Bad Days For Lockheed Martin? After India’s MiG-21 Shot Down F-16, Japanese F-35 Crashes In The Pacific

A Japanese F-35 stealth fighter jet built by aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin has crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a training mission on Tuesday (9 April), CNN has reported.

The jet lost contact during a training mission along with three other F-35s and signalled a need to abort mission. Subsequent searches have confirmed the crash and wreckage including the plane’s tail fins have been recovered.

Japan is the second biggest buyer of the jet after the United States and is slated to receive 147 planes from Lockheed Martin.

F-35 is considered one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world but has been marred with reliability issues and unpredictability apart from being inordinately expensive.

Some of the other reported issues in the F-35 include an engine fire, low service life, susceptibility to cyber-attacks and more.

This comes after another major embarrassment for Lockheed Martin when Pakistani Air Force’s F-16 was shot down by Indian MiG-21 Bison aircraft flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman during a dogfight between the two nations on 27 February.