America Races to Salvage Its Sunken F-35 Warplane

"A race against time is under way for the U.S. Navy to reach one of its downed fighter jets — before the Chinese get there first," reports the BBC: The $100m (£74m) F-35C plane came down in the South China Sea after what the Navy describes as a "mishap" during take-off from the USS Carl Vinson. The jet is the Navy's newest, and crammed with classified equipment. As it is in international waters, it is technically fair game. Whoever gets there first, wins. The prize? All the secrets behind this very expensive, leading-edge fighting force....

A U.S. vessel is close to the crash site. The black box battery will die before that, making it harder to locate the aircraft. It is designed to link up other assets, what the Air Force calls "linking sensors to shooters."

The BBC describes the plane as the U.S. Navy's first "low observable" carrier-based aircraft, "which enables it to operate undetected in enemy airspace." And it's also "the most powerful fighter engine in the world," flying at speeds up to 1,200 mph, or Mach 1.6.

The $100 million warplane crash-landed onto the deck of an aircraft carrier and then fell into the water.

Thelasko is a reader of Slashdot.