the British projection in the Indo-Pacific, and that of Lockheed Martin in the background.
United Kingdom and doubt. The first reactions to the failure have not been expected in England. He Telegraph counted A few hours ago, the risk of the risk does not reside solely in the reliability of a specific model, but in the Procurement strategy that the British Ministry of Defense has been applying for decades: prioritizing small amounts of high -tech equipment to the detriment of the operational mass.
In other words, mechanical failures in complex systems such as F-35B are inevitable and are part of the life cycle of any advanced technology, but what cannot be affected is that the temporary loss of a single plane involves a 6% reduction In the combat capacity, or that a naval breakdown paralyzes half of a group of escorts. According to the mediumthe lesson of these incidents is not to question the worth of the aircraft, but to recognize that the United Kingdom needs more of everything: more fighters, more ships, more personal and more resilience.
Teasing and propaganda. Forbes counted That the nature of the last failures of the hunt, despite its low technical gravity, has served as fuel to the Beijing and Moscow propaganda. Apparently, media and commentators in China and Russia, Like Wang Ya’nanAerospace Knowledge editor have questioned the British capacity to keep a fifth generation furtive hunt in prolonged deployment.
In social networks, accounts Like India Sputnik Ironized saying that the HMS Prince of Wales “collects emergency landings such as souvenirs”, while others They ridiculed The reputation of the F-35 of LM with comments such as “World’s Best Jet… Really?”. Analysts like Cliff Lampe They warn That these narratives are extended almost immediately in the current digital environment, where virality and absence of moderation allow misinformation, mockery and propaganda to mix with economic or political interests.
Kerala also took the opportunity to “promote” the situation of the hunt stranded for a month
Informative war. The F-35 case adds to a pattern of media attacks against high profile weapons systems used by Western powers. Recent examples include Chinese discursive offensive Against the Dassault Rafale after the demolition of an Indian specimen for an Air-Aire PL-15 Missile of China, or the Chinese Networks campaign Against Russian Hunting Su-57 before the Zhuhai Air Fair.
These dynamics show how geopolitical rivals use isolated incidents for feed narratives of technological or logistics weakness, exploiting the susceptibility of the public and the press to the stories of failures in advanced military teams.
Impact for Lockheed Martin. As we said at the beginning, for Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of the F-35, this new incident adds to a more than complicated period, after the decisions of Spain and Swiss to explore alternatives and two recent accidents In California and Alaska.
It We counted Yesterday: although the accumulation of events can affect public perception, the F-35 program maintains a solid positioning thanks to its deep integration into allied forces, the investments already made, their advantages in interoperability and the political support that ensures its continuity. The immediate strategy is to return as soon as possible the F-35B affected to operations from Japan or reincorporate it to the aircraft carrier, while the International narrative To present these cases as isolated failures, preventing them from being interpreted as structural problems.
Strategic implications. Beyond the impact on the Image of F-35incidents raise questions about the United Kingdom Capacity to hold large -distance deployments with latest generation media and on the logistics resilience of its shipped air fleet.
The deployment in the Indo-Pacific, only the second of a British aircraft carrier in the 21st century, is part of a strategy for strengthen alliances and demonstrate presence in a region marked by the Competition with China. However, episodes such as these can be perceived by partners and rivals as indications of operational vulnerabilitiesreducing the deterrent impact of the mission and offering competing powers an alternative story that exploits each breakdown as a symbol of structural limitations.
In Xataka | Spain refuses to spend 5% of GDP on artillery. Because what you really want is to sell it to Europe
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings