Breaking: RAF grounds F-35 fleet after loss of US-operated data services. Netherlands, Denmark and Norway confirm similar groundings. Emergency NATO session called.
BBC Breaking News
microblog · @BBCBreaking · press · 13 January 2026, 09:15
Eleanor
Sorry, a stupid question. Does "grounded" mean they are broken, or that someone has told them not to fly? I cannot work out from the news which one it is and they seem very different to me.
Anna
Not a stupid question at all — it is THE question and the reporting is bad at it. They are not broken. Every one of those aircraft could take off right now. A safety system will not clear them because it cannot phone home to a server in the United States. So: …
Eleanor
Oh. That is much worse, isn't it.
Rahul
Every defence procurement committee on earth opened a new agenda item this morning and the item is one sentence long: "what in our inventory has a switch we do not own?" I do software. The answer is going to be "almost everything" and it is going to take four …
Statsministeriet
Prime Minister Frederiksen: "This is an unprecedented, hostile breach of sovereign defence agreements. We are seeking immediate bilateral consultations with the White House."
Europe grounds its stealth fleet
Availability across the allied F-35 force falls by more than half in seventy-two hours. The United Kingdom brings forensic logs to Brussels showing the severance was administrative, deliberate, and American.
Hank R.
Serious question from someone who builds things for a living: if you were the Japanese or the Koreans this morning, would you sign the next order? Because I would not. And that is my industry. That is my town.
Seapower Desk
The important detail is which aircraft are still flying combat air patrols this morning. Typhoon. Rafale. Gripen. Not one of them depends on a server in Texas. Twenty years of procurement argument settled in seventy-two hours.