# US is racing China to recover crashed F35 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 27, 2022, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539 "2022-01-27T23:44:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/1 "2022-01-27T23:44:58Z")
This is a remarkable story… > **[F-35C fighter jet: Race is on to reach sunken US plane... before China](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60148482)** > > The $100m jet is fair game, in international waters. "It's the Hunt for Red October meets The Abyss." A US F35-C has crashed in the South China Sea and is supposedly “rammed with classified equipment”. Should be interesting to follow this (if it’s possible to follow this story, which it probably won’t be). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/2 "2022-01-28T00:08:56Z")
Son-of-a-bitch. That is some shit news. I hope we get to it first. Even if it is to blow it up with a torpedo. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/3 "2022-01-28T00:18:07Z")
> It’s the Hunt for Red October meets the Abyss. Someone get Tom Clancy and James Cameron on the phone! ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/4 "2022-01-28T01:47:18Z")
Son of a gun. I first saw this on Chinese news. Happened on my old ship. I, too, hope the US recovers the jet. I also hope the injured recover quickly. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/5 "2022-01-28T02:07:44Z")
I am not a computer expert. Shouldn’t they build these kinds of things with some sort of remote killswitch? Or is that easily hackable by malefactors? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/6 "2022-01-28T23:03:13Z")
All lot of the technology that would interest a foreign adversary is the materials like stealth coating and exotic alloys. Even a few fragments could give up some secrets. The plane looked intact when it hit the water so the recovery should be easier than a lot of others. I wonder if it ‘flew’ underwater for a significant distance. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/7 "2022-01-28T23:19:56Z")
The data probably has safeguards that automatically erase itself, but they can still gain a lot of information from the layout, equipment, materials, structure, etc. As for implanting a remotely-activated self destruct device type of thing - that would be a rather risky move - the enemy could hypothetically get their hands on the technology or spoof it and cause our planes to self destruct that would not be ideal. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/8 "2022-01-29T17:58:29Z")
We should have never scrapped the _[Glomar Explorer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_Explorer)_, although I would hope we have better versions now. Rather amusing that it was sold for scrap to China. Maybe they should have kept it. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/9 "2022-01-29T20:30:12Z")
Where’s Bob Ballard when you need him? Yes, holy shit we’d better retrieve that plane! [[Album] F-35C — we’d better retrieve her! ![](https://i.imgur.com/T9ZjrBM.jpeg?fb "F-35C — we’d better retrieve her!") ](https://imgur.com/gallery/SQFqbNs) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/10 "2022-01-29T20:33:20Z")
From CNN — > **[Images emerge of one of the US Navy's newest stealth fighters crashing into...](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/01/28/asia/us-navy-f-35-crash-photos-intl-hnk-ml/index.html)** > > Images have emerged of a US Navy F-35C stealth fighter crashing into the South China Sea earlier this week. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/11 "2022-01-29T20:36:47Z")
Here’s a video of its approach. The video ends just before the crash; I’m betting our guvmint cropped it. > **[Video Shows The Last Moments Of The Navy's F-35C Before It Crashed Into The...](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44058/video-shows-the-last-moments-of-the-navys-f-35c-before-it-crashed-into-the-sea)** > > The race is now on to recover the wreckage of the jet that plummeted off the USS Carl Vinson into the South China Sea. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-is-racing-china-to-recover-crashed-f35/958539/12 "2022-01-29T21:29:42Z")
Pretty clever to spread all these “Super Seekrit Ultra-Hi-Tech” rumors. Great way to get the Chinese to haul it up. Then, when they realize that the most advanced technology on the dummy plane is a heated cup-holder, they can’t wait to sell it for salvage costs. OR, it’s full of Stealthy Decoy Technology. It’s apparently using fusion powered turbines, and the Chinese spend the next five years focused on that. (I’m just playing around with cool spy theories; anything other than seeing a headline like “Reds Get Yankee Tech”.)