this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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Uhhh...
F35 is a stealth aircraft. Beacons are literally against the point of the damn thing.
People are asking 'How could you lose your invisible car? Why didn't you just put a tracking device on it?'
I'd imagine it's something that can be turned on and off, just like it's stealth technology.
Edit: to further expand on this, finding the downed plane is a lot more important than it sounds. This could technically be classified as spillage considering there is classified tech in an F35. Foreign agents would benefit if they found it first. I'm pretty sure there are recon teams trained to recover downed aircraft in military zones. Considering they still are equipped with radio for communication, I'd imagine even just an encrypted message at time of impact could be useful.
Losing a plane over friendly zones shouldn't have to worry about having a beacon that's always on. I fail to understand why it would be silly to believe one could be useful in a jet fighter, stealth or not. I'd imagine it's likely even present but just defunct for whatever reason in this scenario and details can't be revealed about that, as again, it still contains classified technology.
F35s have transponders, just like every other aircraft that flies in the US. They are necessary to avoid mid-air collisions. When flying a stealth mission in enemy airspace, they can turn the transponders off.
Unfortunately, the transponder on this particular F35 is not working.
They also turn them off for a number of other reasons.
Sure, but the point is they have transponders. And pilots generally use them (because it's safer) unless they have a good reason not to.
So once its on the air the jet has zero comms? That doesn't seem right
Ever heard of a concept called "Radio Silence" ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_silence#Military
Why can everything else can be turned off when needed but not this? Surely "the pilot ejected" would be a good moment to start knowing what's going on with the plane
Because putting a beacon on a stealth aircraft is like installing a flashlight onto an invisible car.
Even if people can't see the rest of the invisible car, they'll see the flashlight and track that instead. At a minimum, such a feature would be 'default off', and never default on.
A stealth aircrafts literal design is to be invisible to enemy radio waves. The last thing you wanna do is you know... Emit a radio beacon.
I agree, buf why is it not "default off but in the case the pilot is doing impromptu skydiving and the plane currently on the way to becoming acquainted with the ground, give us a little update"
You know most aircraft, when shot down, were traveling over enemy territory right?
Airplanes don't get shot down over friendly territory.
Except this one, apparently...
Stealth aircraft spend a lot more time flying training missions over friendly territory than combat missions over enemy territory. They use transponders on training missions, such as this one, because they want to be easily visible to other military and civilian pilots.
They still have them but because of course they do. They can be turned off easily enough. I'm not sure what sorts of modes they have when ejecting. I could prolly find an AF tech and ask.