A British F-35B stealth fighter jet was forced to make an emergency landing on Sunday at Kagoshima Airport in south-western Japan due to a malfunction, airport officials told Kyodo News.
As per news agency ANI, the incident occurred at around 11:30 am (local time), briefly closing the runway for about 20 minutes and delaying several commercial flights. No injuries were reported.
The malfunction happened while British forces were taking part in a joint drill with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force and the US military, which began on 4 August and is set to run until Tuesday.
The UK has dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group to the western Pacific as part of the exercise, Kyodo reported.
Japanese broadcaster NHK cited the defence ministry as saying the jet was operating from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales . The carrier, on a major Indo-Pacific deployment since April, has visited ports in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Australia.
This is the second such mishap in less than two months. On 14 June, another UK F-35B from HMS Prince of Wales made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala after a hydraulic fault. That aircraft remained grounded for more than five weeks before repairs were completed, with the British High Commission publicly thanking Indian authorities for their assistance.
The latest incident has been seized upon by Chinese and Russian state media. Russia’s Sputnik India account on X posted, “British F-35 makes emergency landing... Again. Just weeks after one F-35 was stranded in India, another was forced into an emergency landing at Japan’s Kagoshima Airport. Collecting emergency landings like souvenirs”.
China’s state-run Global Times went further, suggesting that the malfunctions “underscored the F-35B’s overly complex systems and highly demanding maintainability”, something UK sailors “could be struggling to deal with in far seas deployments.”
The Beijing-run outlet, citing Chinese expert Wang Ya’nan, remarked that the F-35B is the most technically complex variant of the F-35 family and poses “significant maintenance challenges,” especially during prolonged carrier operations far from home.
It noted that HMS Prince of Wales, on what UK media described as a “major deployment” since April, has been plagued by “technical issues” despite aiming to demonstrate Britain’s fast-jet capability at sea. The paper reminded readers that the jet stranded in India for over five weeks became “a subject of jokes and memes,” raising questions over “how such a modern aircraft could remain stuck in a foreign country for so long.”
In a pointed swipe, Global Times claimed the UK’s carrier deployments were “following the US’ global strategy” and dependent on “US-made equipment,” adding that Britain’s naval operational capabilities “are no longer what they once were” and that the recent malfunctions should prompt London to “reconsider its policy of accommodating US interests.”
According to Birmingham Live, the Japanese emergency involved a different aircraft than the one stranded in India. The Kagoshima jet is now under inspection, guarded by RAF personnel, and is expected to rejoin the Carrier Strike Group once cleared.
F-35Bs, built by Lockheed Martin, are prized for their stealth capabilities and short take-off/vertical landing performance, but their sophistication also makes them maintenance-intensive. HMS Prince of Wales is expected to dock at Yokosuka on Tuesday before heading to Tokyo later this month.
As per news agency ANI, the incident occurred at around 11:30 am (local time), briefly closing the runway for about 20 minutes and delaying several commercial flights. No injuries were reported.
The malfunction happened while British forces were taking part in a joint drill with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force and the US military, which began on 4 August and is set to run until Tuesday.
The UK has dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group to the western Pacific as part of the exercise, Kyodo reported.
Japanese broadcaster NHK cited the defence ministry as saying the jet was operating from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales . The carrier, on a major Indo-Pacific deployment since April, has visited ports in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Australia.
This is the second such mishap in less than two months. On 14 June, another UK F-35B from HMS Prince of Wales made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala after a hydraulic fault. That aircraft remained grounded for more than five weeks before repairs were completed, with the British High Commission publicly thanking Indian authorities for their assistance.
The latest incident has been seized upon by Chinese and Russian state media. Russia’s Sputnik India account on X posted, “British F-35 makes emergency landing... Again. Just weeks after one F-35 was stranded in India, another was forced into an emergency landing at Japan’s Kagoshima Airport. Collecting emergency landings like souvenirs”.
🇬🇧🛬British F-35 makes emergency landing... AGAIN
— Sputnik India (@Sputnik_India) August 10, 2025
Just weeks after one F-35 was stranded in India, another was forced into an emergency landing at Japan’s Kagoshima Airport.
🤡 Collecting emergency landings like souvenirs https://t.co/e8u12zed3K pic.twitter.com/1XB2LrYLSB
China’s state-run Global Times went further, suggesting that the malfunctions “underscored the F-35B’s overly complex systems and highly demanding maintainability”, something UK sailors “could be struggling to deal with in far seas deployments.”
The Beijing-run outlet, citing Chinese expert Wang Ya’nan, remarked that the F-35B is the most technically complex variant of the F-35 family and poses “significant maintenance challenges,” especially during prolonged carrier operations far from home.
It noted that HMS Prince of Wales, on what UK media described as a “major deployment” since April, has been plagued by “technical issues” despite aiming to demonstrate Britain’s fast-jet capability at sea. The paper reminded readers that the jet stranded in India for over five weeks became “a subject of jokes and memes,” raising questions over “how such a modern aircraft could remain stuck in a foreign country for so long.”
In a pointed swipe, Global Times claimed the UK’s carrier deployments were “following the US’ global strategy” and dependent on “US-made equipment,” adding that Britain’s naval operational capabilities “are no longer what they once were” and that the recent malfunctions should prompt London to “reconsider its policy of accommodating US interests.”
According to Birmingham Live, the Japanese emergency involved a different aircraft than the one stranded in India. The Kagoshima jet is now under inspection, guarded by RAF personnel, and is expected to rejoin the Carrier Strike Group once cleared.
F-35Bs, built by Lockheed Martin, are prized for their stealth capabilities and short take-off/vertical landing performance, but their sophistication also makes them maintenance-intensive. HMS Prince of Wales is expected to dock at Yokosuka on Tuesday before heading to Tokyo later this month.
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