PUBLISHED on August 13, 2025, 8:41 AM EDT – Key Points and Summary – A British Royal Navy F-35B stealth fighter was forced to make an emergency landing at a civilian airport in Japan last week after an in-flight malfunction.
The incident, which temporarily closed the runway at Kagoshima Airport, is the second of its kind in two months for the UK’s carrier strike group, following a similar emergency in India in June that left a jet stranded for five weeks.
The repeated technical faults on the high-profile Indo-Pacific deployment have drawn mockery from Chinese and Russian state media, raising fresh questions about the F-35B’s reliability.
Trouble for Lockheed: Second British F-35B Emergency Landing In Two Months
A second emergency landing in two months has cast an unwelcome spotlight on Britain’s F-35B Lightning II fleet during the Royal Navy’s high-profile Indo-Pacific deployment last week.
On Sunday, an F-35B operating from HMS Prince of Wales was forced to divert to Kagoshima Airport in southwest Japan after an in-flight malfunction. The jet landed safely at 11:30 am local time, closing the runway for 20 minutes and delaying six commercial flights while ground crews moved it to a taxiway.
Japanese defense officials confirmed the aircraft suffered an engineering fault and was undergoing inspections to rejoin the carrier strike group as soon as possible.
The incident occurred during Operation Highmast, a series of joint drills with Japanese and U.S. forces designed to showcase Britain’s role in the Indo-Pacific and ensure interoperability and preparedness among allies based in the region. The aircraft – a short takeoff and vertical landing variant of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 – has been a central part of the exercises, which have included cross-deck operations with Japan’s JS Kaga.
While officials stressed the fault was minor, it quickly attracted the attention of Chinese and Russian state-linked media outlets, which mocked the Royal Navy’s struggles.
Sputnik India, an overseas branch of the Russian media network, wrote on social media platform X that the Prince of Wales was “Collecting emergency landings like souvenirs.”
NHK News published images of the aircraft on the runway on August 10.
“One aircraft, believed to be an F-35 fighter jet, has landed at Kagoshima Airport,” an NHK News X post reads, adding that an “investigation into injuries and other details” was ongoing.
The unwanted negative attention follows a similar incident that occurred in June, when another British F-35B was stranded for over five weeks in India after diverting in bad weather. The aircraft was said to have suffered a hydraulic fault. The aircraft eventually rejoined the carrier in Australia in late July after engineers from the U.K. and U.S. conducted extensive repairs.
For Lockheed Martin, the F-35 – the world’s most widely adopted stealth fighter – remains a crucial element in air fleets all over the world. Repeated incidents like this, however, risks the reputation of the F-35 platform.
The Royal Navy concluded its Japan drills on Tuesday and is expected to continue its tour of the Indo-Pacific region.
The Prince of Wales departed the United Kingdom in April and has since been escorted by vessels from Canada, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
About the Author:
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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