F-35 crashed: the race to recover and fears about data at risk (Russia not Russian?)
The British media report that behind the F-35 that crashed at sea is the failure to remove the rain cover. Meanwhile, lawmakers have warned that classified data on the aircraft could be at risk
Russia "pays close attention" to HMS Queen Elizabeth as the rush to recover the F-35 crashed in the Mediterranean intensifies.
This is what the British media report, from the Telegraph to the Mirror .
On November 17, the British Ministry of Defense confirmed the crash of an F-35B operating from the aircraft carrier HMSQueen Elizabeth in the Mediterranean. The pilot ejected himself safely, but the crash triggered a rush to retrieve the plane, which contains a lot of classified equipment. ( Here the more detailed Start on F-35 crashed in the Mediterranean, what happened).
The dicastery also informed that it had launched an investigation into the incident, but did not comment further.
According to The Sun , the cause of the accident would be the failure to remove the rain cover of the fighter-bomber. According to British tabloid sources, the cover was sucked into the aircraft's engine as it took off from the HMS Queen Elizabeth flight deck, forcing the pilot to eject himself.
The initial investigation into the accident ruled out the involvement of any other aircraft, indicating human error or a technical hitch.
The United Kingdom and the United States are engaged in recovery operations of the F-35B crashed in the waters of the Mediterranean. It is the first accident involving a RAF F-35B, although in the last three years there have been three.
Meanwhile, Tory lawmakers have urged the military to speed up the aircraft's recovery, warning it is vulnerable to adversaries like Russia and China as it remains at the bottom of the Mediterranean, the Telegraph reveals.
All the details.
THE UK DEFENSE DEFENSE'S POSITION ON THE INCIDENT
The Sun reported on November 24 that a "cheap plastic cover" left during take-off may have caused the crash.
"It is too early to comment on the potential causes of this incident and speculation is not helpful," said a spokesman for the Defense Ministry echoed by The Telegraph . "The Defense Incident Investigation Branch will report their preliminary findings in due course," he added.
THE FEARS OF THE BRITISH DEFENSE
In the meantime, the investigation into the causes of the incident continues, the leaders of the British defense urge an acceleration of the recovery operations of the F-35 B crashed at sea.
As reported by the Telegraph , Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defense restricted committee, urged the military "to move much faster to recover such sensitive assets in the future."
According to Ellwood, every day that the aircraft is not recovered, "the possibility increases that the F-35, with all its highly classified data and sensors, will fall into foreign hands."
"Our rivals will watch and realize how vulnerable we are in offering an opportunity – a full week – to locate and remove such a valuable asset," Ellwood said. "Russia has the maritime capability to search, detect and retrieve the F-35," he added.
Mark Francois, former Minister of the Armed Forces, also said it was important to recover the £ 100 million aircraft "especially before Putin becomes the beneficiary of our sizable investment," the Telegraph reported.
THE INTEREST OF MOSCOW
It recently emerged that Russia paid close attention to the crash involving the crashed F-35.
Russia was already paying "a lot of attention" to the UK's flagship aircraft carrier, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace revealed.
Last week Wallace told Sky News that Russian planes followed HMS Queen Elizabeth, her top-secret warplanes as they returned from a seven-month maiden tour in the Far East.
"Obviously the Russians are paying a lot of attention, that's what I would expect," he added. "We keep an eye on each other, this is also how we hope to avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations," concluded Ben Wallace.
“The Russians did not take their eyes off the aircraft carrier while it was in the eastern Mediterranean. Retrieving the jet is the top priority to stop if it falls into the wrong hands, ”Defense sources warned the Telegraph .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/f-35-precipitato-la-corsa-al-recupero-e-i-timori-sui-dati-a-rischio-la-russia-non-russa/ on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 19:08:12 +0000.