For the Russian side, a special interest among the elements in the wreckage of the fifth-generation British fighter with a short takeoff and vertical landing of the F-35B Lightning II in the Mediterranean Sea may be the recognition unit of the "friend-foe" system and weapons control equipment, military expert Dmitry Boltenkov told Izvestia.
The expert called Russia a country that has the means to raise sunken objects from the bottom of the sea. The expert recalled that earlier the country extracted its deck planes from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
Boltenkov noted that the rival countries are interested in each other's military developments. "The relevant special services are always engaged in the extraction of samples of foreign military equipment. Among other things, sunken foreign weapons were also raised. There are cases when representatives of the FRG took away our torpedoes during firing practice," the expert said.
In November, the British tabloid Daily Mirror wrote that the Royal Navy of Great Britain participated in a "race against the Russians" for the recently lost F-35B Lightning II aircraft in the Mediterranean.
The F-35B Lightning II fighter of the Royal Navy of Great Britain sank on the morning of November 17 in the Mediterranean Sea. The pilot managed to eject and was taken to the British aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth. The incident occurred during a scheduled flight. The circumstances of the incident are being clarified.
Ivan Potapov
