 "Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet is displayed during the International Bali Airshow at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. US President Donald Trump has now announced the sale of the F-35 fighter jets to India. File image/Reuters")
It was the meeting that everyone was waiting for and in the end, the Narendra Modi-Donald Trump meet didn’t disappoint. The two world leaders met at the White House and discussed a range of topics — from trade to defence to human trafficking.
Following their sit-down, the Indian PM and the US president addressed a joint press conference during which Donald Trump announced that America would provide its F-35 stealth fighter jets to India. This move would enable India to join an elite club of countries with state-of-the-art stealth planes.
“Starting this year, we’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars,” Trump told a joint news conference with PM Modi. “We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” Trump added.
The sale of the F-35 is a huge win for India from a defence standpoint. However, it is not known when these jets will finally be a part of India’s arsenal as foreign military sales, especially for cutting-edge tech take years to work through.
As military planners hail this big get for India, we take a closer look at why exactly is this a big deal and how it would boost the country’s aerial firepower.
About the F-35
Developed by Lockheed Martin for the United States, the F-35 is one of the most advanced and versatile fighter jets in the world. Currently, this jet comes in three variants; F-35A is for conventional take-off and landing and is primarily used by the US Air Force. F-35B is used for short take-off and vertical landing, used by the US Marine Corps and F-35C is a carrier-based variant designed for the US Navy.
According to defence experts, the F-35 may be the stealthiest fighter in operation today. Paul Poitras, director of survivability at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division told the Washington Post, “The plane’s shape is designed to deflect radar energy away from the source like a slanted mirror. Its surface is also blended and smoothed to enable radar energy to smoothly flow across it — similar to water flowing across a smooth surface.”
The F-35 fighter jets use a single F135 engine that produces 40,000 pounds of thrust, permitting it to reach speeds as high as Mach 1.6 (1,200 mph).
The F-35 cockpit is also unlike other fighter jets; it doesn’t have gauges or screens like other aircraft and favours large touchscreens and a helmet-mounted display system that allows the pilot to see real-time information. This helmet also allows the pilot to look directly through the aircraft, thanks to the F-35’s Distributed Aperture System (DAS) and suite of six infrared cameras mounted strategically around the aircraft.
The F-35 fighter jets also have a weapons payload of 6,000 kg to 8,100 kg, which means they can carry heavy weaponry without compromising their stealth.
However, as pilots say it’s not the F-35’s firepower that really makes the difference, it’s the computing power. It’s why F-35s have come to be known as “quarterbacks in the sky” or “a computer that happens to fly.”
“There has never been an aircraft that provides as much situational awareness as the F-35,” Major Justin “Hasard” Lee, an Air Force F-35 pilot instructor, was quoted as telling Popular Mechanics. “In combat, situational awareness is worth its weight in gold.”
However, such a fighter jet doesn’t come cheap. The F-35 initiative is the US Defence Department’s most expensive weapons programme ever, expected to cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion over its 60-year lifespan. According to Lockheed Martin, the unit cost is approximately $80 million (Rs 695 crore) for the F-35A, $115 milllion (Rs 10,005 crore) for the F-35B, and $110 million (Rs 9,622 crore) for the F-35C. Each F-35 costs approximately $36,000 (Rs 31 lakh) per flight hour, making it one of the costliest jets to operate.
Today, the F-35 is not used by the US alone. The US has sold these aircraft to allied nations such as the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, Australia and Italy.
Criticism of F-35 jets
However, this fighter jet is not without criticism. Elon Musk , the chief of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), has derided the F-35. Last November, the world’s richest man said, “Some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35” in an age of drones.
However, then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall defended the aircraft. “The F-35 isn’t going away” as it’s “a state-of-the-art system that’s continuously being upgraded,” Kendall said during an Air Force Association webcast. “There’s a reason so many countries are buying the F-35,” he said of its 19 international customers. “There is no alternative to that in the near term. We should continue to buy it.”
US sale of F-35s to India
Trump’s announcement of the F-35 fighter jets is no doubt a big win for India. It will help boost India’s firepower in the skies, helping it fend off any threats, especially China and Pakistan.
At the moment, India doesn’t have a fifth-generation aircraft in its armoury. This is crucial as China has the J-35A in the skies.
Many note that this is also a pivotal moment in India-US defence ties. That’s because until now, the F-35 was not on the list, in part due to India’s heavy use of Russian-made weapons systems.
But some defence experts also note that Trump’s move of the F-35 is strategic; by doing this, the US may be trying to weaken India’s close military ties with Russia, as Bloomberg reported.
With inputs from agencies